Michael Collins is someone I hugely admire because he's fighting a battle that is very current and unfashionable, and is doing it through his theatre and acting work. I first came across him because I'm friends with the actor Liam Heffernan, who played the role of Blackie Connors in Glenroe while Michael played his brother Johnny and is also a Traveller off-screen.

I have always had a lot of respect towards Travellers because my mother is a school principal and it was ingrained into me from an early age that they have a different culture, although they live in Ireland. My mum brought us up to be very respectful of that and I found the whole gypsy way of life to be fascinating.

Michael was born in Kilbeggan in the midlands. His family travelled around the country until he was about nine years of age and then went to live in Finglas. His interest in drama began when he did a personal development course in 1985 through the Dublin Travellers' Education and Development Group, a group run by John O'Connell, an ex-priest and an amazing man. He brought young Travellers in to develop their talents and within that they collaborated with the Team Theatre group on a play called The Native Ground, which they also work-shopped around schools.

Michael went on to develop his career in acting, playing Johnny on Glenroe for many years, touring with Brendan O'Carroll and working in the Abbey and the Peacock. His film work includes Man About Dog and Trojan Eddie, which he starred in with Richard Harris who apparently was very fond of him and used to ask him all about Traveller issues.

I went to see, It's a Cultural Thing, Or Is It? in Liberty hall, a one-man play that was written and produced by Michael. It was done through the eyes of a child and was a fascinating play with amazing facts in it that really made you think. Michael was brilliant in it, portraying to the rest of the world the history of his people over the past 40 years, the joyful experiences and the amazing life he had growing up, and also the prejudice that he would have experienced.

There were a lot of very strong messages coming across and seeing Michael using his talents to educate people on a way of life that we often don't really understand, really moved me. I went up to him after the play to congratulate him and he was remarkably humble. I found him to be so inspiring and he just blew me away. And that was the moment he made it into the ranks of heroes in my head.

Michael has been married to Catherine Joyce since 1985 and they have four children: Christine, Elaine, Michael and Johnny. Christine was the first of the extended family to sit her Leaving Cert and is now on a placement with the Equality Authority.

While Michael is not as much of a spokesperson as other people, such as his wife Catherine, he is doing his part to educate people around the country. He gives workshops to teach children about prejudice towards Travellers, and recently put on a new play called, Mobile about how Travellers get into fights that are often about matters of honour.

I'm a qualified primary teacher, and worked in education, and I know how important what he is doing is in terms of educating future generations about racism towards Travellers.

I think Travellers are probably a confused community in many ways and I saw that with a couple of the girls that my mother employed to work in our house. They used to be a very rural and countrified people and then suddenly they had an influx of all of these modern things, like DVD players, that that didn't quite gel with their culture.

There were a lot of young Traveller girls in the audience of Michael's play the night I was there, some of whom weren't fully listening. I thought it was sad that they possibly didn't quite understand the significance of what he was doing because he was up there fighting for them. And that's why one of Michael's aims is to educate younger people from the Travelling community, as he feels that many of them don't have a good understanding of their heritage and history.

Michael recently got funding to set up the Wagon Wheel theatre company, which will be the first Traveller theatre company in Ireland. He's hoping to launch it in December and is currently writing his third play. I think what he does is incredibly brave because, while it's considered cool to be anti-racism towards people from other nationalities, prejudice towards Travellers still exists.

Michael is just like me . . . an artist using his talents . . . but the difference between us is that I was destined to be safe, while he was destined for a much harder life.

What I admire about Michael is that he has done loads of TV and film work, with very well-known people so he could easily go off to England to make a career there and divorce himself from the whole Traveller thing. He wouldn't dream of doing it though and devotes his time to writing and directing plays about the Travelling community.

It strikes me as being incredibly brave for someone to use their art and their skills to portray a cause that a lot of people would consider to be an uphill one when he could choose a different and possibly easier life.

Julie Feeney will perform at the Waterfront Theatre, Belfast on 3 May and at the Droichead Centre, Co Louth, on 5 May