Young Mayo woman makes waves in Leinster House

A young Mayo woman made waves at the Dáil na nÓg assembly in Leinster House this week.

Sinéad Murray was chosen as one of Mayo Comhairle na nÓg/Youth Council representatives to sit at this week's assembly.

Dáil na nÓg, Ireland’s National Youth Parliament, now in its 22nd year, provides a platform for young people to speak about and make recommendations on the issues that most affect them.

The north Mayo TY student spoke to The Mayo News about her experience.

“It was such an amazing feeling, I was nominated because I was Mayo Comhairle na nÓg’s previous national executive so for me anyway it was a way we got to display our work over the past two years, so it was just such a sweet and amazing thing that we were able to do” said Sinéad.

First getting involved with the local youth council in 2021, it was a school teacher that suggested the idea to Sinéad.

“I had no idea about Comhairle, a teacher came to me and said, ‘hey, you seem to be very good at speaking, I think this will be a really good opportunity for you’, I just said ‘sure, I'll try it out’,” laughed Sinéad.

_{Comhairle na nÓg representative's at Dáil na nÓg}

Comhairle na nÓg are child and youth councils in the 31 local authorities of the country, which give children and young people the opportunity to be involved in the development of local services and policies.

She then got involved with the National Executive in 2022 for the 2022/23 term, an experience she described as ‘amazing’.

“There was one delegate from each county, so it was just so cool to meet everyone from a different county.

“Just to hear different people's experiences across the country, and all people's opinions, and then, you know, you make friends with people who are on your train on the way up or who get in at a similar time; it was all amazing.

Speaking about the Dáil na nÓg assembly, Sinéád said the umbrella topic of discussion was mental health, with the related sub-topics of body image, mental health services, and school stress.

“I was lucky enough in the Dáil chamber to bring up a point about mental health services in rural Ireland and how they're lacking, which was just the most surreal experience on earth, I never thought, especially at my age, to be able to do that,” she shared.

Despite enjoying the opportunity, Sinéad said she was ‘so scared’ to speak upon the topic at the assembly.

‘It was a spur of the moment thing, they were asking people’s opinions’ and when I Sinéad heard the topic of mental health services in rural Ireland, as someone who's from Mayo, she decided to speak up.

“I mentioned Bangor Erris and Belmullet, how there's nothing around there for them,” she said.

_{Sinéad and other representative's in Leinster House}

Even though Sinéad excelled in her Dáil experience, she does not see herself diving into the political world.

Calling the political career ‘a lovely root’, she said she doesn’t think it would be her ‘cup of tea’.

“I would prefer to go into activism, like all about human rights and all that kind of stuff.

“Topics that I would be very passionate about are equality, mental health and rural Ireland, but also the topic that was voted in for the new National Executive was school stress, which is such an important topic as well.

“I’m happy with any of the topics, as they’re all ones that need to be brought to light,” she concluded.

For more information on Dáil na nÓg and Comhairle na nÓg, see their website.