Mayo students benefit from EU-funded initiative

Two very confident young speakers addressed a council meeting in Castlebar earlier this month, showing quite clearly that a particular education programme backed by Mayo County Council is having a huge impact on the next generation.

Nevin Lynch and Emer Cronin attended the September meeting of the Planning and Corporate Development Strategic Policy Committee to talk about their experiences, following on from their win of the Graduate.ie Student Quiz competition, which is a Government, Local Government and EU funded Citizenship and Democracy Programme for young people.

Former St Gerald’s College student, Nevin Lynch, from Breaffy in Castlebar, told the forum: “I won the trip to Strasbourg in 2024, which was a great trip in itself, but the best part was the opportunity it gave us to engage and be inspired, as it showed how the political side of life works. You come away from the experience a different person.

“It was just fantastic meeting everybody on the trip, but the main highlight was seeing the EU Parliament itself and sitting in there with hundreds of students from all the different countries in the EU and hearing them speak. I wanted to make the most of the trip and was one of the students to put up my hand and I was lucky enough to be picked to speak. The feeling that went with that, I felt like Jack Coyne! 

"It is just unbelievable to have that experience under my belt, to have spoken in the EU Parliament. There was such a buzz then after as we were all together in the hotel talking for seven hours straight until 4am, about all the things going on in our various communities. It gave us such a connected feeling.” 

Nevin said he was so inspired after the trip that he took on Politics and Society as one of his study subjects. 

“I went on to do a citizen project afterwards because of my experience, I presented it to my school and all the lads were so interested to hear about it and what we learned about how local government and democracy works. The programme just gives you so much development, and that is a side of it that tends to go unnoticed.” 

Nevin added: “I spent six years in a school with just lads and it would be very easy to fall into the trap of toxic masculinity in such an environment, but a trip like this gives you a chance to develop reasoning, and that is what this trip did for me. I knew afterwards, this has changed me. For me, it is all about community engagement and I have taken that with me to this day.” 

Nevin went on to say he is now a regular at Mayo Pink Ribbon events and has also joined four university societies in his first year at third level. 

“I would not have done any of this without the trip happening. It has been a chain reaction, just from the fact that programme was there and inspired me.” 

Emer Cronin from Ballyvary and a student at St Joseph’s Secondary School in Castlebar, was also a winner in the competition in 2024 and equally enjoyed her trip to the EU Parliament.

“That trip was one of the most amazing things that happened to me in secondary school. Going to the EU parliament and meeting all the other students from these different countries that I would not really have thought about before, countries like Latvia, Cyprus, and then hearing their opinions, it makes you realise that although you are just one person in a small country, we are all still connected to each other as part of the EU.” 

Teacher Marie Moran, who accompanied the students to the SPC meeting, said that the graduate.ie programme winners come from all over the country, leading to new friendships built over the course of the EU trips. She said the young people do a great job representing their town, family and school when in Europe and praised the programme as something that really inspires young people “to find out what is done locally, nationally and then Europe-wise, in terms of government and democracy". 

Mayo County Council Director of Services Siofra Kilcullen pointed out that the programme began back in 2001 and was originally promoted in Mayo by Martin Heneghan (who also attended the SPC meeting) and Joe Loftus, while retired Director of Services John Condon was also a great advocate.

“This programme has been quietly running here for 20 years, and its goal is to promote civic engagement among young people and to help them become aware of how things work, as so many don’t understand what the public bodies and local authority do. Mayo is one of only eight local authorities in Ireland involved in the programme so far, and it has had an enormous impact for students here.” 

Ms Kilcullen said she wants to get the word out about the programme and would love to see more young people getting involved. 

The programme, which is open to students in classes between second and fifth year, runs a weekly online quiz between September and April each year, at the end of which a computer randomly selects weekly winners and the relevant schools/second-level students are notified when a prize has been won.

The total value of prizes won to date is approximately €700,000 and these have included trips to Strasbourg, Paris and Washington DC, as well as computer hardware and software, tablet devices, smartphones and games consoles.

Students can register to participate at any time during the academic year by logging on to the www.graduate.ie website.

• Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.