Colm Fitzpatrick
No Name! Club National Host and Hostess of the Year 2017 - Darragh Kennedy and Michaela Roche Colm Fitzpatrick writes about a youth club like no other
For forty years, a national youth organisation has continued to provide young people across Ireland the opportunity to grow, gain confidence, and create vital transformations in their own communities.
Founded in 1978, No Name! Club was established to help deter young people away from alcohol culture and their continuous exposure to it. The key founders, Fr Tom Murphy, Eamonn Doyle and Eddie Keher, sought to provide an alternative to alcohol-related activities, and ultimately decided to form their very own club. This would be a club where young people could come together and enjoy themselves in a comfortable environment that would be free from alcohol and other drugs.
No Name! Clubs are run by, and for young people aged 15-18 years, and enable young members to organise and enjoy positive alternatives to alcohol and drug-centred activities.
It increases awareness of the effects of alcohol and drugs also, to help young people make informed choices when they are older.
Speaking about the importance of this ethos, the club’s Head of Public Relations Edith Geraghty says: “As any study will show, Ireland as a country has alcohol issues and teenagers will only be the reflections of the society around them. But I think it’s a great relief for teenagers to be honest with you, and to have an alcohol-free space.
“A lot of teenagers don’t want to drink, they don’t want to get into that space, but oftentimes don’t have any alternatives, don’t have any options,” she explains, adding that being part of the club gives young people a peer group who don’t drink, and so this follows suit when they’re out together socially.
“All of the reports show that the longer you can delay drinking in an adolescent, the less likely they are to have problems with alcohol in later life. Those are the golden years if you can delay that engagement.”
Benefits
Today, there are over 11,000 young people who benefit from the services of the organisation which is entirely volunteer led. The volunteer leaders provide support to the organisation in carrying out its mission, whilst respecting the foresight of its founding members.
“So, we’re a national organisation, we’ve a national identity, but every single club we have in the country has its own unique local identity because it’s based on the teenagers who are in each club,” Edith explains.
The club members, referred to as Host or Hostess, are encouraged to take on the responsibility of running the club for their peers, with the support of a local adult committee.
Clubs also elect a National Youth Council – these are 22 teenagers who meet up three times a year, and feed directly onto the board of No Name! Club as to what they want from the organisation and what they want it to look like. “When we talk about youth engagement we really mean it – we are answerable to them, we are accountable to our young people,” Edith says.
She explains that the vision of three founders was to give young people the chance to have “responsibility, to shine, and to decide for themselves what they want to do”. In her own club for example when people request volunteers for a good cause, she replies that she must ask the young people first.
“People don’t accept the fact that the young people in our organisation have the choice, they have the power to decide what they want to be involved in,” she says.
Young people learn through their active involvement the benefit and enjoyment of creating social settings that are removed from the influences of alcohol and other drugs. Valuable and long-lasting friendships are formed, social and decision-making skills are enhanced, creative talents are developed, and confidence and leadership skills grow as the Hosts and Hostesses move towards adulthood.
Young members are encouraged to take part in local community and charitable events, increasing their awareness of social responsibility and the power of change. Importantly, all members are encouraged to have fun, and grow together in a wholesome atmosphere.
“In our mission statement, we say that we want our young people to have fun. I don’t know any other national organisation that has fun in its mission statement. And we provide them with a space where they can grow and they can learn and they change in a safe environment but where they can have control of that environment,” says Edith.
She points out that every club in the country has the support of a dedicated programme officer who goes into the club at least four times a year, and for three months of the year work in delivering the club’s ethos, value and alcohol awareness training.
“And what we say to them is the truth: you are the most important people in the country – you are the future of the country. And this is a space where these young adults can come into their own, can be themselves, can grow and we follow the child. So, if a teenager comes to us and they’re interested in music, we help them with that. If they’re interested in art, we help them with that. Whatever they need themselves, we will respond to that,” Edith says.
Last month, the No Name! Club National Youth Awards took place, which is held every April at the end of the club year in recognition of the Hosts and Hostess that have made an outstanding contribution to the club, and their local community. This year, Darragh Kennedy from Claremorris No Name! Club and Michaela Roche from Mountbellew No Name! Club were crowned Host and Hostess of 2018.
“It’s an extraordinary event, it’s a full silver service dinner, ballgowns, black tie, very, very fancy affair. And then as soon as it’s all over, everybody goes out and changes out of their good gear and they party the night away. We had a live band there this year who did a two-hour set, and then we had a five-hour disco. They were still going at 4 o’clock in the morning,” Edith says.
In light of all the incredible work these young people have achieved, the Director of No Name! Club, and son of one of its founding members, Shane Doyle hopes that it will continue to have a more widespread influence across the country.
“You want to demonstrate that [young people] can have fun without alcohol or illegal drugs. I look at it as trying to break down that Irish culture or the culture of going abroad,” he says, pointing out that Irish people are perceived as having a serious drinking propensity.
He’d like to see the club reach more locations and more people, with the intention that it will someday no longer be needed anymore, although he realises this is a difficult mission to achieve.
The club still continues to provide a vital service for these young people all across Ireland, where they can develop skills, qualities, and an identity which will guide them into their future.
“Well personally speaking, these young people fill me with great pride and hope because they do really represent such quality. And I think our organisation is key in bringing out these qualities in people. I mean young people are fabulous – they truly need space in which to learn and grow and be themselves. And I know that No Name! Club delivers that for them,” says Edith.
“I’m really proud of each and every one of them and very confident of the future with the calibre of the young people that we are turning out.”
For more information about No Name! Club, see: https://nonameclub.ie/