Ireland, it's about time you cherished the children, all your children

I was about 10 when I first read the Proclomation from the 1916 Easter Rising. The part of the following sentence mentioning children stood out like a beacon for reasons unbeknown to me, it made feel safe. It read"The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and all of its parts, cherishing all of the children of the nation equally and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past."

In an innocence that is only absolute in children I felt that no matter what, my country would look after me. I had little understanding at that time that the Prolocmation is different to the current constitution. A full understanding of the difference between the two didn't come until I attended secondary school. I felt that despite living in the North, the six counties, Northern Ireland, whatever you want to call it, that this statement still applied to me.

Following Mary Harney's decision not to roll out the cervical cancer vaccine for young girls I questioned the governments willingness to cherish it's children. Then came along the Ryan Report, the document which showed the States facilitation of constant and consistent child abuse. Then came the cuts to special needs assistants in our schools, then came the cuts at Crumlin childrens hospital and I'm sure there are other instances of this. There is a trend developing here.

I feel a sense of shame, a shame that our current government and those before them did not, and do not, appear to want to cherish its children. They have consistently failed to uphold the vision of the men and women from 1916, for if it weren't for them we may not be in charge of our own destiny as a nation.

As an Country we need a change in our mindsets, we need to stop sitting back and thinking that change is beyond our control; we need to take what's rightly ours, our country's reputation, its values, it's characteristics, its fibre but above all its destiny. As individuals and as a country, I believe we can create an island we are proud off, an island we want to live on, an island that cherishs equalitty, tolerance and a society which is fair.

My grandmother tells me often that all my aunts and uncles are still her children no matter how old they get. It's on that basis that Ireland should take action now to cherish it's children from cradle to grave and be a nation that we all can be proud off.