Meitheal

The Irish word Meitheal describes the old Irish tradition where people in rural communities gathered together on a neighbour’s farm to help save the hay or some other crop. People saw a need locally and tried to respond practically to that need. This built up strong friendships and respect among those involved in the Meitheal.

The Meitheal Youth Leadership Programme was first introduced in 1992. At present, 5th year students from twenty schools in Cork city and county are taking part. Through the four-day intensive training, young people learn to identify needs in their school and to use their own initiative and talents to respond to these needs in a practical way.

The video below shows a feature broadcasted by RTE Nationwide in October 2011

Leadership is not simply about getting the job done, nor is it about being in charge.

“Act justly, love tenderly, walk humbly with your God" was spoken by the prophet Micah nearly 3000 years ago. He was concerned about the breakdown of community and the oppression of people in his time. Meitheal takes its inspiration from this. It trains young people to be moral leaders; people of justice, compassion and humility.

Meitheal gives young people an opportunity to grow in awareness of themselves, and in the needs of others. It is not about focusing on standards, major events or results; it is about young people doing their best, caring for each other and the students with whom they work. After their training, Meitheal teams are given responsibility in school to create better communities. They learn skills in communication, teamwork, facilitation, planning, evaluation and how to effectively run meetings.

In the past 20 years, Scala has trained over 1500 young people, who in turn have benefited tens of thousands of their fellow students through their efforts to be effective moral leaders.

Meitheal students speak of their experience of the training programme