DCU students and youngsters from Ballymun formed a very peaceful alliance after taking part in a friendly battle based on the D-Day landings of World War II.
The young Ballymunners were invited to play a role in a mock United Nations War at the Northside university earlier this month, during which they were helped by DCU students and volunteers from The Reco youth centre in Ballymun.
And while a UN war may sound a bit startling, this project had nothing but a positive effect on the kids who took part, with one even joining the scouts afterwards such was the motivational influence on him.
Adam O’Farrell a third year student who attends school at St Aidan’s CBS, Whitehall, explained why he took part in the project.
“I liked it because I got to find out what it was like to be in the United Nations,
? he said.
“I got to be on the American side which I really enjoyed.
“I learned that team work was a major aspect of being in the UN and that when a decision wasn’t agreed upon we would all take a vote, pass the results of the vote onto the acting president who would then go on to make a decision. I really enjoyed it and learned loads of really cool stuff.
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Youth worker, Rachel Keenan, said that during the project youngsters took part in mock negotiations and strategically devised war tactics in an effort to win the war.
“It was a great informal way of getting young people interested in education,
? she added.
The project was spearheaded by Kevin Daly, a second year international relations student in DCU and founder of the university’s Model United Nations, and Sean Tyrrell a third year Economics Politics and Law student.
Tyrrell – a Ballymun native who’ll be running as an independent candidate in next year’s local elections – acted as go-between for both camps, feeding information to the American and German cabinets and ensuring everybody knew what was going on.
He also took on the roles of various ambassadors when the respective cabinets requested international or UN advice or assistance.
Tyrrell, who also volunteers at The Reco, said:
“We wanted to get DCU more involved in the community and that’s why we decided as a DCU society to do this project, to get more involved with the local community of Ballymun because it really improves the kids’ public speaking skills, strategic ability and their ability to work together in a team.
“Basically it was a nice thing to do and we got just as much joy out of it as the kids did. The United Nations is all about building bridges and the committee of the Model United Nations all felt that there has been a gap between DCU and the local community of Ballymun and this is our way of basically bridging that gap.
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Colleague Kevin Daly said the project was grea ta learning experience.
“The excitement was literally oozing out of the kids doing this project,
? he added.
“They learned how they can influence history within the simulation and that’s why they got so interested. It also gives them further interest in life in terms of what they want to do once they get to Secondary School and then college.
“The project was beneficial to us at DCU’s Model United Nations but more importantly to the kids.
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To give the kids as much encouragement as possible there was prizes for all participants on the project with special awards presented to representatives from both sides.
Kevin Joyce and Jerome Kavanagh won Best Delegate for the USA and Germany respectively.