Words by Smiley Team
With its natural beauty, Killarney in County Kerry, Ireland, appears to be all peace and tranquillity. But a group of schoolboys at St Brendan's College Killarney noticed this is not entirely the case.
Alarming levels of violent crimes in their community caught their attention and led them to start tackling the problem themselves.
“We see violence every day in our community, particularly from young men,” 16-year-old pupil Mark tells Smiley News, “and so our whole class agreed we just needed to do something about it.”
With the support of their teacher and non-profit Young Social Innovators, they launched a project called Semagainstviolence, mobilising pupils to make their community more peaceful.
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The class of 22 4th year students have organised a day against violence to raise awareness. They intend to distribute flyers in pubs and bars that will educate people about the support available. They also hope to organise a fundraiser for a local women’s charity.
It’s a vital cause that they all care deeply about, having seen the impact of violence in their neighbourhoods. Just a couple of doors down from Mark’s house, a man with mentally health problems was brutally beaten up and left with serious injuries.
Bobby, aged 15 says: “I just wish people would actually do something about this problem, instead of just talking about it.”
When they consider where the anger and violence in their community stem from, the boys noticed it worsened with the onset of Covid-19.
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“Lockdown is a big part of this, I reckon,” says Bobby. “Because people weren’t socialising as much.”
Besides alcoholism and drug abuse, they believe the problem is rooted in a lack of awareness about support available.
Bobby’s classmate, Gearoid explains: “In our opinion, not enough people are being taught about ways to deal with their anger. We did mindfulness and meditation for two weeks in school, and that really helped some of the students to channel their anger.”
Support the students via Semagainstviolence's Instagram account.
