Got Through It. Gypsy and Traveller experiences of the pandemic

Got Through It Ciara Leeming

BETTY BRIDE IRENE LIZZIE MAY ORLA SIAN

Got Through It

Gypsy and Traveller experiences of the pandemic

Three years on from the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, its legacy lives on in the cost-of-living crisis, increased medical waits and a spiralling mental health crisis.

For groups already facing inequality, however, its impact is even sharper.

Gypsy and Traveller communities were already among the most marginalised in Britain – with a life expectancy 10-12 years below the national average.

Traveller children have the lowest educational attainment of all ethnic groups.

One in five Gypsy or Traveller mothers will experience the loss of a child – compared to one in 100 across the general population.

Legislation introduced over the past 60 years has systematically criminalised their way of life, while traditional stopping places have been developed or blocked off.

There is a dire shortage of culturally appropriate accommodation – sites – and planning consent is difficult to come by. Around three-quarters of the community now live in housing – often due to a lack of other options.

Meanwhile, the 2022 Policing Act created a new offence of criminal trespass, strengthening police powers against roadside Traveller camps – with sanctions including fines, seizure of vehicles and even imprisonment.

Got Through It explores the legacy of the pandemic through this lens. Seven girls and women from the Gypsy and Traveller community of Cheshire West worked with me over a year, in 2022-23, to create the images and narratives within this zine.

Participants come from both the Irish Traveller and Romani Gypsy communities – two separate recognised ethnic minority groups, with a shared heritage of nomadism.

I worked with contributors on a one-to-one basis – mainly within their homes, and in one case running creative sessions in a school.

Over multiple visits and copious cups of tea, we discussed their lives and recent experiences.

I recorded some conversations and we reflected together on the transcripts and edited audio. We looked at family photos, I made portraits and we developed captions.

I first worked independently as a photographer with members of this community in 2009 and already knew two people who contributed to Got Through It. I was introduced to others by Irish Community Care, a local advocacy organisation.

Anonymity was an important concern for several participants. Some were clear about this from the start, while one withdrew consent for the use of identifiable images later in the process – leading me to take faces out of her photos. Some names have also been changed.

While individual experiences of this period are different, there were some common threads, including social isolation, health problems and prejudice towards Travellers.

A lack of literacy skills within sections of this community compounds their exclusion – a serious challenge as more services become digital – but schools are often a hostile environment for their children. This is a challenge schools and local authorities need to overcome if they are to win the trust of Traveller parents.

The people I met often talked about faith and spirituality as a source of strength and meaning in their lives, along with the central importance of family and sometimes also church networks for maintaining resilience and culture. When these fall away, people can struggle.

As we face political and economic upheaval and an uncertain future for people across society, Got Through It shows we are not all in it together, as some would have us believe.

The impact of the pandemic has been unequal across society and little will improve unless we pay greater attention to the voices we all too often ignore.

Ciara Leeming

“As children we cut the peat, picked the turnips and spuds and worked on the bog with Daddy. There was a season for the turf and a season for the turnips, and we were out in the winter in our Wellingtons. You got no gloves, that was luxury.

My daddy was a tinsmith. He used to make troughs for the farmers, kettles, pots, pans, spoons and knives from stainless steel. The tin had to come by rail – he’d order it and have to meet the train. Tin was rationed back then so when times were bad, he’d turn to flooring – he’d lay lino and sell mats. He did a bit of dealing in horses as well.

We had no caravans in those days – it was horse-drawn wagons. Imagine 12 people in one of those. There would be 10 children sleeping in one in wintertime, plus Daddy and Mammy, and we’d all cuddle up.

It was a hard life but I have good memories of it. Because we could go anywhere, we were free.

The ’70s were the hardest years for us. We were harmless but had a lot of trouble with the police if we camped on a bit of land. They would keep escorting the caravan further and further out, to another area where we were someone else’s problem.”

May

“Even when I was a little girl growing up on a site, people would tease me and say: ‘You go to school so you’re a gorger’ [non-Romani].

No – I think education is a basic human right, everyone should be entitled to have an education.

