On Tuesday the 3rd of March Aoibheann, Aoife and Jessica attended a Direct Provision conference talk in Co. Waterford.
They took a train there from Heuston station, which took 2 hours! When they got to Waterford train station they had to walk for about 20 minutes before they got to the Edmund Rice Heritage Centre.
When they got to the museum everyone was very welcoming and kind to the girls who travelled all the way down from Dublin. They offered them a tour around the museum of Edmund Ignatius Rice. The exhibit included different objects including wax figures of Edmund Rice’s head which we’re created using his remains to interpret how he looked in real life.
In the tour, they also read information about Edmund Rice in really great detail and there were facts, newspapers and photos of him everywhere. The museum also explained his contributions to helping poorer children of Ireland get an education. We also saw another wax figure of his whole body with children surrounding him, to show how he was worshipped by the young.
After the tour of Edmund Rice, the conference had started. All the Edmund Rice trust schools were welcomed to a choir singing songs. The main theme of the conference was to learn and discuss “Futures On Hold”. We were listening to peoples’ personal experiences of migrating to Ireland and trying to get refugee status. There was one person's story and how they were in Direct Provision for 3 years and then after they were asked to deport back to their country of origin.
Edmund Rice trust schools rallied against this as well as their local community in Cork. We were also listening to so many different similar cases. They were many students presenting on how to take action against this unfairness it was very inspiring. The day ended with a nice lunch with sandwiches. After, the girls returned on the train home to Dublin