Why The Moon Travels

Moonfish Theatre will work in partnership with Ballybane Afterschool ACE Project to engage young Galway Travellers in the co-creation of a youth-centred adaptation of Why the Moon Travels, inspired by Oein DeBhairduin’s collection of Traveller tales. Delivered across 2026, this initiative is rooted in participation, inclusion, and cultural sustainability.

This project recognises that stories endure only when they are actively told and re-told. In this way, storytelling becomes both a cultural act and an ecological metaphor: stories survive when communities care for them.

Through facilitated conversations, participants will explore Traveller heritage, storytelling traditions, and the creative process. An educational resource pack will support deeper engagement with themes of journey, belonging, and resilience. Structured workshops will then invite young people to reinterpret stories in their own words, collaborate creatively, and shape their own retellings using simple shadow puppetry techniques.

The project will increase access to meaningful arts experiences for young people by having them engage with professional theatre company and artists from the traveller community. It will develop participants’ skills in storytelling, creativity, collaboration, and self-expression, while positioning them as active custodians of cultural knowledge.