I think it’s really sad that people have that perspective. I’d rather be whatever you want to call me if it means I have reign over my own mind and consciousness. I’ll be whatever you say, fine.

As I’ve got older, I’ve had to get wise. I realised I was getting my strings pulled from all different ways but had to learn the strings were there.

And I think it’s a similar principle with education, they can get their strings pulled in a certain way. It’s depriving people of a part of themselves.”

Sian

“My daughter is rare – a Traveller in high school.

But she’s having a terrible time, being called racially abusive names and baited by other pupils on social media. When she fights back, she gets into trouble.

They say they can’t have violence in school and I get that – I one hundred per cent get that – but she is getting almost constant racial abuse. She’s had her PE kit, her coat and her bag all put down the toilet. She was attacked by six older girls when she was in year seven. I rang the police that time but was told the CCTV wasn’t working.

She was once bitten through her blazer and jumper by a kid on the school bus and it broke her skin. A boy tipped a bottle of water over her head in the dinner hall, saying: ‘Your house is on wheels’. I’ve reported more than 57 incidents to 101 [the police] since she started at this school three years ago.

One girl kept calling her a ‘gyppo’ so I spoke to her parents. They said: ‘But she is, isn’t she?’ I told them: ‘No, she’s a Gypsy.’ I was shocked that another adult could be spiteful enough to think it’s okay to tease a child for what she was born as.

It’s not her fault she was born into this community. She can’t help it – it is what it is. I don’t mind someone calling me a Gypsy or Traveller. You can tell what someone’s intention is by the tone of their voice, their body language.

There aren’t many Traveller children in school here – how do you expect this to improve when people like me are being asked by others how my children are doing? I’m not going to lie and say it’s great because it’s not great at all.

My children shouldn’t have to worry about what names they’re going to be called, they should be worrying about what they’ll have for dinner. My husband tells me to take them out of school. He says, why should we send them to school for people to keep hitting them?

But why should I jeopardise their future because other people keep racially abusing them? The teachers say she’s a good student and well behaved.

Incidents only happen when she’s abused for being a Gypsy and has retaliated.

Why should I pull her out of school?”

Betty

“It was hard not being allowed to play out”

Orla

“I found shopping very hard during the lockdown because I was on my own with the kids and couldn’t even leave the house. I had to get my mum or sister to come and help me or go and get my shopping for me. It was quite isolating.

The kids were off school for a while. I was really afraid when they went back in and was asking myself was I doing a good or bad thing by sending them back. I remember when my daughter went back they wouldn’t let her sit with her friends, and she found that really stressful, God love her.

I can’t read or write myself – we were always travelling when I was young and we wouldn’t be brought to school as a permanent thing. We were in and out of education a little bit but not enough to really learn anything much.

It makes life very hard when you can’t read and write. I can’t do very much myself and have to depend on other people all the time to help me. I don’t want that for my children so I make sure they attend school.”

Bride

“I don’t remember much about the Covid time. I know it was really difficult – we all had to go for lunch one class at a time because we were in different bubbles and I didn’t get to see my brother really because we were in different groups.

My teacher had to wear a mask. Most people were in school but at times some of my friends were sick and some of my teachers were sick.

I remember being off school and staying in the house for weeks. My mum said we couldn’t go and play outside and everywhere we went we had to wear masks.

It was really hard, not to even be allowed to go out and play. If I wanted to play out, I had to play in my back garden and that was really boring.

I’m nine years old, and my brother’s six. I love art and drawing, and I see my cousins a lot – they live on a site. Sometimes I call them on the phone and sometimes I go to visit them.

I do have friends who live near me, there are some girls in the houses around.

Sometimes we do gymnastics and play with dolls but my little brother doesn’t want to do that.”

Orla

“One of my sons is autistic so he was invited to stay in school during lockdown but I chose not to send him because I felt the quality time at home was more important. It wouldn’t have been a normal school experience for him. There would be different teachers, different kids, different rules.

