Winifred Collins
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
HONORARY CONFERRING
Thursday, 5 September 2024 at 11.30 am
TEXT OF THE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS DELIVERED BY
PROFESSOR CECILY KELLEHER
Principal of College of Health and Agricultural Sciences on 5 September 2024, on the occasion of the conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa on WINIFRED COLLINS.
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Deputy-President, Graduates, Colleagues, Honoured Guests and friends of UCD, it gives me great pleasure to propose Missie Collins for an honorary degree of Doctor of Science, DSc today.
Missie is an Irish Traveller who has been a key member of the Primary Health Care for Traveller Project (PHCTP) for more than thirty years. She has long been engaged at Pavee Point, the national organisation which represents Traveller and Roma communities, as a Traveller Community Health Worker (TCHW).
Background
Winifred Christina O’Leary was born in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath to a traditional Irish Traveller family. Her aunt gave her from birth the prescient nickname “Missie” by which she is known to this day. Her father, Michael O’Leary, served as a young man in the Irish army and was based in Colum Barracks in Mullingar when he married Brigid Nevin in 1942.She was one of 12 children and the eldest girl. Her father used to hop on his bicycle and travel around to the local farmers in the district where he plied his trade as a tinsmith. No mean cook, on Christmas Day he would dispatch his wife Brigid to mass while he set about preparing the roast goose for the family.
She describes a happy, if economically challenging, rural Irish childhood in the Midlands before she moved with her entire family to England in the 1960s. There she met and married Thomas Collins, also an Irish Traveller, in the city of Manchester, at the time an industrial powerhouse in England. There she gave birth in turn to each of her eight children.
This was a formative period where she first experienced the power and reach of the comprehensive National Health Service, established by Minister for Health Aneurin Bevan in that very city, on 5th July 1948 in Park Hospital, Manchester. This was on foot of the Beveridge report in 1942, which advocated for the welfare state and was brought about by the Labour government after WW2. Missie describes first hand her experiences as a young mother engaging with what was then a model for general practice and wide-ranging primary care services.
Career as a Community worker
Missie and her family eventually returned to Ireland in the 1990s, where she began campaigning for the houses that now make up Avila Park. This first experience was the beginning of a long career. After her successful interview with Pavee Point Director Ronnie Fay, she began the work of developing services for Travellers. She was a founding member of PHCTP, which was created in 1992. Missie has worked at both local and national levels in securing approval and funding for the skills development and employment of TCHWs and the establishment of more than 40 PHCTPs throughout Ireland.
Missie Collins has been a long-standing advocate for the Traveller community and has challenged the significant health inequalities faced by Travellers across several decades.She has represented Pavee Point on the National Traveller Health Advisory Committee and has presented at Dáil Oireachtas Committees.
Role in All Ireland Traveller Heath Study
Missie was also pivotal in the UCD led All-island Traveller Health Study (AITHS)* which included a census of the entire Traveller Population on the island of Ireland and on which I myself was principal investigator. She had long advocated for such a study and was engaged in supporting it through the National Steering group chaired by Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Philip Crowley.
The study was launched on 10th of July 2007 by then Minister for Health and Children, Ms Mary Harney TD at the Croke Park conference centre. I well remember when Missie turned to me at that launch and said “Do you think you can do this?” I was not about to give her the wrong answer to that question!
Missie was involved at every level and those forty PHCTPs that supported the study, enabled and empowered 400 peer TCHWs Traveller health workers to collect the data and served as a bridge to conventional health care delivery services. It was truly a study for, with and by Travellers. The first reports were published in 2010/2011 and there have been numerous academic outputs and translational policy impacts of the findings since.
Missie Collins, study coordinator Brigid Quirke and I were invited participants to an International congress in New Orleans on Hard to Survey Populations which resulted in an influential eponymously entitled textbook, (Eds Tourangeau, R et al), published by Cambridge University Press in 2014. Missie took to the floor with an International audience of biostatisticians and population researchers to give her first-hand experience of how to reach and engage people effectively.
Achievements as Advocate
Missie exemplifies what we mean by community development. She is a renowned and highly respected public speaker who has a detailed command of her topic that is unrivalled. She has met and advocated for Traveller rights to a succession of Ministers for Health in the Republic of Ireland, including current incumbent in 2024, Stephen Donnelly TD. The current and previous Taoisigh sit up and listen when Missie makes a characteristically articulate case on policy questions that affect the Traveller Community. The achievements of Missie Collins and her colleagues in Pavee Point include the recognition of ethnic status for Travellers in 2017.
Most recently, in 2022, she was again, in the front row and instrumentally engaged in the launch of the new Traveller Health Action Plan by DOH and HSE. A tireless campaigner, Missie receives this award in recognition of a lifetime of public service achievement on behalf of her community and as an exemplar for healthcare delivery more generally. It has been a privilege to work alongside you.
Praehonorabilis Praeses Vicarius, totaque Universitas,
Praesento vobis hanc meam filium, quam scio tam moribus quam doctrina habilem et idoneam esse quae admittatur, honoris causa, ad Gradum Doctoratus Scientiae; idque tibi fide mea testor ac spondeo, totique Academiae.
* This research was led by UCD in collaboration with the School of Nursing and Health Systems at Dublin City University.The findings from the study, jointly funded by the Department of Health and Children, Ireland, the Health Service Executive and the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, Northern Ireland, and with the support of Traveller organisations provided a framework for policy development and practice in relation to Traveller health.
The UCD Project team included: Professor Cecily Kelleher, the late Professor Leslie Daly, Professor Patricia Fitzpatrick, Dr Ronnie Moore, Prof Anthony Staines, Dr Mary Rose Sweeney, Ms Brigid Quirke the field coordinator and the Project Director Dr Jill Turner.