‘I still think that there is a stigma regarding opening up about your mental health’
My name is Nicholas Colloton, I’m 19 years of age and I’ve been living in Wexford all of my life.
As I don’t live in any of the main towns like Wexford Town, New Ross, Enniscorthy and Gorey and I live in a village near Rosslare, things can definitely feel isolating at times, and I think this is a sentiment shared with most people not living in one of the main towns.
As far as community clubs and things of that nature there’s really not that much to find if you’re not into sports. But recently the FDYS have started a youth group in Yola Farm so that’s at least something.
In Wexford Town there’s obviously more community clubs/ youth groups and what not. I go to the FDYS in Wexford town and it’s great, they have two groups around my age, The LGBTQ+ support group and the music group I’ve been to both but now I usually go to the music group, I find it very relaxing, there’s food there, drinks there and you’re surrounded by music I would really recommend.
On a slightly different note, there’s also the Wexford Arts Centre – I went to their Gig for Gaza recently and it was amazing. They seem to always have interesting events going on which are listed on their website. Other than that, I’m not sure if there is much community groups outside of sports clubs
As far as the pressures I face I would say it’s the same as any person my age anywhere and there’s nothing really specific to Wexford. But obviously there’s pressures with doing well in education, doing well in life, being able to buy a house in the future, fitting in with the people your age, having a presence on social media. All the usual stuff every young person goes through.
But with education it doesn’t really feel there’s many options after secondary school, most people I know either move to a new county for college or they have to travel quite a bit daily, and it just seems like a lot.
Thankfully the new Wexford College of Further Education and Training was built recently in Whitemill Industrial Estate, Wexford Town and that seems like an amazing place so hopefully this gives students another option for education after level 4 programmes.
There are a lot of issues with young people that I still don’t think are addressed enough, particularly mental health and even though progress has been made I still think that there is a stigma regarding opening up about your mental health struggles and I believe this is especially present in young men who feel like they’ ll be seen as less of a “man” or feel like they don’t even have a place to go to get therapy.
I guarantee you that most people who want to seek out therapy in Wexford and especially in Wexford Town wouldn’t even know where to go it’s advertised nowhere, not even stickers on a lamp post, nowhere. For me if I didn’t have Youth Train help me get in contact with a therapy clinic or my parents didn’t get in touch with the FDYS I probably wouldn’t be in therapy which is something that has helped me.
I think it’s important to advertise these things, especially to young men in Wexford who feel like the boys and men around him would not take their problems seriously.
With young people’s voices being heard in Wexford I wouldn’t outright say that young people are being totally ignored but I wouldn’t say they’re being fully listened to either. Most young people have concerns about the housing crisis, or about the cost of living and these problems aren’t really being dealt with and when these concerns are brought up especially if they’re being brought up by a younger person often times it’s brushed off, and younger people tend to be labelled as “lazy” or “entitled” by older folk for these concerns. And this obviously should be a concern for people living in Ireland regardless of their age group, but the younger and upcoming generations are obviously going to bear the brunt of these problems.
If I’m being totally honest moving out of Wexford would seem great if it was plausible I don’t see myself living here for the majority of my life by choice, it really doesn’t seem like there’s many opportunities here and I would be lying if I said the grass doesn’t look greener anywhere else. It just seems like there’s no life here, it’s quite depressing and that could just be me of course, but again if you live outside of the main towns there’s not much of a social life and employment wise you would have to travel constantly just to fulfil your daily routine.
Nicholas Colloton is a student with Youth Train CTC Wexford