Lucan College recognised for their courage and leadership
By Brendan Grehan
ON MONDAY, Lucan Community College hosted Amnesty Ireland for their Ambassador of Conscience awards.
The Executive Director of Amnesty Ireland, Colm O’Gorman, presented the award to representatives of “Fridays for Future”, “School Strikes 4 Climate” and “Schools Climate Action Network”.
Kiera Grice and Allie Ryan from Lucan Community College receive their Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award from Colm O’Gorman
In Washington DC, Amnesty International awarded its Ambassador of Conscience Award to Greta Thunberg and “Fridays for Future”, to honour the movement of school strikers and young climate activists that has mobilised more than one million young people from all over the world.
Colm O’Gorman told The Echo: “The Ambassador of Conscience is awarded to recognise the courage and leadership of human rights defenders. The change that these young climate activists have made in such a short space of time is incredible and awe-inspiring.”
Amber and Allie, students at Lucan Community College and members of their school’s Climate Action group, said that the presenting of the award to young activist groups was well deserved.
They told The Echo: “When we heard these hard-working people were getting the recognition they deserved, we were over the moon. Thanks to them, people are becoming more and more educated about the climate crisis. They inspired us and many others to act and raise awareness on a local and global level and are really making a change.”
Saoi O’Connor from “Fridays for Future” travelled from Cork to attend the ceremony.
Ms O’Connor spoke of the honour she felt in receiving the award and described climate change as “a human rights issue”.
She added: “I don’t even have time to worry about my future, even though of course I’m scared. But the climate crisis is happening right now. I’m worrying about the people I’m talking to and working with in places like Mozambique, the Amazon and all around the world, who are on the frontlines already.”
Previous awardees of Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Awards include Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzai, Harry Belafonte, Ai Weiwei, the Youth Groups of West and Central Africa, Angélique Kidjo, the Indigenous rights movement in Canada, Alicia Keys and Colin Kaepernick.