Plus, there were children there whose parents were working on the front line and I had a daughter at home with an auto-immune condition, so I couldn’t take that chance. I think I found out a lot more about my kids being at home – things I didn’t know before. We spent more time together than normal.

However, not everything about it was good. My daughter missed out socially, and one son didn’t get his prom. And my youngest child is now really struggling after missing so much school – he’s had about two years out now, give or take, because he’s also had time off for illness. He’s behind where he should be academically.

He was diagnosed in August 2021 with a Spinal CFS leak [where protective fluid leaks from the skull] and had his first brain op that December. It was still very strict in hospital then – daily Covid tests, no visitors, masks. There was Covid on his ward and I was worried about bringing it home to my daughter.

Since then, he’s had two other surgeries. He’s done really well, but it’s been hard for him.

We’re part of Light and Life [a Romani-led Pentecostal church] – my husband feeds the homeless every week with people from our congregation. He went on his own initially but I noticed a change in him so I was curious and went along. I was brought up Catholic but never had a relationship with God until I joined this church. They’ve been good to us as a family.

I’ve never prayed as hard in my life as when my son was ill. I believe someone’s had their hand over the boy.”

Betty

“Got through it – had to”

Irene

“The lockdown was hard. I had my TV and books but was very isolated and you could see the world had changed and everyone was afraid. I kept telling myself I wasn’t afraid and kept doing little bits of arts and crafts, singing, and just trying to get through each day.

People didn’t visit, it was the official people who rang me on the phone – they asked: ‘Are you all right, do you need anything?’ I felt loved then – it was like being in a cocoon where people cared how I was doing. But when the lockdown ended, I was left alone again. And that would get to me – a little voice in my head kept saying: ‘No one cares now.’

I was in this house through the lockdown, I’ve been here for four years now.

I’ve been in the area for about eight years – I lived in another house in the village before this one. But I’ve lived all over: houses, the roadside, sites.

I had to be very careful not to catch Covid due to having very bad asthma – I had to learn to keep a little bit back from people. I still love people but now I have to put a little barrier around myself due to my immune system.”

Lizzie

“One of my sons does gymnastics training five nights a week in Manchester so we don’t normally eat together as a family – we don’t get home until after 9pm. My kids also box and the little one goes to karate.

I didn’t go to school, let alone after school clubs. When you haven’t had these opportunities or choices yourself, you want to give them to your children.

I just want them to give things a try – if they aren’t into it, I have no objections.

He started at a local gymnastics school when he was younger but they told us he was too good for them so we tried him in Manchester, where he got in. He’s happy and it’s become part of our life – I’m not going to be a dream crusher.

The only thing we found hard during lockdown was that he had to do his training on Zoom every night for an hour and we would have to keep the house quiet. Gym had given us mats and other equipment for him to use.

There would be the 10 boys and two coaches on the call and they had to wear their kit.

They would each take a turn and he would then have to sit and pay attention while each of the other boys had their go. Then they would do a different routine. That was hard for him I think – going from the strict routine of training for three or four hours a night to training at home.”

Betty

“I’ll never forget those first months of Covid to be honest with you – the fear alone. I was living in this house during the lockdown, just me with my two children. I was fed up, fearing for my life and panicking to death for my children.

We were washing our hands all the time and I was bleaching everywhere, like, I really was scared for my life. I got a bit obsessive about cleaning, it was very worrying to be honest. I don’t think I’ve ever bought as much bleach in my life.

It broke my heart looking at them [the children] because they couldn’t even go to a park – the playgrounds were all cordoned off. They couldn’t play outside and you couldn’t take them anywhere. They were cooped up in the house and it was very hard to keep them entertained.

My daughter had a bit of an idea what was going on but I think my son just thought I was being strict – he was too young to understand any of it.

Normally they see their cousins quite a lot so it was hard for them suddenly not having that – they used to come over to us and my daughter used to go back over to them but we were scared of everything.

Especially with Travellers, as we’re a very big community – and someone could come down and shake your hand and that person has been with another person. It was very, very frightening.”

Bride

“Life is for living”

Lizzie

“I was doing agency work in an office when lockdown started, and had no support. I was staying with my granny in Winsford and was also staying with my boyfriend a lot.

