Voices raised at UK-Ireland Youth Forum

I WAS selected to be part of team Scotland to represent young people on behalf of our jurisdiction at the inaugural UK-Ireland Youth Forum. The forum acts as means to represent the opinions of young people across UK and Irish politics, to share perspectives and ultimately influence the policy.

It was hosted earlier this year, at Iveagh House, which is the Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade for the Irish Government. Both the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Helen McEntee, as well as the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, Norma Foley, were in attendance and highlighted importance of this event.

“The Ireland-UK Youth Forum shows what can be achieved when we create meaningful spaces for young people to collaborate,” TD Foley said. “It allows young people in Ireland, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales to have their voices heard on issues that matter most to them. I look forward to seeing the conclusions of today’s discussions, and I know that all of us in Government here in Ireland, as well as our UK counterparts will pay great attention to what our young people bring forward.”

Speaking our language

As a member of the Scottish Youth Parliament, I understand the value of youth voice, so being able to do this beyond a national basis was an experience I was grateful for. Iveagh House and the delegates created an immersive and inclusive space, where I believe all we said was taken onboard, and is truly somewhere positive change can stem from.

There was a variety of things that intrigued me about Ireland and perspectives from the Irish delegates, but an important one was definitely the stress on their native language and the number of people there who were fluent in Gaeilge—the Irish language. When comparing our school curriculum to theirs, they were quite surprised to learn that Scots Gaelic wasn’t a mandatory subject within the school curriculum and that only a set number of schools within Scotland will incorporate the language into learning if not existing as solely Gaelic schools themselves.

This was a segue into many meaningful conversations about the preservation of native languages and how we, in Scotland, would love to see Celtic culture and language at the core of our education in the same way as it is in Ireland. The implementation of it in the school curriculum was one of the main recommendations we put forward for the Leaders’ Summit next month.

This should specifically be considered in Scotland with education being a devolved matter, yet there was a consensus from all the nations that this is essential to ensure the preservation of our culture. It also fits in with Education Scotland’s recent focus on integrating colonial history into the curriculum and works towards promoting Celtic culture.

I had many engaging and interesting discussions surrounding this topic, as the Irish language has recently seen a resurgence with music groups such as Kneecap growing in popularity. For example, university enrolment in courses in the Irish language have risen by more than 220 per cent, within the last year. I hope we see similar trends in Scotland.

Education examples

Aside from the issue of language, there were a number of different topics we were able to discuss across the jurisdictions, which exhibited both similarities and fairly profound differences for young people. University tuition was an issue that many of the Irish delegates found unmanageable, with fees consistently increasing and often being deemed completely unaffordable for many students considering university. This is an example of where Scotland can set the framework for both Ireland and the other UK jurisdictions to learn from.

Education is an area in which I feel Scotland excels. Free university tuition has made getting a degree considerably more feasible for many in Scotland, with increasing statistics showcasing those in deprived areas benefiting from this the most. It made us considerably more grateful for the political climate within Scotland as it stands. The progressive nature of Scotland—a lot of which is built upon youth work and organisations like the Scottish Youth Parliament—is truly allowing for significantly better opportunities for our youth, but ultimately everybody within our country.

A variety of recommendations were put forward and included a report to be presented at the summit later this year, from the topics we discussed. However, there was one in particular that both myself and my group agreed upon as being an unbelievably important topic due to its relevance today.

We spoke about the importance of dismantling the harsh, anti-immigrant rhetoric we’ve seen pushed across all jurisdictions recently. There was consensus from everyone I spoke with that we should be stressing the importance of immigration to UK and Irish society, with some in team Scotland—myself included—having Irish ancestors and being of Irish immigrant stock ourselves. We agreed that it was crucial not to demonise the presence of non-nationals in a country, but rather to change the narrative by stressing just how much they have done for society. I’m so glad that our young people still take such progressive stances with regards to immigration.

Being in Dublin was conclusively a brilliant experience, and I hope to be back in the city again soon. I enjoyed immersing myself in Irish culture, both within the city and at the cultural event hosted at Iveagh House. We also had the chance to learn to play the tin whistle and the bodhrán. I feel this forum is the start of something bigger, and I’m thankful to have been included in spaces where young people’s voices were amplified. This forum provided an opportunity for that representation to exist in national and international contexts. Throughout the forum, the re-occurring idea was that young people were the now, not the future. That’s something that truly resonates with me and the other delegates, especially when we’re together in spaces such as these.

Rural perspectives

Hamish Nott (MSYP for Inverness and Nairn) and I, Ella Quinn (MSYP for Angus South) applied to be part of the Youth Advisory Group (YAG) for this forum in April of 2025 and were successful. Being part of the YAG meant that we were integral in the planning and organisation of the forum, and it also meant that we built up great relationships with the other YAG members.

