Dr. Sindy Joyce is an Irish Traveller human rights activist and academic sociologist. [1] In January 2019 she became the first Irish Traveller to obtain a doctorate from an Irish university. [2] Her doctoral thesis funded by the Irish Research Council, "Mincéirs Siúladh: An ethnographic study of young Travellers’ experiences of urban space", explored the interaction of young Travellers with the settled community and the Gardaí in Galway city. [3]
In 2014 Joyce received a Traveller Pride Award for Education. [4] On 4 April 2019 Michael D. Higgins, the President of Ireland, appointed her to his Council of State. [5]