I went into alternative healing, which put me on the path to what I’m doing now – I adapted a different income stream online.

I was really worried about my grandparents and the fear of Covid which we’d been conditioned to feel. I was thinking the worst possible scenario.

It’s really heart-breaking, all the people who died from it, and the fear was hard but I didn’t mind the isolation of lockdown so much. I really missed my family and because of the bubbles I couldn’t go back and to. I had to protect them and couldn’t even go in the house. We had Facetime though.

I question a lot of what we’re being told about all kinds of things, I just don’t trust a lot of what the authorities tell us. I think we’ve been conditioned to turn a blind eye and accept things.

Things have happened to make people distrust the government. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with questioning the narrative and not blindly believing.

I try to keep both ends open and not attach myself to my beliefs. I still listened and did what they said about Covid but that doesn’t mean I believed it.”

Sian

“Dolly Parton lived in the Appalachian mountains as a child whereas I lived on the roadside in a caravan, miles away from the towns, alongside the A64 in Yorkshire. We’d get water from the farms and I would collect it like Dolly.

My mum used to make paper flowers, I’d watch her making them in all different colours, which was beautiful, and then I’d sell them, so my life was quite colourful like Dolly’s. I had blonde hair like hers and I was small like her.

We didn’t mix a lot with other families when I was young but I was always singing. The roadside might have been lonely but I always had something to do – wash, clean, do my chores. I didn’t know what anxiety or depression was, we just got on with it. If you had a disease, you’d try to get to the hospital, sort it out and that was it. If I was ever in pain I would just start singing.

I am very blessed that I had Dolly Parton in my life because she got me through major events in my life. I sing her songs if I’m having a bad time, it’s the best medicine in the world, honest to God. She helped me get through lockdown.”

Lizzie

“I get upset that they are moulding my daughter into something she isn’t. She has become very angry towards non-Travellers because she thinks they’re all the same.

She says: ‘Mum, you say racism begins at home’ – which is my opinion – ‘so how come everyone keeps doing it, not just one or two kids?’

She says the teachers don’t do anything. She feels let down by staff.

It’s caused arguments in my family. My brother was at my house once when my daughter came home with a scratch down her face.

He asked her who had done that, and she said a girl at school – another ‘gyppo’ incident – and he said to me: ‘Are you mentally impaired, you’re sending your child to be battered. When are you going to stop – when she’s hanging?’

And he’s right. It’s not acceptable to do this to a child. The stats for kids in the Traveller community taking their own lives are massive. These words have consequences. They may think it’s just name-calling but there are long-term effects.

I hated going to school, I would do anything to get out of it. I see my daughter doing it now. ‘I don’t feel very well, Mum, I’ve got a headache, is there any chance I can I do school online?’

But why should she not be able to have friends and experience relationships with people from different communities because other people can’t control their own nasty tongues?

She’s been punched and kicked – how dare someone put their feet on my child’s head?

Look at what happened to the young Traveller lad in Ellesmere Port – he died [Johnny Delaney was kicked to death by teenagers in 2003, days before his 16th birthday].

Now they always say that wasn’t a racial one but I don’t know. Do I want my child to be another one of them? I went to school a long time ago and thought things might have changed, but nothing has.”

Betty

“When the lockdown happened, were just stuck in four walls, me and my husband. I was sterilising absolutely every inch of the house – everywhere that was touched, I sterilised because of the fear of getting Covid. I thought that would be it if we caught it, end of life, with having hidden health problems and being elderly and vulnerable.

We received letters telling us to shield. Our son and daughter-in-law would come and drop any odds and ends off and leave them in the outhouse and speak to us as much as possible through the window.

And we got Tesco deliveries, he used to drop the shopping at the door and go halfway up the path until we’d collected it. Then we’d wipe everything over, all gloved up and masked up. Everything had to be sterilised before we put it away.

The family, they’d come and see us and say hello through the window. And the grandchildren… that was cruel. It has hard because you could see they were suffering. They couldn’t be cuddled or kissed how we always did. It was just heart-breaking. Such a cruel time.

