It’s not the image that normally comes to mind of Travellers in Ireland — and that’s the point. Tired of being stereotyped as menacing, suspicious and living in caravans on scrappy city wasteland, a calendar featuring 12 glamorous women has just gone on sale.

“It’s about challenging people’s idea of what a Traveller woman looks like,” said Sinead Burke, the editor of The Voice of the Traveller magazine.

Her editorial team decided to champion a new look more in keeping with the Republic’s “Celtic tiger” economy, which has transformed the country’s fortunes in little more than a decade.

“We put out the call through the pages of the magazine in January, asking for women from all over Ireland. There was no specific qualification, no age or demographic. They just had to be Travellers.”

A mainstream Irish fashion and celebrity gossip magazine became involved and helped, with the model Andrea Roche, to pick 12 faces from more than 200 entries. The winning women, ranging in age from 17 to 24, were photographed in a restored Georgian mansion in Dublin. The results have thrilled Ms Burke and captivated Ireland.

“The response has been fantastic,” said Ms Burke. “I was expecting women’s groups to be negative but that hasn’t happened. It’s very rare to get positive Travellers’ stories in the media, but we’ve succeeded.”

The calendar, Beauty Has No Boundaries, was launched this week at the annual conference of the National Association of Travellers Centres in Maynooth, Co Kildare.

Mary McAleese, the President of the Republic of Ireland, spoke at the event. “Two decades ago, virtually no Traveller children transferred from national school to second level. It was unheard of for Traveller young people to go on to college or university,” she said.

“That story is no longer true and today the genius of young Travellers is revealing itself in many different ways. But there is still a very long road to travel.”

Irish Travellers refer to themselves as Pavee — a word from their own language called “cant” or “gammon” and “shelta” by academics. Traditionally they have worked in tinsmithing and seasonal farm labour. Some of the girls who posed for the pictures now hope to develop modelling careers and have already been signed up for television and radio appearances. “I was nervous about it and so were the girls,” said Ms Burke. “We were putting them in circumstances which were totally alien to them, but they took to it like ducks to water.”

Half the calendar models live in caravans and the others in permanent accommodation — a trend that the Irish Government is endeavouring to encourage.

Ms Burke estimates that there are about 40,000 Travellers in Ireland. Their history extends back centuries but they are distinct from the Roma of Europe, although sharing a tradition of nomadism and large extended families.

Among the models are 18-year-old Isowell Donovan, from Tullamore, who married almost a year ago, and Aisling Hand, 23, a receptionist from Navan with a 19-month-old daughter, who plans to marry next year.

The high-profile case of Padraig Nally, a farmer who was acquitted of murder after shooting John “Frog” Ward, a Traveller, and then cleared after a retrial on manslaughter charges, was a low point in public perceptions of the community. “Irish society has grown up a lot in the last few years and the Traveller community is more organised than ever,” said Ms Burke. “There’s a renewed pride in our culture.”

Ms Hand said that it made a change to swap her jeans and T-shirt for evening wear, professional make-up and a swanky location: “I was very proud to do this shoot. It was a great opportunity and I really loved it.”

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