Hughie Maughan is notorious. Outrageous, unstoppable. A force of fun and entertainment and a man who has made attention-seeking an art form. But Hughie’s celebrity has also been sought out by the wrong kind of attention.
Everybody seems to hate Hughie. And for all the wrong reasons.
Hughie is a traveller.
He’s lived a life at the wrong end of people’s perceptions of his community and his people. Travellers are perceived as outsiders, untrustworthy, beyond the law, lesser people because they don't live like normal people. Despite being acknowledged as an ethic minority almost a decade ago.
Hughie is Gay.
It’s the last taboo. In a world where people want to rewind the long-fought freedoms and equalities, Hughie is gay but on top of that his identity is rejected by his community.
Hughie knows only all too well the consequences. As a traveller, homosexuality is not tolerated in the traveller community. Historically it has meant ostracism, violence and even death. Earlier this year Hughie was violently attacked and suddenly the hate was real, painful and damaging.
Hughie is gay. And a traveller ... and that can be a fatal combination.
Homophobia is rooted within the culture of Irish Travellers; it’s a dark and secret world, and when people step out of line, bad things happen. The stories are legend, 28-year-old Irish Traveller Patrick Connors has been ostracised from his community and was almost bludgeoned to death.
‘I grew up knowing that being gay was not something that most travellers would tolerate and that telling anyone about it would put me at risk. So, until I came out to my parents, I lived a lie.’
But Hughie's not taking this lying down. In this observational documentary show we follow Hughie on a journey through 21st Century hatred as he says 'enough is fucking enough'. The fightback starts now. Who's in?