It wrecks your brain – the fear has completely destroyed my brain I think, because I still have the fear of going out and picking anything up. And when I go out, I’m masked up, just the same. That’s the fear and I don’t think it’s going to go away anytime soon.”

Irene

“I know it’s still out there”

May

“Within a week of the lockdown being lifted we caught Covid.

We’d had visitors and they’d must have brought it in. We didn’t feel worried about it really because they were testing before they came to visit us and we were testing daily, morning and night, even though we had not been out or seeing anybody, the fear gripped hold of us that tightly.

We were quick to get all the jabs – the first one I had I was really poorly with it – but that was well worth it, those few hours of not feeling well rather than not being here to tell the tale.

My daughter recently took me to the bingo for the first time in three years, to get me out of the house, because the fear is still there with Covid. She’s trying to work on that fear, well I am myself, but with the two of us we might be a bit stronger with beating the fear.

I was fine with the idea until I actually got there. I started to get a bit anxious as we went in but I had it under control. But as soon as we went into the lift, I hadn’t got the hand-wash on me – the steriliser – so of course I had to pull my sleeves down on my coat. I wasn’t feeling good at that point, the anxiety was really starting.

At that point then the legs went a bit jellified. It wasn’t just anxiety then, I think it was full-on fear wanting to take over. Anyway, I managed to sit down and sat talking for a minute and started to calm down a bit.

I was like a beginner then, I just couldn’t follow the game, I was too tensed up.

By the end of it I was glad to get out of there. I’m glad that I went because to me that was like a big opening. I’m hoping to go back – I’m working on it. I might be a bit stronger next time around but I’ll make sure I have my handwash in my coat pocket.”

Irene

“When the lockdown started, I was living on a site. It was horrible. I couldn’t manage – I couldn’t get out of the door.

I have health problems so was told by my nurse to stay in and keep my distance from other people. Two of my daughters lived on the same site and another was only up the road.

To start with they would shop and leave the food at my door but I don’t know who did it after that, it must have been something to do with the government.

A box of food would be left for me but some of things in it I couldn’t use.

When my girls caught Covid it was hell to me because I was stuck with food I couldn’t use.

When things were left for me I’d wipe it all before I brought it inside.

I don’t read and only one of my daughters can read a bit. I was suffering with the letters because I had no one to read them until things calmed down a bit and I could ask someone in the site office to read them for me.

I was afraid that if I caught Covid I wouldn’t survive. I was bad with my lungs then, I was on oxygen at home because I have COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease].

During that period I fell and broke my hip. The girls couldn’t visit me in hospital. From there I went into a rehab place – the worst place I’ve ever been.

The staff were rude and rough and they left me in pain – it was the worst experience of my life and I’ve 10 births and reared seven children.

I wasn’t allowed visitors and they wouldn’t allow me to go to the dayroom. I was begging for them to let me go home. I believe I was treated this way of who I am – they thought Travellers would bring in disease and infections but we are clean people. “ May

“I was diagnosed with breast cancer in April 2022. I never thought I’d see so much of the hospital but I’m quite a positive person and try to look to the future. I was diagnosed late – I went into hospital with a kidney infection and told the doctor my chest was very sore.

I’d kept noticing a lump in in one of my breasts and it had been sore for quite a while. I’d tried to tell my doctor a few times before that but always got fobbed off – they were busy dealing with my asthma.

They did some tests at the hospital and then the doctor said: ‘We can cure your kidneys but you have cancer and it’s dangerous.’ I bit my lip… I had a lump in my lip with shock. They told me it was breast cancer and it had gone into the bones because they didn’t get to it in time.

I do think I’d be more comfortable living on a site in some ways, I wouldn’t be so lonely. I wouldn’t like to say I’ve died in a house, I’ll be honest with you.

When I was in hospital the most recent time, the staff kept asking me to sign a form saying they would not resuscitate me if I have a heart attack or something. It felt like they didn’t want to fight for me. I said I couldn’t sign it at the moment, I don’t think I’ve gone that far yet. They were really adamant that I sign it but I’m trying to live, that’s the way I look at it.