At the first few meetings, we had the opportunity to introduce ourselves and share the issues that most affected our community. As Hamish and I are both from rural Scotland, we brought up issues such as rural broadband equality, public transport and access to free period products. We discussed these issues, as well as those brought up by other delegates, such as knife crime, mental health, and support for young people in education, all of which are key issues for Scotland as well. It was particularly interesting to hear how forward-thinking Scotland is on a lot of these issues, compared to some other jurisdictions. Although we have a tendency to complain about public services and government funded projects, it was an opportunity for us as delegates to reflect on the progress we have made as a nation.

I run a campaign called PADS (Providing Access, Dismantling Stigma) alongside another MSYP, Mairi Millar. The goal of the campaign is to provide better access to period products in Scottish schools. It was refreshing to hear that Scotland had already made so much progress on the access to free period products in comparison to the other jurisdictions, and that it’s important not to take that for granted. Another example is that the Irish delegates would speak about the insufficient access to transport in rural areas, something, which I know all too well. This allowed us to relate and converse with the Irish delegates about the ongoing barriers for rural young people to get into work and education.

Our next couple of meetings focused primarily on the organisation of the event. Hamish and 1, along with other YAG members, had many ideas for the event, so it was often difficult to condense them into one main goal. I think we all worked pretty well on this, to ensure that the activities we finalised had young people's voices at the centre.

One challenge we faced was balancing our SYP participation work with the UK and Ireland team’s participation framework. At the SYP, we have some of the best youth participation, with the charity being run by a fully youth-led board, which we are both members of. All the different jurisdictions did youth participation differently, so it was integral that we compromised and worked together whilst also maintaining our main ethics and values. We settled on the theme of ‘blue sky thinking,’ which was the term we used to allow young people to come up with the themes themselves.

This meant that instead of the discussions being led by the YAG, they were led by the young people who were present on the day of the forum, ensuring the discussions were truly democratically led. We also helped design how recommendations were made and thought up, and different activities to maximise the engagement of young people.

A few months later, we were on the plane to Dublin. When we got there, we didn’t quite appreciate how large a group of 60 young people actually is. We chatted and made really great friendships with many of them. After the standard photos, we began coming up with our themes and recommendations. It was great for us to see the event really pull together and we were all exceptionally impressed with the level of conversations the young people were having. The YAG was lucky enough to have had a look at the report, which will be shared at the Leader's Summit. Follow @OfficialSYP or @Ella_MSYP on Instagram for more information.

The most valuable part of the event for me was making real connections and relationships with people I had been working with over Zoom for the past year. It was great to see the event all come together and all the great ideas the young people presented being put forward into the report. My hopes for the next forum or opportunity like this are to make it a truly youth-led event and expand the already existing elements of meaningful participation.

An island view

I am Magnus Ratter (17) and I too attended the UK-Ireland Youth forum earlier this year, representing the Shetland Islands. Coming from an island, unlike the others who were selected from this forum and being very involved in sports allowed me to give a very different perspective on young people’s lives across the different jurisdictions there.

I had never been to Ireland before, so Dublin was a very new experience for me. I thought the city itself was exceptional and where we were staying was really homely. The organisers did a fantastic job at making us feel welcome which made the event much more relaxing.

The event itself was fantastic. There was such a range of different young people who had done so many incredible things. It was fantastic to see how passionate everybody there was and how eager they were for change.

I was able to speak from my own experience as a young person from a rural place, on how more funding should be put behind sports and sports equipment for those in schools. I also referred to how sporting opportunities aren’t present enough and should be offered everywhere, which was an issue I’ve seen to be prevalent in my area and affects young people, as well as myself. Many from the cities across the UK and Ireland weren’t able to relate to this to the same extent so I was glad I could offer a more rural and personal perspective on this matter.

During the discussions, topics such as transport and education were heavily brought up. Transport is something that doesn’t affect me as Scotland has Young Scot Cards given to under 22-year-olds for free bus travel. It was interesting to see however, how people from other jurisdictions were affected by this, as they do not have this same programme implemented. It made me realise that I am very fortunate and that I take the free bus travel for granted. My school has around 250 pupils, which was far different to even the other people I met in Scotland, let alone everyone else who was there.

My favourite part of the whole trip was meeting everybody there, whether it was the adults who took care of us, the staff at the event, and of course the other young people who attended it, along with me. I have met lifelong friends who I cannot wait to see again. Going to Ireland was great, I was completely new to the experience, but I was comfortable as everyone else that was there was new too. I am very grateful for how they helped me settle in and made me feel part of their team. The experience was rewarding and I hope I can be part of something like it again in the near future.

Isla Grimes is a Member of the Scottish Youth Parliament for Renfrewshire North