Child Talks Event 20/11/24
Student News Article written by Mia Tabakova, Elisa Dessena and Sara Noworyta
In November, we had the pleasure of attending this year’s Child Talks event on its 8th anniversary, which was hosted in the Helix, DCU and organized by the Ombudsman for Children Office. While there, we were delighted to learn more about the organization itself and some of the challenges and experiences people our age have overcome.
This year’s host was Mark Langtry and the co-host was Eoin Murphy, who gave us a brief history on the Child Talks event. Child talks is an educational event that aims to elevate and encourage the voices of young people in today’s ever-changing world. Child Talks provides young people with a positive platform and the opportunity to get their story out there. Dr Niall Muldoon is the Ombudsman for Children. Niall’s job is to make sure that children in Ireland are being treated fairly. He investigates complaints and promotes children’s rights.
We were joined by nearly 1000 other students from all over Ireland that had travelled all the way from Tipperary, Kildare, Mayo, Westmeath, Meath, Dublin, Longford, Clare, Galway and Wexford to hear the struggles of their peers. For ones that were unable to attend in person, the event was streamed live on www.oco.ie to schools around Ireland. It was also available in sign language. Before the talks began, we had DJs Rocco and Cillian from Music Generation Dublin City as our opening act. They both succeeded in creating a lively environment before the talks began.
In total we had 5 speakers who shared their story with the crowd. To start us off, Ben from Kildare shared his story growing up in a single parent household. Ben admitted that he has always struggled with living in a single parent household with only his mother to look after him. Despite the people around him knowing about this, they certainly didn’t make it any easier. He proceeded to share a couple of stories from his childhood that really showcased how inconsiderate his teachers, classmates and even friends had been. Later in his teenage years, Ben discovered that he wasn’t alone in this experience. He found solace in music artists like Tyler the creator, who he felt really understood his situation as they had experienced similar things themselves. Ben’s final message was to the department of education and Norma Foley. He said : ‘Norma Foley you can do better at educating children about single parent families’.
Speaker No.2 was Bel from Dublin who shared her experience in dealing with loneliness. Bel stated that she never had any trouble making friends until transition year. As in the beginning of the year, she got separated from the rest of her friend group. That small change caused her to feel very left out, lonely and overlooked while at school. Things at home weren’t much better as she got two new foster sisters that joined her family. Bel wanted to drop out of school. However, after a long talk with her mum, she decided that staying in school and joining some clubs instead would be a better course of action for her. This later proved to be true as she met and talked with other people with similar experiences. She stated, “We all felt the same thing; ‘hope’. Bel wanted the audience to take away these final messages: “Each of us have the power to make others feel like they belong” and “A simple smile or a quick hello will make all the difference”.
Speaker No.3, Sarah Ann from Galway, shared her experience of having a little sister with Down Syndrome. She shared how she always wished for a little sister as she yearned for someone in her family to be able to relate to and talk to. The day Sarah found out her mom was expecting a girl, she was overjoyed. However, this initial excitement turned into worry as her sister’s due date approached, and her parents didn’t return from the hospital in time. When her parents returned, Sarah Anne discovered her sister Ester was diagnosed with Down Syndrome. She decided then that she would join a group of people known as carers, a group of 67,000 people living in similar situations. She learned how to care for her sister and she finally felt understood and seen by the community.After that we had two more speakers, such as Anna from Kildare who shared her experience of being a girl in sports. Anna wanted to speak at Child Talks this year in order to encourage other girls facing difficulties to keep up the sport that they love because she believes it can truly make a difference in so many aspects of life.
And finally, the final speaker was Ronan from Limerick who told the audience what it’s like growing up as a neurodivergent child in rural Ireland, the difficulty kids with mental disabilities and their families encounter when trying to access services. He also shared his experience of being bullied and excluded throughout most of his primary school experience. Ronan also wanted to convey the importance of third spaces that are safe, accessible and inclusive for kids with special needs. Ronan’s final message to the crowd was ‘We have value and deserve safety and joy in our childhood’.
With the personal stories of our peers coming to an end, the hosts Mark and Eoin decided to leave us with three more final acts.
The first was a science experiment/challenge, which called for the help of a couple of volunteers from the audience. The premise of this challenge was that the chosen volunteers had to create a liquid tornado in bottles provided by Mark and Eoin.
Next was entertainment brought to us by magician Cillian O’Connor who performed some card tricks with the help of a volunteer from the audience. Cillian left us all in awe of his magical ability. Finally, the music group Lisdoonvarna crew graced the stage for a final performance of their viral summer hit ‘The Spark’. And with that, Child talks 2024 came to an end.
Overall, this was a very positive experience. I think everyone had a great time and learned a lot.
