Writing RIGHTS: Jack Merriman (14) - Music & Video: Knowing Your Rights

Jun 10, 2014, 11:22 AM

Jack Merriman (14), plays guitar, mandolin, and banjo, and comes from quite a musical background, with his father being a DJ and former radio presenter and his sister also playing guitar and ukelele. Jack also has a passion for video editing, and often makes videos for his school assignments. He finds that using imagery in video provides a strong visual aid to spread awareness.

Being a student of an international school, Jack is also an advocate for children's rights to a language and culture. Although he doesn't understand other students when they speak their native languages, he loves being immersed in other cultures.

Accompanying Music: 'Can't get Right' by Mark Gavin and Robert Hope

© West Pole Music and Management Ltd.

Fighting Words is a creative writing centre established by Roddy Doyle and Sean Love. http://www.fightingwords.ie/

Transcript Below:

00:00 - Guitar Music 00:06 - Jack: I’m Jack. I’m 14 years old and I’m from Sutton in Dublin. 00:10 - Music 00:12 - Jack: I have an older sister and a younger brother. My sister is 20. She’s going to China for a whole year next year as part of her course, international business. And my brother he’s 12 so he’s just going into first year next year. 00:27 - Music 00:29 - Jack: I play the guitar, the mandolin and the banjo. My sister plays guitar and ukulele and my dad used to be a DJ and a radio presenter as well. I’ve been playing the guitar since I was in third class and I’ve been playing the mandolin since I was in first year. I enjoy playing classical because it sounds so nice and it’s not as sort of frequently played but I also love playing chords on the guitar. 00:59 - Music 01:01 - Jack: Video editing is a massive hobby of mine because when I was in, I think it was third class or fourth class, I went on holidays to Italy and one of my school friends was there as well and we kind of got this idea while we were there to make a comedy YouTube channel called ‘Comedy Carnage’. We had three videos: ‘I need a Sandwich, The Victimiser and like a David Attenborough documentary on spicers but that’s kind of where my video editing thing started. And when I’d gone into secondary school, I’d kind of given up and stopped doing stuff like that. So I started, whenever we got assigned a project in school I would do my best to try make a video of it. And these videos, the teachers always loved them. Like, as part of a CSPE project that we got assigned recently, we had to make an ad for St. Francis’ Hospice. And I made an ad for St. Francis’ Hospice encouraging people to donate. 01:58 - Music 02:00 - Jack: I feel like videos are a very good way of making people aware because you can show these shocking images whereas with words on a piece of paper, you just have to imagine everything in your head. But, when you’re being shown exactly what’s happening, it just seems so more real. And I think that should make people a lot more aware. 02:17 - Music 02:20 - Jack: We did a little bit in CSPE about children’s rights, but, not an awful lot. I think it’s important that young people know their rights because they can be denied very easily your rights and if you know your rights then you can stop them from being denied.

The right to a language, is a good right as well because in the school I go to a lot of people aren’t speaking English as they go around, because it’s an international school, they’re speaking Russian, Spanish, Japanese and all these other languages. And it’s just great to see a place bustling with so many different cultures. So, even if I can’t understand them, it’s just a great thing to see. 03:00 - Music. Fade out. 03:17 - END