Young, gifted and bleak

The young are often unheard, but the girls of St Aloysius College are outspoken and articulate on the state of their nation, says Kerrie Kennedy

IT’S A CRISP Tuesday morning and I am sitting in the reception of St Aloysius’ College, in Carrigtwohill, chatting with one of the school’s Leaving Certificate pupils, a cheerful, brown-haired teenager named Zoe Fannon.

Any passersby would have been forgiven for thinking we were talking about our weekend plans — how often would you connect mention of the word ‘party’, by a 17-year-old, with politics, and not her plans to celebrate?

Maybe it is because of the lack of faith in young people’s ability to take an interest in, and get riled up over, the abysmal economic state of affairs we are in that formed part of the problem in the first place.

“The party system is flawed— none of the parties can work together and agree on one budget, for instance. I also think it’s time that we looked to the backbenchers for a new Taoiseach, and it should be up to the entire Dáil to vote the best leader for the country,” Zoe said.

I had come to the all-girls secondary school with a touch of apprehension about my mission to gather the opinions of Ireland’s youth on our battered economy, the budget and their plans for the future, but, already, that was beginning to fade, after my brief, but encouraging conversation with the first young lady I had met.

And, luckily, that trend continued.

In a room packed with 30-odd 17- and 18-year-olds, the mood was surprisingly enthusiastic — this was a bunch of students tired of hearing the same old views on how their country is, and should be, run and they were eager to give some opinions of their own.

One young pupil, who was happy to get the ball rolling, was 18-year-old Avril McCarthy.

“The economy has been completely sabotaged. People are being forced to emigrate, there is huge debt built up and we will be paying back the interest for life,” she said bluntly.

So who exactly do these passionate young people blame for the current situation?

“The political corruption is widespread — it’s not just Fianna Fáil,” said another girl, not afraid to mince her words, 17-year-old Susan Rea, who said she was planning to study medicine in college.

“It’s no wonder people have become so disillusioned, there is a general bad feeling, because the problems were addressed too late.

“Talk about the IMF and the bailout was bounced around for a few weeks, and the Taoiseach never once addressed his people, its a disgrace,” said Susan.

“We need to totally reform the political system. The population is totally over-represented, we need to cut the amount of TDs in half and put pressure on them to make more of an effort and move away from emphasis on mending potholes to get votes, for example,” said a voice from the back of the room, 17-year-old Sinead Keane.

“These are our national representatives, they should be dealing with serious issues. There was considerable money spent on them, they should be suffering now, too,” Sinead said.

This was clearly something to which everyone — including those who seemed slightly disinterested — could relate, as several girls began to nod their heads in agreement with Sinead’s last comment.

Moving on from the broad to the more specific, I asked the girls what they felt about Ireland needing a bailout, which clearly struck a nerve, particularly with the few who were eager to air their views.

“It’s a disgrace, we have to take loans from abroad to pay for Anglo and for their stupidity,” said Avril.

“We have to pay for Anglo,” said Sinead.

“It’s all well to say ‘stop supporting banks’ but we can’t, we have to have an economy. What we need to do is cut the highest earners. The middle earners, such as teachers, are suffering the most. I think the people at the bottom nearly have it easier than people in the middle,” she said.

“But the bottom level standard of living didn’t raise during the boom,” said Susan indignantly.

At this stage, any shyness had completely vanished. You could see several of the girls were anxious to say their piece on what was clearly a sensitive issue.

I had begun to think there was a slight irony in the fact the girls with the strongest views on political reform were seated on my left, when a voice to my right piped up.

“Everyone here has been on a foreign holiday, there are plenty of people here whose families have two houses, it’s a measure of a good society to look after the vulnerable,” said 18-year-old Orla Kelleher.

“But we can’t keep cutting back on the middle sector,” said Sinead.

“There are so many people not paying taxes and are just getting benefits, the tests for social welfare need to be a lot stricter, we need to find out who is sponging, who is making fraudulent claims,” she said.

Seeing that this could turn into a long and fairly heated debate that would most likely have stretched beyond the one-hour class, I asked who was thinking of leaving the country after their exams.

Not one person failed to raise their arm.

“It’s a good opportunity to travel, there is simply no money in the country, so why not,” said Susan.

However, one of the girls, Orla, said that while she wanted to travel, Ireland was inevitably the only country where she could see herself growing old.

“We grew up here, by the time we get out of college I would hope things might be a little better. I want to work as an accountant and that sector still has some jobs, so I don’t think I could emigrate long term. I’m Irish, this is my home,” she said.

Having listened to the group speak in mainly negative terms, I was surprised, and curious, to find that there was a positive belief that the situation would begin to improve in the near future.

Did the group think we, as a whole, would learn from our mistakes?

Susan, I believe put it best.

“There has been a cycle of economic boom then bust, nobody has died of recession,” she said.

So, would anyone like to get into politics I asked? Silence.

“It’s not very attractive, its the kind of job where its more who you know,” said Susan, thoughtfully, just as the bell to end class went.

While one group cannot be taken as an indication of the views of the entire teenage population of Ireland, clearly, the final year class at St Aloysius were much more clued in than most people give teenagers credit for.

These are the people who will be shaping the future of the country, and the level of disillusion with the state of affairs was obvious, but by no means shocking.

If anything, it reaffirmed the belief that many of those with the brightest young minds, and the energy to drive change and positive reform are, because of the system itself, too often those with no interest in taking up the positions of leaders and politicians.

These girls had started school in the midst of the Celtic Tiger era, and now, six years later, were emerging educated and hopeful, but, sadly, with little faith in their abilities to secure a positive future living in Ireland.