Ice Cream for Crow
Watching a documentary on Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart) reminded me that my critical thinking developed against a backdrop of psychedelia, a sub-culture associated not only with psychedelic…
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10th Meeting of the Council of Europe – Dialogue with Roma and Traveller Civil Society
I was invited by the Scottish Traveller Action and Resilience Collective [STARC] to present on their behalf at this meeting. As a founding member of the collective I was happy…
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Language matters: Social representations of Gypsy/Traveller women
First published as part of Engender’s F-Words series (July, 2020). In considering the language used to categorise and indeed denigrate Gypsy/Traveller women, an examination of the role of the media…
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A new normal
The first long, warm evening of the year, we sleep with windows ajar. Drifting into sleep, we are minded that the summer Solstice will soon be upon us and so…
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#AfterDispatches: The truth about Traveller crime?
Reality TV – a genre which started out in the 1960s as a ‘fly-on-the-wall’ look into the daily life of others, a ‘stripped down’ observational or documentary account of…
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To cull or not to cull. That is the question?
That’s me there. Not a statistic, a risk category, a graph or a peak on a curve. A living older person with a compromised immune system and a long-term condition.…
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Every wind that blows
The wild Atlantics, scouring the shifting sands of the machair. Redshank and goose, rising in displays of protest and distraction; The eyebrights and forget-me-nots rooting down, steadfast; weathering the storm.…
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The Terror Times
I successfully defended my Doctoral Thesis on Friday. It signifies a personal and professional ‘crossroads moment’ in my life. It concludes my more than thirty year long journey across the…
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When the wind blows
Autumn is here, but there is an uncertainty to it. The winter geese arrived some weeks ago. The rowan berries, early and abundant as they were, have almost gone. The…
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