I’m 56. They look at my age and see the complications – the cancer, the asthma. They don’t see a human, a mother with a beating heart.

Lizzie is all about the country music, and singing, and loving people and making them smile. It’s hard to stay positive sometimes, when I’m watching TV and everyone seems happy and I’m here, living alone in this house. I have to accept each day as it comes. There’s nothing I can do about it other than think happy thoughts and look for the good.”

Lizzie

“To tell you the truth I don’t think this world will ever be the same after lockdown. We’ve lost a lot of family members as well due to Coronavirus.

Healthy people were getting a cough and going into hospital and not coming back out. Then some people get their vaccine and were dying after that.

I was afraid of what I have seen, so I did not get vaccinated. I’m afraid it could harm people. A lot of people think the government is trying to kill everyone.

Life is now still the same really. Fuel prices are outrageous and it’s hard to keep the car going and the gas – I feel like crying. We’re on a card meter and they last almost no time.

My daughter has ADHD and I really think I’ve got it too. I can’t finish anything I try to do. I move onto something else and then circle round and round and round. I really struggle, I get distracted.

I find normal day-to-day things really hard – even things I have to do around the house. Then I’ll walk into a room and forget what I’m doing in there and walk back out again and forget something else. And I forget my appointments.

I try so hard to remember but my brain just struggles. I don’t sleep very well so when the kids are at school I try to get a little rest.

I also suffer from anxiety and when it’s coming on I feel like I’m having a heart attack – it’s in my chest and pain in my head as well. I don’t really like public places or having people around me, it makes me feel sick. My family help me out quite a bit when I feel like that.

Since I had my daughter I’ve been living in a house. Houses for children are completely different to our culture. If you’re living on a site, it’s like you’re one big family but in a house you’re on your own.”

Bride

“It readjusted my perspective”

Sian

“When I lived on a site, if there was a party all the women would all gather.

But once Covid arrived there were no parties or speaking to other people, and that’s what trapped me.

I kept getting flashbacks about what had happened to me, that fall. I made up my mind in hospital, living on a site is not going to be for me now. They found me this place, a house, but it’s too big for me, you can’t heat it up. You could die with the cold in here.

I fell again last year, after moving into this house, and broke my other hip. I had no phone in my pocket but it was a lovely day and all the windows were open. I was roaring for help but no one came for about an hour and a half.

A neighbour eventually heard me and called an ambulance, and it came about three hours later. Oh the pain. I was in worse pain than when I broke the first one because this one was shattered.

I’ve lived in houses before but when I did, I had my own rules. I’d go out to work back then or go to bingo, mix with other people – I mixed with the wider community but not so much with Travellers. I’d get on the bus and go places.

The hardest thing now is that I have no place to go and no neighbours to visit.

There’s no activities to keep me busy.

I believe that once a Traveller who has been brought up on the road comes into a house, poor health can get them if they don’t put their mind to it. It takes the culture away from them.”

May

“Why has this happened to me now, at this age? People live to 110 and are walking around still, people are living through wars and still don’t have cancer.

Who is deciding the length of time of your life?

Sometimes I can make sense of it, and other times I just think it’s the will of God. I say to him: ‘I know I’m a sinner, I’m not perfect, but I’ve never harmed anyone and I’ve never given up on my faith.’

I wonder why can’t I live a life like other people, like other Travelling people who have big families and are all happy? My daughter lives with her father and is doing well. But I’m here in this house, alone.

I lost two babies before her, a daughter and then a son. Two dolls, they had eyebrows, eyelashes, long fingers. I don’t think you’re ever the same if you lose a child, it takes a piece of your soul.

Then we had the miracle of our daughter, who is now 18 years of age. She’s my world.“ Lizzie

“I think the pandemic readjusted my perspective. I think there’s cultural conditioning when you’re in the community, you can’t see things from the other side.

It’s very real when you’re in it. People already feel very isolated and everyone has faced racism in one form or another.

