BY THE INSPIRING YOUR TEAM
The InspiringYouIRL group, from left: Orla Finnegan, Orla Fitzpatrick, Philip Cribbin, Anne Marie Doyle, and Kamil Krolak.
InspiringYouIRL (IYIRL ) was created by a group of like minded friends who have backgrounds in teaching, film, media, charity projects, PR and parenting The team at IYIRL believe that social media can consume the idealism, empathy, and natural enthusiasm young people enjoy. Inspiring You is a nonjudgmental platform where positive like-minded learners and thinkers can engage and cultivate their interests and bring them to a wider audience in real life.
The team comprises Anne Marie Doyle, Deputy Principal of Barnadearg National School, Kamil Krolak of KamilFilms and Orla Fitzpatrick, Declan Doherty, Orla Finnegan and Philip Cribbin from Galway Community College. In the past we have worked on numerous projects together in our spare time such as organising charity song competitions, education packs, concerts, videos, runs to name but a few. We have always wanted to try and engage more young people into becoming involved in positive actions of any description.
Together we have created InspiringYouIRL to be a space which can help students develop curriculum work at primary and post primary level where they can use social media to become thoughtful, empathetic, and well rounded individuals.
We hope that students, schools and clubs will use send us content and use hashtag #inspiringyouirl or #IYIRL and tag us in posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram when they want to inspire others and get our attention. We can’t wait to share your ideas, whether they be sporting, musical, STEM, cooking, fashion, writing – if you have a creative idea, don’t forget to send it into us or use #inspiringyouirl online!
A number of the team recently worked together on the successful “Medals for Jadotville” campaign which saw the former Taoiseach Enda Kenny announce the awarding of medals to the 155 men of “A” Company who fought against almost impossible odds at The Siege of Jadotville in September 1961 where they fought against 3,000 mercenaries for over 5 days.
This campaign has been described as a template for social change and involved a well coordinated social media campaign as well as linking students from Galway and Dublin.
Inspiringyouirl is now providing the platform for the nation’s students and general public to support our #Medal4Quinlan campaign for a Medal of Military Gallantry with Honours, to be awarded to the late Col. Pat Quinlan, who commanded his men during the Siege at Jadotville
We will have a regular content from a host of interesting personalities from various backgrounds and age profiles who will set fun and interesting challenges. This will create a space which can help students develop curriculum work at primary and post primary level where they can use social media to become thoughtful, empathetic and well rounded individuals. We want you to use social media less to do more. You can set the trend and share your ideas with us and we will try to inspire others through your actions. Comments will be monitored closely by us and the idea is simple if you see something you like on our page support it, better it or share it!”
Misuse of social media has resulted in the erosion of self esteem, self value, ability to self motivate and critical thinking in people around the world.. The constant over use and over dependence on social media has eroded something special in all of us.Inspiringyouirl followers are encouraged to submit creative writing, science projects, drama excerpts, music, songs etc and make learning fun and also help you get better grades as well as impacting In your Real Life. We would love you to contact us with your ideas and we will we help promote them to a wider audience.We strive to get students to find the “Extra in the Ordinary” and share it with us where we will showcase your content on a platform. “Likes” and “Comments” are not necessary for it to be a worthwhile exercise!The concept is simple we will showcase ideas and content and encourage you to either copy or improve on what you see. If you do not like what you see simply do produce better content.
Galway Advertiser editor, Declan Varley has written about our work in the past noting the power young people contain when directed and supported correctly, “By enabling students to walk in the shoes of people across all spheres of society, you are arming them with the ability to change the world. One step at a time.” This is ultimately why we strive to achieve on a number of levels at IYIRL.
In the words of the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius, “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated”. We are “Inspiring You In Real Life” to make life “Simply Inspiring”. We currently developing our InspiringYou.ie website and would love to hear your feedback and ideas on how to develop and grow this platform.
Check us out on Facebook: Inspiringyouirl Twitter: @Inspiringyouirl Intsagram: Inspiringyouirl Email : [email protected]
