Rebecca Dobbin Donaghy

The Agreement 25 Conference was one that I know I will look back on in years to come in disbelief that I was able to attend. Being able to sit and listen to global leaders, people who I have seen and heard about since I was a child recounting the stories from 25 years ago which allowed me to grow up in a Northern Ireland entirely different to the one my parents did was humbling. It is difficult to even put into words what it was like to experience Senator George Mitchell’s address first-hand.

But as much as it was an absolute honour to attend the conference, and as much as it was an unforgettable experience, as a young person, it was also uncomfortable at times to say the least.

From when I first walked into the marquee reception at Queen’s early on Monday morning, the absence of young people and fellow students was glaringly obvious. The addressing and readdressing of the fact that “young people are our future” and the importance of how Queen’s University is churning out these intelligent and innovative young people was falling on the ears of an audience who, for the vast majority, hadn’t been ‘young people’ for the best part of at least 20 years.

Not only in the audience, but in the countless speakers over the conference, students were lacking. In fact, only two student representatives appeared on the Whitla Hall stage across the three days; current Students’ Union President, Emma Murphy and current Postgraduate Students’ Officer, Jamie-Lukas Campbell. The lack of young voices was noted by Alastair Campbell, during a live recording of The Rest Is Politics podcast with Rory Stewart on Day 2 of the conference.

Perhaps the most difficult listen was on the morning of Day 3, when speakers and panels of middle-aged adults discussed the countless amazing opportunities the current students of Queen’s and other Northern Irish universities will be able to avail of following their graduation. A Northern Ireland of endless opportunities, of jobs, of low unemployment; a real paradise! Except it’s not.

The fact of the matter is that a third of graduates here are going to emigrate. When we talked about emigration, of the very few students in attendance at the conference, not even one of the five of us intended on remaining in Northern Ireland following graduation. The unemployment rate in Northern Ireland is extremely low but this is disguised by the fact that large portions of the population are economically inactive, and therefore not counted as unemployed. The reason for swathes of young people emigrating is the fact that they simply cannot get a job here in their field of work.

We are crippled by a cost of living crisis where students are struggling to gather together the money for basic necessities. The housing crisis is getting worse. We live in a country where one party can pull down our entire government. We attend a university which closed its doors to students for days, a matter of weeks out from final exams, and only invited a handful to attend the conference.

So, forgive me for not enjoying being told by older people how lucky I am to be growing up here.

Rebecca Dobbin Donaghy is Station Manager at Queen’s Radio and a PPE student at Queen’s University Belfast

Agreement 25: A bright future for students?