10 th Anniversary Celebration – The History of Deaf Group
1994 to 2004
The Scouting Story
Scouting became very popular in many countries. In 1927 the Catholic Boys Scouts of Ireland was founded by a Dublin curate Fr. Tom Farrell. It grew rapidly and today there are more than forty thousand members in every part of Ireland .
In 1965 the Federation of the Irish Scout Association (FISA) was formed. This includes the Scouting Ireland, Catholic Scout of Ireland (SICSI) and Scouting Ireland, Scout Association of Ireland (SISAI) and they participated in international scouting events together.
According to scouting, it has a policy of integrating young people into their local Scout Unit regardless of their abilities. This policy was the result of awareness during 1981, the year for disabled people. Since then many young deaf children joined their local units but some did not stay very long because of they had problems communicating with mainly hearing members
The History
Tim Grace was a Deaf married man with six Deaf children. He lives in Tallaght and he was involving from the start in setting up the Deaf scout unit in Tallaght where they meet regularly on Friday in old Tymon Community Centre.
The Founder of the scout group for the Deaf was founded by Noel Groome who is hearing but he has a deaf son named Alan. Noel himself was involved as scout in 176th Unit.
He decided to start a scout unit for Deaf only because his Deaf son, Alan was a member of a hearing scout group and he apparent difficulties fitting in and he was completely aware of his unavoidable problem. So he determined to set up the scout unit for Deaf after resigning from his unit 176th.
It took Noel two and half years to set it up but Headquarters advised Noel to get a Deaf scout leader if possible.
Tim Grace was the ideal person to be a scout leader but firstly he was not interesting. Noel persisted and finally persuaded Tim. Noel filled him with details about his ideas on setting up a Deaf Unit. 189th Unit in 1989
Therefore Tim Grace is the first Deaf man to become a scout leader with a new Deaf unit in Tallaght. It started in 1989. The unit was called The 189th Unit of St. Maelruan Deaf scout. It was set up specifically to meet the needs of Deaf children in Tallaght.
Young girl from Malahide Road named Paula Moore, who she Deaf wanted to join 189th Deaf Unit. However Paul, the father had to drive from Malahide side to Tallaght every one day a week. Paul himself who is also Deaf watched his Daughter Paula joined the unit. As time goes by Tom Grace asked Paul Moore to become assistant scout leader at the time. Paul was certainly unsure but eventually he was encouraged and he became confident with helping out Tim Grace
Deaf Scout Unit 1994
As Paul Moore was assistant leader at that time and on 12 th June 1994 , he decided to open a similar unit in Drumcondra initially catering for Deaf children of scout age 11 to 16yrs. Firstly it has five scouts and one leader at that time. It was started to facilitate Deaf boys and girls from Dublin 's north side. Soon after, a Cub pack and ventures group was started and again in early 1998 a Beaver colony completed the four sections, which make up a Scout unit. Today Scouting Ireland is the National Scout Association for Ireland and a member of the World Organisation of the Scout Movement. Scouting Ireland was formed on 1st January 2004 this year from the two original Scout associations in Ireland , Scouting Ireland S.A.I . and Scouting Ireland (CSI) . Both associations voted to join together to form a new single association in 2003, following a decision to set this process in motion in 1998.
Scouting Ireland
Scouting Ireland has over 40,000 members across Ireland , including Northern Ireland where Scouting Ireland works in partnership with the Scout Association Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom Scout Association.
Today
Our group has four sections catering with a membership of over 35 young Deaf people. Most of the members are from Dublin but many scouts and cubs are resident if St. Joseph 's School for Deaf Boys and St Mary's School for Deaf Girls both in Cabra, are every part of the country. We have a leader's team consisting all Deaf and one hearing.
Again our group caters for Deaf boys and girls from 6 to 21 years under the guidance of Deaf adult leaders. The leaders are Paul Moore - Group Leader, Kevin G Mulqueen – Scout Leader, Karol McGuirk and Paula Moore – Assistant Scout leaders, Brenda Dunne – Beavers Leader / Assistant Cubs Leader, Niamh Gannon – Cubs leader, Donal O'Hannigan – Group Chairperson. We have a policy of total communication although Irish Sign Language is the favoured means of communications with many of the members.
Today we seek better access and opportunities for Deaf adult of Deaf children for Deaf Scout Group especially in their education, communication, spiritual, and social & activities events. We also are seeking better service and life for the Deaf scout in the wider region and to participate along with other scouts at the national and international levels.
The full scout program and scout method slightly modified by the young people and Leaders to suit the members. They try whenever possible to participate with other scouts in competitions, programmer, parties and anything else that are on offer from a national and regional level. The scout group itself, if necessary, modifies the activity so members of the Deaf group can fully participate.
The activities that we do include are
Spring / Winter Hiking Weekend
Weekend Training Camping
Regional Shield Competition
All Ireland Camping Competition.
A Day Outings to historical places of interest
12 Days Camping Holidays in Ireland or aboard
Local and regional competition
Ten pin bowling
Cinema outing with subtitles and a lot of more!!!!
