'Issues with social media have become a major problem with young people' - Colm O'Rourke

Colm O'Rourke says he's concerned about the increasing number of issues young people are grappling with on a daily basis.

The former Meath footballer and current principal of St Patrick's Classical School, Navan says that in his view social media is a major source of problems for young people, adding that his school now employs two full time counsellors who “are busy” helping students confront issues.
“You'll always have fellows with issues and problems and you hope you can help them with different things but what I've found over the last five years is that things have changed dramatically in terms of family issues, drink, drugs. Issues with social media has become a huge problem.
“Young people seem to have more problems, more issues and I'm not exactly sure if they were ignored in the past or there's more of them emerging now but we certainly have far more problems to deal with regarding young people than we did five, 10, 15 years ago.
“Social media has had a damning effect on society in general, the biggest thing of all is I see a complete lack of privacy and young people don't understand the idea of privacy. They tend to get themselves in trouble, messaging, with photographs, they are immature in understanding the sort of damage that can be caused by the over-use of social media and it can also have a detrimental effects on relationships.
“It's had massive benefits but it's a continuous education process to get young people to understand that there are serious dangers from the type of thing that going on at present.”
O'Rourke, who won two All-Ireland SFC medals with Meath in 1987 and '88, marked his 60th birthday recently and he sat down in his office at St Pat's to talk to the Meath Chronicle about his life so far in teaching and in the world of sport.

Enthusiastic

In an exclusive interview O'Rourke about spoke about how he still enjoys working in the school system even after 40 years.
“I love young people, I find them enthusiastic, energetic. I find them easy to deal with and for the most part very pleasant, friendly and respectful, all the good things about young people.”
With teachers and students now starting out on a new school year O'Rourke pointed out how one of the biggest problems facing St Pat's is trying to accommodate a huge number of applicants for very limited number of spaces.
He highlighted how enough students applied this year to fill 12 first year classes but there are only six classes available. Now, he added, much of every September and October is taking up talking to parents looking for answers as to why their child didn't get a place.
“I suppose everybody would see it as a right that they would be able to get their sons educated in their first choice school and that's just not possible with over subscriptions. It does cause a lot of problems in the school and it does last a long time. There's a whole system of appeals, a board of management first and Department of Education later. It's a process that takes up a lot of time and energy on my part.”
Despite the pressures O'Rourke says he always enjoyed working in the school system and in the past found the students a great way of getting over disappointments he may have endured in life or in football.
“The thing about the stresses and strains of life once you come into school here there's a 100 fellows who want you to do something from the most minor things like they lost their lunchbox, or they can't find their coat, or they want to change subjects and your whole attention goes to them and everything else is wiped out while you're here.”