Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Ulster teen climate activist boosted by Greta support
AN Ulster climate activist who has protested alone for 17 weeks has been buoyed by a wave of international support after her tweet was shared by teen campaigner Greta Thunberg.
Anna Kernahan, 17, has been striking at the Spirit of Belfast every Friday since September to protest inaction on global warming.
Sometimes she’ll join monthly student strikers – but mostly she’s by herself.
After her 17th lone demo last Friday, the schoolgirl posted a photo, adding: “Last strike of the decade. Still alone.”
Overnight, and with Greta’s re-tweet, Anna’s message has been shared 1,400 times and has received 11,000 “likes”.
She said: “I woke up and I had already gained 900 followers, 500 comments – half of them telling me ‘climate change is rubbish’ or ‘you’re just doing it for attention’ [but] I am literally trying to raise awareness!”
She added: “[It’s] phenomenal because people are finally taking notice and will hopefully join me.”
Anna said it took “surprisingly little” to set up the Belfast chapter of Fridays for Future – a global student walk-out started by Greta in 2018.
She is the only member in Northern Ireland.
Like a lot of student activists, Anna’s been told to put down the placard and go back to school but she said her three-hour protests are productive.
Anna added: “Just because I’m school striking doesn’t mean I don’t care about my grades – if you were school striking just to get out of school you’d stop pretty quickly because it’s like having a fulltime job, it takes over your whole life.”