Mastering new tech at Seanchaí
WITHIN the walls of the Seanchai in Listowel there is now a space dedicated to digital creativity for young people.
Foróige Techspace Listowel held their open house last week to showcase equipment and facilities available to the youth. The space, which was originally a meeting place for a local Foróige Club in 2010, is now equipped with laptops, desktops, whiteboards, printers, cameras, greenscreens, virtual reality, 3D pens, DJ mixers and more.
Sharon and Eugene Moriarty started the local Foróige Club in 2010 which added the Techspace in 2015. They are also being helped by their daughter and club member, Eibhlís.
“Techspace allows members to use their own initiative and creativity. It is mentored and supervised, however, members are encouraged to be independent,” they explained.
“Robotics, photoshop, film editing, sound engineering and STEM are all areas where projects can be created within the space. This is a space open for creativity.”
Foróige, which is the largest national youth organisation in Ireland, has 56,000 members nationwide. Listowel facilitates programmes in techspace and leadership. The Techspace Club meets Wednesday and Saturdays, for 10-18 year olds.
The new equipment and facilities were made available through the National Youth Equipment Grant distributed by Kerry Educational Training Board and a grant from Inver.