I think most people in the community care a lot about what other Travellers think but when you truly don’t, it’s so freeing, it really is.

I think when I was growing up, the rules got changed a lot. At some points I wasn’t allowed to mix with the community, apart from my own family. Then when we’d move to places, I wasn’t allowed to mix with anyone else, only certain people off the site.

And I felt like, growing up, the rules of what I was meant to be doing got changed without me knowing. It was only afterwards, once I’d done something wrong, that I’d find out they had been changed.

Later, I went to stay with my uncle in Australia. This allowed me to reframe my thinking; chemical catalysts which I’ve used for my PTSD also helped me reframe, which has made it easier for me to step away.

It all helped me realise that being in that rut wasn’t beneficial to me. With my Complex PTSD my mental health was awful but now I’m doing what feels right to make it better.

I love the Traveller community and where I come from and I love all my family but I don’t have to attach myself to it. It’s not a healthy way of thinking, it isn’t good for me and it’s done me well to take a step back.

If I was neurotypical, I might be more bothered about what people think but I’m really not. I’ve got Complex PTSD and Borderline Personality Disorder – neurodivergent thinking – but I like my perspective now. I’m proud of my heritage and ethnicity but I’m not defined by it.

I was locked in a mindset – I was caged by my own thinking, and a lot of people are like that. They love the cage, it’s the best thing ever because they’re in it. I think my thinking is a lot freer now I’m not in the cage, everything has changed – my perspectives are broader and interests are different.

I’m into philosophy and things now. I don’t care what people say or think about me because at the end of the day, they’ve been conditioned.”

Sian

“It was like a holiday from home”

Betty

“It was scary at first, when it was all over the news. I made myself anxious a few times by googling deaths in the local hospital, but I stopped doing that. I also went for a drive-through Covid test once, near the army barracks, and found that frightening. There were loads of people in white suits and big white tents up. I felt like an alien in a car.

But I mainly remember waking up in the morning when we wanted to, not having to get ready every morning for school. Everything was slow motion for us. I have four kids – three sons and a daughter. You could eat when you wanted to, get your breakfast, the sun would be out. We had a hot tub in the yard and would put bubbles in it. I just think we spent more time together as a family.

There were things that we did that we never would have done if Covid wasn’t there. It was like a holiday from home. I feel a bit unsafe saying it but I quite enjoyed it. And I think out of all the holidays that we’ve had – and we’ve had some lovely holidays – that was probably the best one, and we never left the house.

We lived on a site until five years ago but I got sick of it, I felt like there was no privacy. At our house, the garden’s big enough for us to be in. One day we painted the fence. The paint went everywhere, but I didn’t care. It was memories, quality time.

My teenage daughter and I stayed up all night, one night, watching Prison Break on telly. You don’t get many chances to do things like that. How often are you going to be able to get three days where you colour the whole side of the house in with chalk? The rule was that you couldn’t put the same colour next to each other.

My kids cut their dad’s hair when there were no barbers open. I don’t think any of us got dressed during that time, we’d have a shower and put clean pyjamas on.

I think the effects of the pandemic are going to be around for a long time. It affected people in ways they don’t even realise. But would I do it again? 100 per cent.”

Betty

Got Through It was funded by Cheshire West and Chester Council and delivered in partnership with Open Eye Gallery.

It was a Reflections commission, aimed at documenting untold stories from the pandemic.

Irish Community Care was instrumental in this project’s development – with staff taking me out on outreach visits and giving valuable advice. A particular thanks to Maya, Andy and Simon.

Thank you to Orla’s school for letting me work there.

Thank you also to Jane who gave me guidance and made introductions to potential participants.

A huge thanks to all the participants for trusting me and sharing their thoughts and time.

The collaged portrait features a photograph of a caravan site near the Flashes in Winsford (date unknown), supplied by Cheshire Archives and Local Studies.

Produced by www.ciaraleeming.co.uk

Got Through It explores the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath on the lives of seven women and girls from the Gypsy and Traveller community of Cheshire West.

BETTY BRIDE IRENE LIZZIE MAY ORLA SIAN