Ms Kate Lynch:

Go raibh maith agat. I am a Northern Ireland Youth Forum executive committee member and I also work as a part-time youth community worker in the north Belfast area of the North of Ireland. Working in the deprived area, I have had first-hand experience of trying to challenge sectarianism and the organisations and paramilitaries, or both, that are targeting young people.

Growing up in my community, sectarianism ran rife and this caused severe riots and civil unrest. I normalised and internalised every stereotype and made a list of everything I thought I could not do and did not deserve due to a religious identity I did not choose to be born with. It is truly heartbreaking to see the cycle can repeat, with the young people in my community facing that same reality, but why is that still our reality? Many give the expression of sectarian perspectives as a result of transgenerational trauma for young people born after the Troubles, but this is not good enough. The ideologies held by the older generation immediately affect young people as they are impressionable and want to be accepted into the community they are born into. The Belfast Good Friday Agreement was monumental as a peacemaking document, but when we look at the language and clauses, it is heavily dependent on the future young people of the North of Ireland. Without good role models, how can we fulfil the legacy of that document? People in power and decision-makers have at times not modelled the behaviours outlined within the agreement to inspire young people to adopt a differing mindset. Governments at times cannot work together and rights-based issues such as an Irish language Act, marriage equality and abortion rights act as a barrier to doing their elected responsibilities and duties. In youth work there is a government-funded strategy entitled Together: Building a United Community, T:BUC. I beg to say our policymakers may benefit in being participants on these programmes and not the young people. This could be an example of the trickle-down impact of our decision-makers and may give us a reason to see the impact of a sectarian mindset in communities.

Paramilitaries continue to have a presence of power and control in communities. Young people are often targets of this, do not feel safe and can at times be influenced to do certain things. How do we get a safer North of Ireland? There are government initiatives helping us as a society to work together to bring about an end to paramilitary influence in the North of Ireland. These groups being able to cause less harm to communities is a key priority. Though I recognise the hardships government has faced due to the pandemic, political deadlock and now the cost-of-living crisis, unfortunately, I see none of these amazing goals outlined being achieved or attempted within my community. As a youth worker rooted in cross-community work and reconciliation, our society and youth settings should be for everybody to be able to access a safe space within their community to seek opportunities. Again, this is unfortunately still a fantasy for many young people in north Belfast. As I live on an interface, I walk to and from work in fear for my life and the lives of young people aged as little as seven years because of paramilitary groups influencing and instructing young people to riot at our gates by throwing fireworks and even throwing weapons like knives. It is easy to make decisions from a chamber or presumptions from your sofa, but to engage with these young people can make a real difference that leads to the creation of meaningful change.

Today, I stand as an example that you can break free from the list of norms young people are being taught. I am giving a voice to those who seem voiceless, and showing them religion does not define your capabilities or how far apart your eyes are. I am asking decision-makers in Ireland as co-guarantors of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement to review their approach to paramilitary influence on communities and how we as a collective can work together to tackle paramilitarism.