Áras an Uachtaráin holds 1916 event for children

James Connolly would have been impressed with the youth of Ireland and their ambitions for a better country.

Connolly’s demands were simple: “We only want the Earth.”

Similarly, the children of Ireland want the Earth – or at least that little corner of it they call home – to be a better place.

Children want greater equality, the right to live in peace and an end to poverty. These demands are to be expected along with an end to homelessness and more emphasis on mental health.

More specifically, the children of Ireland want an end to the “unfair” points race, better sex education, more protections for the Irish language and an end to smoking in their vicinity.

All of these and many more demands are contained in the report Children Seen and Heard 1916-2016, based on a national consultation with the children of Ireland.

Time capsule

A copy of it was put into a time capsule which was made from the remnants of a shell fired over the GPO on Easter Monday to commemorate the centenary of the Easter Rising.

The capsule was buried in the garden of Áras an Uachtaráin, which was turned into a children’s playground for the day.

The marquee was erected in a summer deluge on Tuesday, but the rain stayed away for the afternoon. Children played among the giant inflatable balls, the giraffe and orangutan puppets and the roundabouts. The Artane Band provided a musical backdrop.

“Are you enjoying yourselves?” President Michael D Higgins asked them. When the answer came back in the affirmative, but not quite with gusto, he laughed. “That’s a bit more reassuring, but you could do it with more enthusiasm.”

A ceremony was also held to remember the 40 children who died in the Easter Rising in which 40 lanterns were brought by 40 Irish children to the stage. The names were also called out, with the author and broadcaster Joe Duffy acting as compere for the ceremony.

For many of the 200 children aged between eight and 18 at the event, an invitation to the garden party was the golden ticket, a reward for engaging with the commemorations this year.

It was not all about demands. Tracy Murphy from Offaly enumerated many of the things young Irish people feel pride about in their country: its literature, culture, history, democracy and language.

“We as young people are proud of how far our country has come in the last 100 years. We are proud to be citizens of Ireland,” she said, reflecting sentiments many adults often find hard to state lest they be accused of excessive optimism.

Future players

Mr Higgins told those gathered, “You are the present. It will be you who will decide the future.”

He praised the Government for having the foresight to ask the children of the nation what they thought about the future. Children, he said, still have a sense of imagination and a sense of wonder. They are not afraid to call out the negative aspects of society.

The President also spoke of the pride many young people had in their country and he invoked the Irish phrase féin mheas (self-respect).

“It is very interesting what we got out of 2016. It is to the credit of everyone involved in it that there is a perceptible rise in national confidence after a particularly difficult time in the country,” he said.