Positive experience for mica march children

“We need your help because our house has mica. Mammy and daddy can't fix it. Will you? Me and my brother drew rainbows on our house with chalk but you can still see all the cracks in the wall. Thank you for reading.”

This was a heart-breaking excerpt from the letter Buncrana's Julia Gallagher (8) wrote to An Taoiseach Micheál Martin. 

Julia and her mum, Roisin, were part of the two-bus delegation of young people and parents who travelled up to Dáil Éireann last Wednesday to press the case for 100% Redress. 

Julia's little brother, Blake, is five and both children attend Scoil Íosagáin in the town.

Speaking to Donegal Live, Roisin said she had thought long and hard about taking Julia up to Dublin.

She said: “Like all parents, we have been trying to keep their children shielded from all of this and all the stress that's involved in having a mica-affected home.

"Last week, Julia and Blake painted pictures of rainbows on the outside wall of the house because we are trying to make a positive out of this for them and they are looking forward to getting new bedrooms, sometime.

"That is the way I want to keep them but it is becoming harder and harder. You cannot shield them from it all the time. There would have been a lot of discussion about mica in May and June, unfortunately, but, at the minute, Scoil Íosagáin is doing well, keeping everything  light-hearted.

“When Lisa [Doherty] and Barry [Kearney] asked me if I wanted to take Julia up to Leinster House, I thought, 'Absolutely, yes', because, as much as I wanted to shield them, I also wanted to the opportunity for Julia to be involved.

"In years to come, she will be able to look back and realise she helped make change happen. I did not take the decision lightly. I did really think about it.

“The day went well and Julia enjoyed it. She met other wee girls and boys and had a great time. They got treats on the bus and Barry, Paddy and Lisa were great to them all day. I was affected by the experience.

"It was very disappointing they did not come out but that did not matter to Julia. She did not see the importance of them coming out or the fact that [Education] Minister Foley only came out on one side of the gates and did not go down the full line of students. 

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“There were not that many there and I felt really offended because they are just ordinary people like we are and I felt dismissed. I felt Julia was dismissed. I felt it was just a photo opportunity and when that was done, they went straight back in,” said Roisin.

The children's mica march trended on Twitter for two days. Roisin said she felt it did get the message across. 

She said: “Maybe even the fact they did not go through all of the children might have gone in our favour as it did not look good for them in the end. Maybe they did have a good think to themselves afterwards. Maybe they thought, 'We could have handled that a bit better'.

“I thought it was really important too to take the children up to Dublin because, for generations and generations we have been told, 'Don't say anything. Don't rock the boat'.  We are a very civil people. We are very nice to everybody and very welcoming and we don't rock the boat too much, which is why a lot of people felt they want the ground to open up and swallow them when Charlie McConalogue was getting booed at the 100% Redress rally in Dublin. 

“I think that is an uncomfortable thing for us people in Donegal. We don't like confrontation and we have never really stood up for ourselves.

"So,  I thought, when I got the opportunity for Julia to go up, 'We can't lie down to things the way we always have any more. We  have to teach our children about standing up for ourselves. That is why we don't have good internet and why we don't have rail, good transport here. That is why we miss out on a lot of the things because we are too civil.'

“Mica is affecting the entire community not just people with mica in their homes. The community is going to be affected  by the poverty and the social depression that is coming down the tracks if we do not get this sorted, which  will inevitably affect everybody,” said Roisin.

Roisin, who is an English teacher at Crana College, said there was plenty of real time learning Inishowen and Donegal teenagers at the minute.

She is co-working on an educational programme covering support, coping skills, politics and social and civil learning. 

“We are able to get real time examples from our society at the minute about how government and politics work and our young people need to learn all about it,” said Roisin.

“For younger children, like Julia, the importance is that, when they are older, they realise they can be part of change. They just don't have to suck it up. 

“The other thing is, we were fighting for something that was already worked for, something that was already Julia's and has been stolen from her. That is the way Sean (Roisin's husband) and I see it. We have been stolen from and we need to fight back to get what we already owned.

“I can't believe the Government would push the decision on 100% Redress back any further than November 9. It has come to the stage now where it could not possibly do that. A lot of stress would be lifted off people if the financial worry was taken away from us. That is what we are all looking forward to but we still have a lot of organising, a lot of work to do after that,” said Roisin.