Ripples Story: “Connecting with Power”

In this article, Paul Smyth, Executive Director of Politics in Action, explores how community can be built through shared purpose, experiences and passions especially among young people in a divided society like Northern Ireland.

A community isn’t always a place. Sometimes, it is a feeling of togetherness, shared experiences, or shared passions that comes from meeting and engaging with others who feel strongly about the same things you do. Working in Northern Ireland, it is wonderful when that sense of community comes from bringing together diverse young people across our highly segregated society.

Many years ago, I was president of my college Student Union. When we were getting trained for the role (there were a team of us across the University), one piece of advice I remember getting was that ‘power doesn’t always lie where it is supposed to’. In the decades since the roles I have been given or created for myself have taught me more and more about how our society works (and doesn’t work!), for whom, and how many are excluded.

I took up my current role with Politics in Action in mid-2022. I quickly learned how important The Rank Foundation had been in founding our organisation and supporting our founder, Peter Weil, who some of you will know. I was the first staff member and set about building an organisation and growing a team.

Our work in Northern Ireland helps to connect young people to power. We still have a very segregated education system. We work in clusters of local schools to bring young people from different backgrounds together to work on issues of shared concern and to bring these issues to politicians at the Northern Ireland Assembly and elsewhere. It is excellent work to be doing – seeing young people connect despite their differences and watching how hard they work to present their ideas and convince others of the need for change.

Some issues come up repeatedly in our work – youth mental health, relationships and sex education, and concerns about the climate crisis and we have been working to support young people in working on these issues over the long term. Another problem is that young people feel they aren’t being heard. You may know that Northern Ireland has only had two years of functioning government in the last eight years – and we are only one year into the current government. Combined with the wider political crisis around the world, young people’s faith in politics and political institutions here is at an all-time low.

Votes At 16

In 2023, together with young people, we decided that our first major campaign would be for Votes at 16. Young people in Scotland have enjoyed this right in the local and Scottish Parliament since 2014 and in Wales since 2020. Northern Ireland was the first devolved nation to vote in favour of votes at 16 in 2012, but the issue never progressed. We thought it was time to move the issue forward, so we recruited a team of young people across Northern Ireland to build a campaign. You can see some of them pictured below. They are aged from 13 to 18 and from various backgrounds.

Our campaign was slowly building momentum when it got an unexpected boost when the Labour Party committed to introducing votes at 16 in their election manifesto. This means that all 16- and 17-year-olds across the UK will be able to vote in all elections and referenda. What is rewarding is seeing how working on this issue is developing the skills and confidence of the young people involved.

For example, one participant, Eva is really shy. We had a launch event for the campaign in Belfast in September, and the local BBC radio station asked if I could come in for an interview with one of the young people the day before. Eva volunteered. I was worried about how she would cope, but she was brilliant – clear and articulate. Eva revealed it was her first radio interview on the way out of the studio!

The next day, she did her first television interview. A couple of weeks later, the Northern Ireland Assembly debated votes at 16 again – as a direct result of our campaign – and Eva came with us to listen to the debate. She told me it was her first time at Stormont (the Northern Ireland Assembly building). So many firsts in such a short space of time. One story among many.

Hopefully, the legislation will move through Parliament this summer. It will be in place for the 2027 local Council and Northern Ireland Assembly elections in May that year. Much work must be done to ensure that happens and that our schools are ready to prepare young voters. Working with this incredible team of young people is wonderful, and seeing their excitement build and confidence grow. It is also essential to work on an issue where young people feel they are winning the argument and where their work will make a lasting difference.

Read the full latest issue of Rank Ripples magazine