It's Your Right: Ciara Lennon (15) - Aisling Project, Ballymun, and Expression through Music
Ciara Lennon (15), has been a member of the Aisling Project since she was 9, and she is now a young leader there. The Aisling Project has helped her make friends and as a young leader, Ciara now helps out shares what she has learned with the younger children and teenagers. Music, Art and History are her passions, and Ciara is also a singer-songwriter. She writes about her personal experiences and recently entered a competition with a song called 'Happy Attitude' about bullying for Watch Your Space's anti-bullying campaign.
http://www.watchyourspace.ie/
Accompanying Music: 'Mr Magpie' by Ana Gog. http://www.anagogmusic.com/
The Aisling Project, primarily aimed at young people aged 8 to 13, work to prevent early school leaving, benefit the community and advance education by running an after-school intervention project for children at risk.
http://www.aislingproject.com/
For more information on children's rights or the 'It's Your Right' campaign, visit the It's Your right website:
http://itsyourright.ie/
Transcript below:
00:00 - Music.
00:04 - Ciara: My name is Ciara Lennon. I’m 15 and I’m from Ballymun.
00:09 - Music fades up.
00:11 - Ciara: My Mam passed away on the 5th of March 2009 so I’m just living with my Dad at the moment. I have two step-brothers. One’s over in Canada at the moment.
00:22 - Music fades up.
00:25 - Ciara: Coultry, where I live, like, half of Coultry is good and then half of Coultry is bad. Every part of Ballymun is good and then there’s a bad side. But, we’re not all bad like, it’s just like, things, like on occasions. But, it’s heartbreaking for us like, all the good people. Like hearing all the stuff that’s being going on like and people hearing about it and saying, “Oh, I don’t want to go to Ballymun.” But, like we’re not all bad.
00:54 - Music fades up.
00:56 - Ciara: Music and art has been like, basically my life. And history, I just wanted to know history. (laughs) Like the 1916 Rising, I just want to like explore the world and probably sing. I write songs as well. Like ‘Happy Attitude’. It’s about bullying. I’ve been bullied, like, since my Mam died. So, it’s big and it’s just, like I just want to do stuff for others.
01:27 - Music fades up.
01:29 - Ciara: I’ve been in the younger Aisling since I was 9. And, now I’m a Young Leader. We just help the teens with the homework and help them go through their rights and wrongs. The leaders who are older than me, they help me through my right and wrongs and I learn from that. Like, learn how to help other, like, by doing their homework and like, following them, through their lives. Like being a role model.
02:04 - Music fades up.
02:06 - Ciara: I’d know people like around Ballymun now, ‘cause they were in the Aisling Project and I was in the Aisling Project. So, since I’m the Young Leader in this club, I’ve known, like, all the people that have been here so it is good.
02:23 - Music Fades out
02:35 - END