Ms Saoirse Exton:

It is very interesting because in every single other sector of society, discrimination is illegal, but it is not in school. Why is the legislation different and why is there an exception purely because of ethos? What does ethos have to do at all with what we wear? It is an absolute atrocity what is happening with the uniform policies. I spoke before about how uniforms are down two gendered lines.

When I began wearing trousers, I got an amount of stares from teachers and peers alike, looking at my legs, because I was not wearing a skirt. In Limerick, we have ankle-length skirts, which in my school are bright red and absolutely beautiful.

In terms of decolonisation, my background is in climate activism so, obviously, that is everything for me. The sole reason the climate crisis is a thing is because of this colonialist attitude where the white, cisgender, heterosexual male is the norm, is the default, and everything else is the other. That is reinforced by the curriculum, as Ms Neville said. In my junior certificate history book, there were three women pictured, and one of them was simply associated with Michael Collins, so there was nothing in the curriculum about her and it was just her image. It is very frustrating to be a young woman and to see this, and to be an activist and to see there are so many narratives that are just taken away from us.

My mother is from Australia. As a white Australian, obviously, the history of the people with my colour of skin is, unfortunately, one of intense violence and erasure. I remember that in primary school we were told that indigenous Australians did not fight back, which is entirely incorrect. It is incredibly frustrating to have these narratives that we are told and that are reinforced in every single subject.

It is really frustrating because in a country like Ireland, we have such a diverse history in recent years, but we also have such a rich culture in terms of language and mythology. I have a big interest in mythology and I have been reading books on how, linguistically, we are connected to Europe and all of these places, which is really interesting, but we do not learn about any of this. We learn about the European narrative, which is very unusual and strange to me considering we were colonised. Why have we taken on this colonial attitude? Why have we erased our own past in ignorance just to fit a narrative which has damaged our own culture? It is incredibly detrimental because, in terms of climate change, people do not tend to have empathy for anyone else. We see this incredible attitude towards Ukraine but it is not given towards other countries such as Palestine, for instance, that are undergoing an onslaught right now.

Everything comes back to the education system. If we have an intersectional education system that takes everyone and everything into account, we will have an intersectional society that takes everyone and everything into account.