Louth Comhairle na nÓg’s final meeting of 2024 took place in Dundalk where 108 young people from all over the county came together to have their voices heard on local issues. The day was a mixture of workshops, discussions, feedback on 2024 activity of course, some well-earned fun, too.

The day started with breakfast, followed by an ice-breaking ‘Human Bingo’ game. This got the young people interacting and talking to each other. Dundalk Comhairle na nÓg chair, Erin Myers welcomed everyone and introduced the four workshops for the day. there were workshops on storytelling, crafts, drama and discussions.

The young people involved enjoyed the variety of workshops and gave plenty of feedback in discussion groups. The discussions focussed on four key themes selected by the Comhairle members themselves in their planning sessions in the lead up to the event. The young people got to identify issues and propose possible solutions and the issues they chose were education, community, mental health and quality of life.

The attendees work with trained facilitators from the Comhairle na nÓg team to clearly identify the issues and then to identify what can be done to address those problems. Those discussions will form the basis of a workplan for 2025 for Louth Comhairle na nÓg. Sophie Campbell from Dunleer is the current National Executive representative and she outlined the work of the National Executive for 2024 and plans for 2024. School stress is the overall topic for the National Executive, and they are currently exploring mechanisms to support teachers to recognise signs of stress in young people and secondly, provide help for students.