Ms Dearbhla Holohan:

I will comment on the Brexit issues that were brought up. Before Covid hit, the young people we were working with all along that Border corridor were really concerned about Brexit. It was a hot topic and the anxiety was again passed down through the generations. I grew up very close to the Border in County Donegal. I attended Lifford-Clonleigh Resource Centre as a young person. I recall my experience of what it was like to go to Strabane to go swimming on a Sunday. There was a checkpoint you had to go through just to go to the swimming pool. I recall not really understanding what that was about. Young people have heard stories for years and years about how it affected people's everyday lives. They just did not know what to expect and how bad it was going to be. Then you had all the rhetoric and the different voices in the media to contend with as well. Some young people chose to switch off from it - they thought they could not deal with it because it was just too much. Others were concerned about the practicalities of visiting family members on the other side of the Border. If a family is separated, you might have a parent living on each side of the Border. There are a huge number of practicalities there. Rural transport is awful, as members will know, so it is very hard for the young people we work with in Donegal to get about.

When Covid hit, a lot of the tension about what Brexit would mean from day to day was put on ice. Young people are struggling to try to process everything that has happened recently, including the cost-of-living crisis, the war in Ukraine and climate issues. It is a huge amount for anyone to process. That is why spaces like Strive are so important because you can come in and have those conversations and not be afraid to ask any questions you might want to ask about it. There are no stupid questions. People can vent their opinions as well. They can ask what is the protocol and what does it mean. It is a very complex issue that is sort of bandied around in conversation. If you turn on the radio, you cannot go five minutes without hearing it said at the minute. There is a lot of that noise out there.

How to get positive stories of young people into the media has been an ongoing issue for years. Include Youth collaborated on a research project about it years ago. If you were to pick up that piece now, I would say very little has changed. There is goodwill in the media but again you have to respond to your audience and what they want to hear. Sometimes our stories are not going to be what makes it up to the top of the news. Social media has a place and we are very mindful of trying to put positive stories out there about young people on our social media feeds. You will get parents following those and young people who are supportive of the organisation doing likewise, so you are probably preaching to the converted much of the time. We do not want to thrust a young person into the media glare either.

During Covid, our social media was very active. That was one of the ways we used to have a bit of fun with young people and get messages out there as well. In addition to the serious messages about staying at home, washing your hands and all that sort of stuff, there were fun activities to try to lift the mood a wee bit. However, young people were very aware they were being blamed - sort of named and shamed - in the media and on social media as being out at parties and breaking lockdown rules. If you look at who has been fined for that, we know where the blame sits in reality. It did a lot of damage, particularly in the early days.