Irish Youth Work 1916-2016

This event provided an opportunity for people to reflect on the key changes in youth work that have taken place in Ireland over the last 100 years such as:

• The purpose of youth work: Is it for making good, useful kids, or is it about creating opportunities for young people to become and create citizens?
• The relationship between voluntary organisations and the State
• The social control of young people: The ongoing moral panics, and the establishment of youth work in a newly created state.

With the historic centenary celebrations taking place in 2016, there are many opportunities for us to reflect and consider how youth work practice has changed and evolved over the last one hundred years. This reflection provided us with an opportunity to consider many historical developments, themes and trends in Ireland in relation to youth work, such as identity, citizenship, immigration, diversity, political participation and equality. The symposium allowed for the storytelling of practice and looked at how the two disciplines of theory and practice merged or have separated depending on the time.