MARY Rose O'Sullivan, aged 10 1/2, from Drogheda, was giving her peers an object lesson in how to deal with unwanted intrusions of the press. "You're just nosy, that's all", she informed this writer. "I'm going to get you fired."
The discussion on what children would do if they controlled the government promptly ran aground on the rock of Mary Rose's desire for privacy.
The ISPCC's children's forum may have centred on the key themes of how adults relate to children, what children and young people would do if they were in government and the contribution of children to peace in Ireland, but the young participants were loath to limit themselves to such momentous topics. In some cases, they were loath to talk about them at all.
"We don't want to talk about them, they're silly", announced Mary Rose. Instead, the conversation briefly turned to the relative merits of Boyzone and the relation of soap operas to daily life ("Eastenders prepares you for when you get married and your marriage runs into trouble").
Yet, despite the general urge among some to discuss rock groups and the odd longing glance from others in the direction of the practical session on make up application, some themes consistently emerged from conversations with the young participants.
Bullying and physical assault were a constant, as was a perception that adults simply don't want to listen to children.
"We have the right to have people listen to us," said Simon Brennan (13) from Knocklyon in Dublin. "The Government listens to adults but adults don't listen to us. It's discrimination against children."
The extension of voting rights to children on issues that concern them was suggested: "If there was a vote on whether you could slap children then we should be able to vote on that because it's your body," said Liadha Dix (9) from Rathfarnham in Dublin.
The slapping of children by adults aroused particularly strong feelings among the participants, "If kids are in trouble I wouldn't like to see their parents hitting them," said Conor Gildea (10) also from Rathfamham; "It could really damage them."
"They could ground you or just give out to you, but not hit you all the time," said Sabrina Boyle (11), from Drogheda.
Bullying at school also remains a real and frightening problem for many children. "They run into them, block them, take their lunch money, hit them," says Conor.
"Teachers don't even know sometimes that children are being bullied," said Emma O'Dea (13) from Rathfamham. "They can't really do anything about it unless you tell them."
"Sometimes they're afraid to tell because people call them rats," said Liadha.
One solution put forward by the children was to nominate older children in the school who could be approached by the younger pupils about bullying and who could then approach teachers on their behalf.
School aroused mixed feelings in general: "You get too much work and the teachers boss you around and tell you what to do and what not to do," said Samantha Hewitt (11), from Drogheda. School should be reduced to a couple of days each week with "no uniforms", said Margaret Pyne (13), from Balbriggan.
Fortunately, not all of the participants regarded journalists as nosy snoopers who should be fired for asking awkward questions, although their faith in newspapers was not quite complete.
"I like newspapers once they don't write anything that didn't happen, because it could hurt people's feelings," said Conor.
"If what they write annoys people or upsets them, then they sell more copies," said Emma, demonstrating a fine grasp of the mechanics of newspaper sales.
Finally, this is Liadha on the murder of Veronica Guerin: "She was just in her car. They ruined her life and they ruined her child's life. It was really sad. It makes me really nervous when my mum goes away now. Something could happen to her."