My Creative Wish – Cork County Council Arts Office Youth Lead Cruinniú na nÓg Programme

In celebration of Cruinniú na nÓg in 2025, Cork County Council embraced a child-centred approach by conducting a youth consultation called My Creative Wish. The initiative aimed to gather input from children and young people across Cork to better understand their creative aspirations and desires for the event.

Cruinniú na nÓg is Ireland’s national day dedicated to celebrating creativity among children and young people, organised as part of the Creative Ireland initiative. Spearheaded by local authorities, each is responsible for curating activities within its jurisdiction. In 2025, Cork County Council embraced a child-centred approach by conducting a youth consultation called My Creative Wish. This initiative aimed to gather input from children and young people across Cork to better understand their creative aspirations and desires for the event. My Creative Wish helped deliver on a number of strategic aims:

• Cork County Development Plan 2022 – 2028 – The arts can provide important social benefits, which readily improve the social capital and quality of life of communities, schoolchildren, older people, and the marginalised.
• Corporate  Plan 2019 – 2024 – Community Value: Healthy, happy, strong and inclusive communities delivered by an innovative and forward-thinking County Council.
• Cork County Library Service Development Plan 2020 – 2025- Celebrating and nurturing diversity, languages and multiple cultures that are represented in classrooms across the county.
•  Cork County Culture and Creativity Strategy 2023 – 2027.

Cork County Council

A total of 700 submissions were received from 36 schools, reflecting a wide variety of ideas and creative interests. From these, 17 winning submissions were selected to participate in a series of six-week workshops led by professional creative practitioners. These workshops provided hands-on learning opportunities, allowing students to work closely with experts in diverse creative fields. Additionally, 13 runners-up were awarded four tickets each to attend taster workshops hosted at local libraries, providing further chances for children to engage with the creative process.

This approach marked a significant shift in how the event was organised, as it allowed children to take the lead in shaping the activities and experiences. The child-led nature of the programme contributed to an impressive 450% increase in participation compared to previous years. Moreover, this new model led to more meaningful engagement, as it directly reflected the interests and creative passions of the participants. Public awareness of Cruinniú na nÓg also saw a notable rise, with more families and children becoming aware of the event and its benefits.

Popular requests such as music lessons (18.5% of respondents), visual arts (15%), and fashion design (9.1%) were prioritised.

Cork County Council

Cork County Council

Special attention was paid to age-specific interests: younger children favoured comic book creation, while older youth gravitated toward writing and literary activities. The library network became a key delivery site for these creative activities, hosting 18 events across 15 libraries, with 1,377 participants engaging throughout 2024. Public awareness of Cruinniú na nÓg increased significantly, drawing more families and communities into the celebration.

While capturing the full extent of the programme’s impact on inclusion is difficult, anecdotal evidence from facilitators, parents, and teachers suggests that individuals who were previously hard to reach saw significant benefits. The decision to engage children in schools, meeting them in their familiar environments, played a key role in breaking down barriers to participation. By making the programme more accessible and relevant to their everyday lives, we were able to foster a stronger sense of inclusion and belonging, particularly among those who might have otherwise been excluded. Positive feedback from both children and adults indicates that this shift in approach enabled a wider range of participants to engage meaningfully with the activities. To gain a deeper understanding of the programme’s impact, particularly its long-term effects on inclusion, it would be valuable to involve a child psychologist to collect quantitative data and provide further insights.

The success of Cork County’s Cruinniú na nÓg programme highlights the positive impact of involving young people in the planning and delivery of cultural and creative initiatives, whilst delivering a programme that meets Cork County Strategic Goals and the goals of the National Creative Ireland Programme.

Cork County Council

Building on the success of My Creative Wish, Cork County Council aims to:

• Expand Youth Engagement: Continue gathering youth input annually to guide future Cruinniú na nÓg programmes.
• Strengthen Partnerships: Collaborate with schools, community groups, and local artists to sustain long-term creative opportunities.
• Monitor Long-Term Impact: Track participation trends and cultural engagement over time to measure the lasting influence of youth-led initiatives.

By embracing a child-led approach through My Creative Wish, Cork County Council has not only elevated the Cruinniú na nÓg celebration but also empowered young people to shape their creative futures—ensuring their voices remain at the heart of cultural programming