On the 22nd of October, all our TY students went to day one of the wonderful SHINE Festival, organised by The Shona Project. They arrived at the SETU Arena at around 9:30am, ready for an action-packed day full of femininity, empowerment, and joy!
The aim of SHINE is to bring powerful and influential women and to give them a stage to share with thousands of young women helpful advice and empowering stories and to answer any burning questions teenage girls may have. This festival has been awarded multiple awards, like the Innovative for Change Award in 2021.
The festival was hosted by the wonderful Beat 102-103 presenters Shonagh Lyons and Megan O’Reagan-Byrne. The wonderful and amazing Tammy Darcy made multiple appearances on stage, as she is the founder of The Shona Project. The festival would not be possible without her, and we are all so grateful she came together with such influential women to organise this day.
We had so many guest speakers, such as Anna McGann and Beth Buttimer, who are two strong rugby players that play for Ireland. We also had the eco-queen Fionnuala Morgan (who brought up some Pres girls to model sustainable fashion!), zen goddess Mary Bradley, who helped us meditate and set ourselves for the day, and the fabulous pharmacist Laura Dowling, who taught us all how to love our bodies and vulvas.
We had an extremely exciting guest speaker who is a past Pres girl, the wonderful Katie Joubert! She had a spot on the change-makers panel, and all of us who were at SHINE cheered so loud and proud for Katie. Our stunning past pupil was awarded Shona Hero 2025. We are all so proud of Katie, and she deserves this award, as she is extremely passionate about The Shona Project and making change.
After a short break for lunch, it was straight back in for more empowering fun! The charismatic Amanda Ade taught us all how to be an ally to people around us and ourselves, then we busted some moves to K-pop Demon Hunters with Danspire, and the absolute powerhouse Yemi Adenuga showed us how she rose to become the inspiring woman and influential person she is today.
Then, to finish off our incredible day, we all (some teachers included) danced our absolute hearts out at the sing-along disco with 2,000 other girls and had a blast tearing up beauty standards, misogyny, and stereotypes!
We cannot thank the Shona Project and all their sponsors enough for organising such an unforgettable and inspiring day for all of the TY students. It is safe to say that everybody there, students and teachers, left SETU Arena with a goodie bag and a sense of purpose.
Written by Layla Bible McLaughlin.