Sara Cullen: I work with young offenders — they watch and learn from adults

The M9 crash scene in Kildare that killed five young people. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire

I spent time in a young offenders institution last week with a group of men aged 21. 

I was there to facilitate a book club workshop. I had been invited in as the author of their first book Blood Red Sky, a story about a 16-year-old boy in custody. The boys were polite and respectful. They thanked me profusely for writing a book "about them" and they had insightful feedback about the characters. 

The one character they all united to hate was the father, Grant. They unanimously agreed he was cruel and should have treated his family better. However, all of them are in prison for hurting others.

Many of these young men had been in this young offenders institute for a number of years. They came from all parts of Scotland, due to their age they have to be sent to a YOI and not a local prison. 

Who cares? you might say. It’s their own fault for committing the crime. For every man in there, there are a significant number of victims. Including their families who can’t visit.

I live in a town in Scotland that is plagued by antisocial behaviour. I frequently have "ultras" pass my door when the football is on. The cities are dangerous, and I fear for my children’s safety both when out in the community or when they are online. 

I am a mother and for this reason I am always on high alert. But is it the right thing to blame the ‘other’ teenagers causing the trouble?

These topics are high on the Irish agenda following the devastating crash on the M90. As I absorbed the social media reactions to the deaths, the words "I would take a thread and a needle and I would interweave love into our society" repeated in my mind. 

I paraphrase the late Professor Jason Arday. Before his suicide, he described coping with the hatred he received online, by his peers, so difficult that "no human being should have to endure". This scholar articulated the impact of online abuse in a way that we should, as a nation, absorb.

Hatred begins when we can be convinced that some people are worth more than others. Race, religion, sexuality; these issues are used as tools to divide us to suit political agendas. All Irish people inherently know this.

Antisocial behaviour

But back to antisocial behaviour. 

Antisocial behaviour can ultimately be fatal. Whether we like it or not, the United Nations state that childhood ends at 18. It is widely agreed that the adolescent brain finishes developing aged 25. 

For the children who got into that car, even death was not a deterrent. Is that not a tragedy in itself, that death was not a deterrent for five children?

Irish roads are notoriously dangerous. We are halfway through 2026 and the fatalities are higher than they were in the entirety of 2025. The headlines imply these are mainly the fault of children; on e-scooters and driving stolen cars. 

Scroll past the e-scooter headlines and you will see that "the problem of e-scooter injuries is particularly pronounced in families where e-scooters may be used by adults because they do not have other modes of transport". 

These accidents are clustered around areas of high deprivation. As writer and activist Katriona O’Sullivan keeps trying to tell everyone; a childhood of being poor has devastating outcomes.

Sara Cullen: 'Every adult has the power to take a needle and thread and weave some love into our society. The children are watching.'

A quick search of An Gárda Síochána’s Roads Policing Statistics (2025) reveals that 24,461 Fixed Penalty Notices were issued to motorists for driving whilst using their phone. 6,245 for not wearing a seatbelt. Adults! Not wearing seatbelts! 

And wait for it; 169,143 people were speeding. Of those, 129,007 were classed as ‘non intercept’. Who is sitting in the back and watching adults drive like this? In Saturday's Irish Examiner, former Garda sergeant Graham Kavanagh described the number of adult behaviour warnings issued by gardaí in the short period after they were introduced. 

For every adult issued with a behaviour warning, you can be sure there is a child somewhere in the background; both victim to that behaviour and also learning from it. Children learn everything from the adults around them. 

Leadership starts at the top. The leader of the free world is a convicted criminal. And yet, when children cause devastating accidents, the internet turns on them and attacks them and their parents. 

It’s time to look outward at the society we are creating for young people, and as the grown-ups, we must take responsibility.

Every adult has the power to take a needle and thread and weave some love into our society. The children are watching.

• Sara Cullen is originally from Cork and now lives in Scotland. A former child protection worker, she is the author of Blood Red Sky (Arkbound, 2025)