Five Go Mad In Charlesland

Stonehenge: The Early Years

hanks to social media, the Yes Minister shenanigans of politics today has now gone all the way up to 11.

If may even be tickling the arse hairs of 12…

It’s all part of the new political candidate’s training these days – get your arm around any good news story you can find, and get it up there on social media. First!

Whether it’s a kid with a medal, a granny with a prize-winning gherkin or a still-wet, cross-channel charity swimmer, get your arm around that fecker, smile for the camera, and – bada-boom! bada-bing! – without any great involvement or effort, you’re now part of a happy ending, a big day, a great example of community spirit.

Ah, such a hard worker, always doing such great tings for de town.

As sure as June is the end of May, it makes for very skeptical times, where no good deed goes unquestioned. And so, when months and months of grassroots hard work are seemingly wiped out by someone new seemingly jumping on the horse just before the finishing line, it throws up all sorts of questions. And expletives.

In the current climate, where it has become more and more difficult to trust what comes out of a politician’s press release, inevitably, there was a social media outcry.

Not that the hardy souls gathered at the Charlesland Community Centre on this fine sunny Sunday evening have the time for any backroom, backstabbing shenanigans. There’s work to be done, people!

Having formed last August after a few bright sparks noticed that the hundreds upon hundreds of young kids living in Charlesland might just become hundreds and hundreds of teenagers one day, groovy parents Dermot O’Brien, Jessica Bird, Mark Barry and Caroline Byrne set up the Charlesland Youth Centre Committee.

Because teenagers need a place to rebel, together, in comfort. And heating.

Working alongside Cllr Jennifer Whitmore and other civic-minded and forward-thinking locals, the committee have been busy for the last ten months organising events for the kids in the area – including the upcoming summer camps, more of which soon – as well as going door-to-door to find out just what these teenagers of tomorrow would want in their youth centre. For quite some months now, the gang been meeting with the good people of Cairn Homes about the inclusion of just such a centre in their new Charlesland housing development.

As this hard-fought-for dream takes a major step closer to becoming a reality, with a commitment this week from Cairn Homes to build a 2,000 sq ft, multi-room community centre that will include that much-need youth centre, we thought it was high time we talked to the committee’s two most presentable members, Jessica and Dermot, about the long road here, and the journey ahead…

You can read Stephen Donnelly’s reply to this article here.