When I asked Michael Collins to tell me about his family, he drove me to his uncle’s house in northern Dublin. As we pulled into Avilla Park, a modest tract of one-story houses, I asked which one was his.

Collins gestured to the 56 homes in front of us, “All of them,” he said, “56 houses and all of them Collins’.”

Michael Collins is an Irish Traveller. He is just one of roughly 36,000 that make up Ireland’s last nomadic society. The Travellers are relatively unknown outside of Ireland, but face overwhelming levels of stigma and discrimination within their community.

Their penchant for migrating in large groups and camping in public spaces, quickly earned them the label of ‘nuisance’ in Dublin and other metropolitan areas. For a people who once earned stable livings as craftsman and traders, the spread of technology and globalization has come as a devastating blow.

To preserve their lifestyle and traditions, the Irish Travellers must prove to the government and fellow Dubliners that those are things worth saving.