"When people are supported, you can find your way": student shares path to Trinity

Posted on: 11 March 2026

To mark Traveller Ethnicity Day and International Women’s Day, Trinity College Dublin hosted a special conversation in the Trinity Long Room Hub with Provost Linda Doyle and post graduate student in the Trinity school of Social Work and Social Policy, Nora Corcoran.

Nora, a member of the Traveller community, works with the Galway Traveller Movement and is active in advocacy, grassroots activism, and the Misleór Festival of Nomadic Cultures. Nora has credited Trinity in strengthening her confidence and developing skills and knowledge that shape her daily work and her commitment to lifelong learning and community empowerment.

Reflecting on her time at Trinity, she said: “Getting to Trinity has been a really positive experience for me. It shows that when opportunities are there and people are supported, you can find your way and do well, no matter what path you take to get there.”

The conversation was recorded and will be shared widely to reach learners from communities that remain underrepresented in higher education.

Provost Linda Doyle: “It is Trinity’s gain that Nora has chosen to study here, and I want to thank her for sharing her experience and for challenging us too.”

Travellers remain significantly underrepresented in higher education, with Census 2022 showing that only 4.7% of Travellers hold a third‑level qualification compared with 47.7% of the general population. However, progress is evident: the number of Travellers with a third‑level qualification has almost doubled in recent years, rising from 167 in 2016 to 312 in 2022.

Since 2016, thirteen students from Traveller and Roma backgrounds have enrolled in the Trinity Access Programmes (TAP) Foundation Course, with nine progressing to degree programmes in Trinity. Applications for the TAP Foundation Course for Mature Students remain open until 28 March.

ENDS

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