Gaisce Silver Medal and LikeMinded Initiative
Young people in schools across Ireland are coming together to celebrate the Irish Flag as part of a partnership between Gaisce – The President’s Award and the Thomas F. Meagher Foundation. Many secondary school students undertaking a Gaisce Award are choosing to plan activities to celebrate the Foundation’s annual Flag Day, March 15, as part of their Award. Flag Day aims to promote pride and respect for the Irish Flag, while encouraging young people to raise money for a charity of their choice.
One such school celebrating the Irish Flag is St. Joseph’s College, an all-girls school in Lucan, Co. Dublin. Six 5th year students, Emily Carey, Julia Pawlus, Amy Coleman, Hamdi Qasim, Maeve Montgomery and Grace McGoldrick are the Gaisce participants on the school’s Flag Day Committee.
“They are busy planning a schedule of events celebrating diversity and inclusion all in the name of honouring the symbolism of the Irish Flag”, says Deputy Principal and President Award Leader Catherine Bligh, who has been supporting the group through their Gaisce Award.
GOING FOR SILVER
The group took on their Thomas F. Meagher Foundation activities to become more involved in their community as part of working towards their Gaisce Silver Awards. Gaisce is a self-development programme for young people between the ages of 15-25, which is proven to enhance confidence and wellbeing through participation in personal, physical, community and team challenges.
It is a direct challenge from the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins to all young people to dream big and realise their potential. To fulfil their Silver Award, the girls are required to dedicate at least one hour a week each towards community-based activities, physical recreation and developing personal skills.
FLAG DAY ACTIVITIES
In the lead up to March 15, the girls will speak at each of the year group assemblies about the origins of the Tricolour, its symbolism and importance for today and invite all students to engage in active citizenship as a celebration of the Irish Flag. The students will sell lapel pins – the proceeds of which they will donate to a charity chosen by the school body. Last year’s
Flag Day Committee successfully fundraised €582 to donate to St. Joseph’s Ward, in Crumlin Children’s Hospital.
When choosing the theme for their
Flag Day, echoing the origins of the Irish Tricolour in 1848, the group decided to focus on celebrating the diversity of the school population. A survey to identify each student’s country of origin was carried out to see how many different nationalities attend the school.
Speaking about the survey results, Ms Bligh says, “The girls were surprised to discover that there are approximately 50 nationalities represented by the 900 students in the school. Countries include Poland, Libya, Kosovo, Italy, Japan, Ghana and France. A Flag Day display has been created in the school in recognition of the school’s diverse student population, with the Tricolour at the centre and the flags of some of the other 50 countries around it.”
On the day the girls will raise the flag in the school grounds and hope to live stream the event on the school’s social media to each classroom. They will also host a non-uniform day with everyone encouraged to dress in their national colours. Other planned activities include reading out a poem for which a member of last year’s Flag Day Committee won a Regional Award, and holding a competition for the best dressed person on the day.
The group will also use the Irish Flag as a backdrop to display the achievements of current and former students from the school who have represented Ireland in the areas of sports and social innovation. They will display ‘A wish for Ireland’ for 2019 which includes topical issues such as an end to homelessness, a solution to Brexit, climate change and an improvement to nurses’ pay and conditions.
TEAMWORK
Many of the members of the Flag Day Committee did not know each other prior to taking part as they are from different classes and some of them are new to the school. Co-ordination of Flag Day activities required them to spend a lot more time together making them work effectively as a team which was important to the success of the project.
“The girls agreed that time management was an essential skill they developed as it takes a lot of coordination and effort to put their plans into action. Incorporating the activities into their Gaisce Silver Awards has been a great success; the Committee members often spend more than the weekly hour required for Gaisce working on the Flag Committee to meet the Flag Day deadline”, says Ms Bligh.
LOOKING AHEAD
To meet the 26 weeks of activities that a Gaisce Silver Award requires, the group will devise more activities to promote inclusion and diversity within the school. The Committee’s planned activities include creating a permanent Flag Day display in the school and promoting the Scholarship and Awards Programme of the Thomas F. Meagher Foundation, based on the theme of ‘What it is like to live in Ireland in 2019 and what does the Flag’s message of peace mean to me’. Interested students can submit an essay, poem, piece of art or video by April 12, 2019. The Committee will collaborate with the schools’ English, History and Art departments to encourage students to research and carry out more project work about the Tricolour. The girls will also visit the permanent exhibition of the Irish Flag in the GPO and are working on having a plan in place for next year’s group.