Richard Hogan: We've a beautiful country but what do we have to offer bored teenagers?

There are very limited options for families and children to connect and enjoy themselves outside of technology. I think we need more investment in the Arts and in family events

Richard Hogan: "When I ask parents 'if they were not on their devices what would they be doing?', I am regularly met with silence."

Ireland is a beautiful country. Whenever I have been away from it for an extended period of time, I’m always overcome with the same feelings when I return — its magnificence, the landscape, the air, the people, the language, the space, our culture, and how we treat each other.

There is no place like it. I have been fortunate with my work to travel all over this country, meeting the good people of Ireland. I visit every county in Ireland many times a year, delivering talks and hearing families and the issues that are coming up for them with their children.

Kerry is majestic... when you look over the Conor Pass your soul is wooed by the extraordinary expansiveness of it all.

Driving into Sligo too is something spiritual. Mighty Benbulben is a remarkable sight, like some lazy giant got bored building a perimeter wall, it rises up out of the landscape, a visual reminder to the mutated forces that have shaped this land over millennia.

West Cork, Mayo, Clare, and Galway... they all have their own particular beauty to them.

In fact, every county offers something to the soul. I love Ireland. But I’m also struck by how little there is for teenagers to do in the towns in which they live. As I’m driving through these towns, or walking around looking for somewhere to eat I always think 'what would I be doing here if I was a teenager?'. I’m often struggling to find an answer to that question.

How our children connect with each other is an important question to consider. Of course we have GAA and other sports, and there is always the local playground, but, besides that, what would we say are the main ways our children connect with each other?

Over midterm I went to Berlin with my wife and a few friends. I always love Berlin — the history, the beer houses, the lederhosen, the bratwurst, I’m a tourist cliché in that city.

Everywhere there is something to do or see. On Sunday morning we got up and went to a performance of Mozart's music in Konzarthaus Berlin. That’s the kind of cultured tourists we are! [In reality we happened to come across the beautiful building on Saturday evening looking for a beer house, and booked seats for the morning show] It was a remarkable experience, for many reasons. The building was just magnificent — decadence and sophistication personified.

But what really struck me about this event was that it was for families. We were there, tourists, taking it all in surrounded by German families. The children were all dressed up for the occasion. After each performance, a female violinist stood up and explained to the children what each song was about and how Mozart wrote it... well, the earnest nodding and laughter echoing off the marble suggested that’s what was going on anyway. At one point all the children in the hall stood up and walked around it as the orchestra played. It was a beautiful moment. Kids waving to their parents as Mozart filled the air.

I kept thinking about Irish kids, and the experiences we give them growing up. Do they have places to meet each other that are not shopping malls or coffee shops? I think we have very limited pathways in this country for children to connect with each other. The kids in Konzarthaus Berlin were all holding hands walking around the magnificent structure, listening to Mozart. Smiles on their faces, waving to their parents. Their synapses on fire taking it all in. Their concept of themselves and the world around them expanding with every note. I was thinking about the children in the hall becoming players themselves later in their lives. How they would recall those moments when they first heard Mozart, walking around and holding hands with other children. What an incredible memory to give a child.

Parents often come into my clinic, and ask me how to get their child off devices.

But when I ask parents 'if they were not on their devices what would they be doing?', I am regularly met with silence.

I am never trying to foist an 80s childhood on children — technology is part of how they communicate with each other now. I know this, and try to help parents to be realistic about childhood today, while also helping them to implement boundaries to allow for their child to enjoy technology and also enjoy real life family time.

It is not easy. These devices are incredibly powerful and addictive, but also there are very limited options for families and children to connect and enjoy themselves outside of technology.

I think we need more investment in the Arts. We have such a deep love of the arts and storytelling in his country, but where would we go to help our children to develop that interest? The local library does fantastic work in the community, igniting that spark in a child for reading and story but we need more investment in our artists and future artists. You can really tell how advanced a society is by how much they respect and promote the Arts. I think we should do more to spark an interest in our children for the Arts, there should be family events like what we witnessed in Berlin, so that kids can listen to great artists while also enjoying K-Pop Demon Hunters.