Awards and Scholarships and Citizenship
What it means to be Irish in the 21st Century through active citizenship was the theme of the 2017 Thomas Meagher Foundation School Awards and Scholarship Programme in Association with the Kerry Group.
While the 2016 inaugural awards focused on the centenary of 1916 and the birth of the nation, in 2017, participating schools were being urged to turn their attention towards the next 100 years. People living in Ireland today, no longer necessarily have the same ethnic or cultural backgrounds and the Foundation is encouraging the young people of Ireland, irrespective of ethnicity, creed or gender to work together towards common goals.
“As well as celebrating the flag and its origins and its meanings, we asked schools to also celebrate the new Irish,” explains Senator Mark Daly. “On St Patrick’s Day we celebrate 70 million Irish all over the world but we must also remember to celebrate those who now make Ireland their home,
who may not be born in Ireland but who consider themselves Irish.
“That is the key message about Flag Day. We must broaden our view of what it means to be Irish in this most challenging time when the ideas of diversity and acceptance and tolerance are very important as some countries go down a route which is far from tolerant.
“We must understand that our view of Irishness must adapt in the same way that Meagher spoke about an Irishness that was inclusive rather than exclusive,” he said.
The project allowed students to work together for a shared vision of not only learning about the Irish flag and its message of peace and unity but of raising funds to help people in their locality and wider afield.
Last year 300,000 flag badges were dispatched to 723 second level schools across the country, which were sold by students with the proceeds going to assist worthy causes.
“These badges represent pride, respect and peace, respect for our communities, other cultures and reflecting on just how far we have come since the first tricolour was raised,” adds Senator Daly.
To have a chance of securing one of the seven one year university scholarships on offer, schools were asked to participate in three ways;
To promote pride and respect for the flag in their schools and communities and to educate students about the protocol around the flag and its meaning
To sell badges to support community projects of the school’s choice
and to celebrate the New Irish.
Individual students from the winning schools were offered a one year university scholarship thanks to the Foundation’s Education Partners; University of Limerick, University college cork, NUI Galway, Dublin City University, University College Dublin, Trinity College, Dublin and NUI Maynooth.
The Foundation partnered with the Ceann Comhairle’s Office in Leinster House which teamed up with Trocaire to launch a Project For Africa to raise funds for a water conservation and irrigation programme in Tigray in Northern Ethopia.
Schools were given the option of contributing towards the Ceann Comhairle’s Project from their funds raised.
We must broaden our view of what it means to be Irish in this most challenging time when the ideas of diversity and acceptance and tolerance are very important as some countries go down a route which is far from tolerant We must understand that our view of Irishness must adapt