April 2005
Jamie Hooper, Millstreet Youth Club Candidate, Dáil na Nog 2005 writes:
Dáil na nOg Elections
On the 16th of March, I attended the Comhairle na nóg in the Tralee Youth Centre. This was an evening event where four speakers from three areas of Kerry had to speak for two minutes about two issues which affect Young People today, either Facilities for young people, or acohol and drug misuse.
From each area one candidate was to be elected by the other people there and there was also a “Wild Card” vote which I think the Jundges elected which could be from any area.
The people elected would then go to Dáil na nOg on the following Saturday in Dublin. Two candidates from Gaeltacht areas had been pre-elected.
We each had to have an election slogan. Mine was “Mol an óige agus tiocfidh si”
The judges included two people from Kerry who had gone there before, Fr Jerry Godly, Director of KDYS and a journalist from “Kerryman”.
I was one of the candidates to have to speak but first there was a social meeting in which we had Pizza and drinks in the Youth Café and then we were split into two groups to discuss and debate the topics.
In these groups the teenagers decided what we would like to see being done in our areas. Ideas ranged from Drop-in-Centres to Swimming Pools and even a Roller-Disco.
Then came the time when we had to speak. The Killarney group (my group) was first to speak, and I was third to speak. I had never spoken in public before. My speech was mainly about how the lack of good facilities for young people results in alcohol and substance abuse. Well my turn came around after listening to two okay speeches. I read it as best I could, but I hafe to habit of looking down at the sheet and not into the crowd. When I had finishes Fr Godly congratulated me.
Next up was Shirley Somers from Killarney who did a brilliant speech not having it al written down and mostly in her head. Then it was time for people from the other areas to vote on a ballot card which one from Killarney would go to Dublin. I had a fear that my speech didn’t revolve around the issues enough and that all the others would be far more in depth than mine. My fears were not realised however as candidate after candidate came to the microphone and talked about themselves for two minutes straight.
On and on about why they deserved to have a free trip to Dublin and I thought damn I didn’t sell myself enough. But then I thought sureley with speeches like that they don’t have a chance but one person frim each area had to be elected.
Then the results came out.
From my group, as predicted, Shirley Somers was elected, I was pleased because she had put a lot of work into it.
I was annoyed that the one other person who did speak about the issues did not get elected and I had hoped that if not me, he would get the “Wild Card” but it was neither. Just another one of the people who spoke about himself got the “Wild Card”.
So I left the thing thoroughly disappointed but the man from the Kerryman did day he was happy that some people spoke about the issues.
I am not sure if I’ll try again next year but I suppose it can’t be hard to write a speech about myself, can it?
January 2005
Hi
Just and update on what we have been up to at the youth club. We have been busy since we came back from our Christmas break. Every year KDYS organise inter club competitions. We had two soccer teams, one under18 and under15. We also have a quiz team and there is a chess and drafts day coming up.
All our members did us proud and a good time was had by all. We also attended a disco held be Cordal Youth Club Co Kerry, which was a great night. The next disco is being held by Dromtariffe Youth Club in March. So we are really looking forward to that.
There was a training day held in Tralee. Sox pf us went. There were arts and crafts, computers, drama, out-door sports and co-operative games. It was absolutely a fantastic day.
We learnt lots and I thought you might like to try some of the games. We had some laugh doing them. ENJOY!!!!!!
EILEEN MURPHY
