Rights of passage

Lots of students get decent opportunities in transition year, but a lucky few go one step farther and get a chance to participate in something remarkable. How about making a film with John Boorman, for example?

Or collaborating on a writing project with Roddy Doyle? Creating a work of art with Robert Ballagh is an experience that even established artists would jump at. These are all opportunities that have come the way of TY students over the past few years thanks to an initiative spearheaded by Amnesty International.

Voice Our Concern is a project that attempts to raise awareness about human-rights issues through creative media. Since 2003 films have been made, poetry has been written and plays have been performed by TY students. All of them had a human-rights theme, and all were done in collaboration with people who have had success in those areas.

This year 10 schools from around the country explored aspects of human rights with Ballagh, Vivienne Roche, Tony Crosbie and other artists. The girls from Presentation Secondary School, Warrenmount, in Dublin 8 were excited to hear they'd be working with Ballagh.

"I think the girls were a little bit overawed at first," says Gwen Brennan, a teacher at the school. "Robert engaged very well with them, though, and they relaxed after a while. I think it helped that he had a very definite idea about what he wanted to do with them."

The group decided to focus on travel as a human right and came up with the idea of making passports for themselves and for people around the world who couldn't get them.

They took the issue very seriously, as student Zara McGrath explains. "Just think of not being able to leave your country. We can go on holiday just for the sake of it, but these people are prisoners in their own homes. Often, their lives are in danger in their own countries, but they have no right to leave."

Ballagh, who visited the school a number of times, set tasks to be completed by his next visit. Art teacher Jennifer Gleeson was impressed. "He gave us a lot of ideas," she says. "The students were brilliant as well. They spent a huge amount of time working on the project after school."

Students drew portraits of themselves for their passports. They trawled the internet for stories of people who were denied the right to travel.

"I made a passport for a Vietnamese man I read about," says student Sarah Larkin. "He was put in prison just for speaking his mind." "We came up with a list of rights after drawing the portraits," adds Amy Burke. "We wrote them into the passports."

Discussion wasn't just limited to the situation in countries abroad, however. Ballagh's own famous portrait of Dr Noël Browne sparked discussions among the girls about human rights here in Ireland.

"That was one of the great things about the project," says Gleeson. "I thought the whole thing gave them a wonderful insight into the plight of people today."

The finished passports were on display at the school during its annual One World Week. "They looked really good," says Linda Conlon. "The portraits turned out very well." Zara adds: "It really was a project worth doing. I was in the Amnesty group, but I had never done art before. I'm planning on doing it for the Leaving Cert now."

You can find out more about Voice Our Concern on www.voiceourconcern.org. Work by students at Warrenmount and other participating schools is on show at Dublin City Council Civic Offices, Wood Quay, Dublin 8, from Tuesday, May 8th to Friday, May 11th, 9am-5pm