IDEA Annual Conference 2025

Our morning Art, Education & Justice fireside chat discussed how art reaches people in a way that traditional education does not reach.   

Members listened to Grace Dyas and award-winning artist, filmmaker, activist, and director whose work raises provocative question about power and social justice, Joe Caslin a street artist and educator whose large-scale street art has inspired national conversations on social issues including marriage equality and Dean Oke a youth worker and spoken word artist using creativity for social impact.  

Each artist gave fascinating insights into their work with groups and communities on issues including gender-based violence, suicide, peacebuilding, social housing and trauma. They outlined their process, their learnings and the impact of art to inspire action and look for alternative solutions.  

Grace Dyas “People are used to media coverage being only positive or negative- binary... but art can provide complexity that other mediums cannot.”  

Joe Caslin “I see my street art as an extension of my role as a teacher. I see my work on the street, also as my classroom. So, I’m trying to take a social issue and give education around it.” 

Dean Oke performed some of his work including ‘Who Holds the Power’ which asks the questions- “who is really in control? who is taking change? where do the root of problems actually lie...”  

Minister of State for International Development and the Diaspora, Neale Richmond, addressed members expressing his commitment to continue supporting Global Citizenship Education. 

Our afternoon ‘Community Education and Hope’ fireside chat focused on the importance of community, informal education and what is next. 

Members heard from Senator Lynn Ruane, elected Senator and lifelong campaigner for equality and community justice, Seán McCabe, Head of Climate Justice at Bohemian FC, bridging sport and social change and Donnah Vuma, human rights advocate and migrant justice leader. 

They spoke about the importance of informal education and the alternative routes to building communities.   

Donnah Vuma “One thing that I found really striking about my experience of being a student was that whenever I was in institutions of learning my status didn’t matter. The label that I carried as a person seeking asylum was irrelevant. I was just a normal human being, a student like everyone else.  

Looking into the future, I feel mighty hopeless and helpless. This is mostly because of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum and what that will mean for the entire asylum process and migration system. It’s hard to say what needs to happen...”  

Seán McCabe “We are creating a new economy as we speak, there is a new order being created and it will either be modelled exactly on the old one or we can educate ourselves, we can learn how to cooperate and we can take large chunks of that under our control and then wean ourselves off situations where you are relying on grants and you go into a world where you have a revenue stream that I can use to do good stuff in the community. And that where [Bohemians] want to get to.”   

Senator Lynn Ruane  “The left is allowing classism to exist in every shape and form of its activism. It has never challenged classism. There are thousands of people who have inter-generational unemployment and lack of education, and the left has not done what it needs to do to make them feel seen and heard in the narrative because they don’t identify as ‘workers’. We have to check ourselves and we have to call out classism.  And we need to do politics differently. People need to take community development principles, restorative practice principles into politicians. Politicians need to be doing things very very differently.   

Our members also enjoyed a selection of workshops during the conference to inspire and motivate their work over the coming year.  

• Newspaper Theatre with Chriszine Backhouse, Creativity & Change and graphic harvester Helen O’Keeffe.  
• Navigating the Grey Space with Niamh McDonald, Hope & Courage Collective. 
• Singing for Change with Rachel Dempsey, Full Circle Change. 
• Meaningful Action for Palestine with Lizzy Noone and members of the IDEA Development Education on Palestine working group

We are looking forward to our 2026 Annual Conference already!