ActionTalks
Annual National Speech
Writing Competition
About the competition
ActionTalks is a national speech writing competition that involves young people aged 14 to 18 across Ireland. Since its inception, more than 1,000 young people have entered the competition from over 200 schools across the country.
The competition is an opportunity for young people to explore the root causes of global injustices and inequalities. Every year young people pick their topics for their speech from three different thematic areas. This year’s focus is on the climate crisis, women leadership during emergencies and the role of Official Development Aid (ODA) and women rights’ organisations.
- The leadership role of women during emergencies, conflict and climate disasters is overlooked, and yet is so important in preparing for and recovering from disasters. Discuss.
- Unless the world urgently ends our reliance on fossil fuels, women’s rights will be denied and violated due to the impacts of climate change. Discuss.
- The focus of overseas aid needs a radical reform to address the denial of women’s rights and gender inequality globally. Discuss.
ActionTalks is a great opportunity for young people to develop writing skills and deepen their awareness of social issues. We hope students will come up with innovative, well-researched, and creative speeches, using their own unique perspective. In addition, there is a €50 voucher prize for regional winners, with a first-place prize of a €500 voucher, with an additional €100 for their teacher.
Competition closes on January 24th 2025!
For any further questions, check out the FAQs or email us at comms.ireland@actionaid.org or [email protected].
Download Resources:
We highly encourage both students and teachers to use our resources. For secondary school teachers our resources are recommended for English, CSPE or Politics and Society classes. These resources include 3 presentations, all of which feature videos, group work, and interactive elements. Each presentation is under this year’s themes of the climate crisis, women leadership during emergencies and ODA and women rights’ organisations. This also includes 3 corresponding lesson plans to help deliver each lesson. You can choose to use all of the presentations, or just one or two of them.
Our resources are also available for students, whether your school is participating, or if you want to participate independently. Just enter your details below to download the resources.
ActionTalks 2025 Download resources
Global Citizenship Education
Our annual ActionTalks Speech Writing Competition is a part of our Global Citizenship Education work, supported by Irish Aid. We are members of the Irish Development Education Association and are signed up to their code of conduct for Global Citizenship Education to ensure our resources, formal, non-formal and informal, meet the best possible standards.
Submission guidelines
- To submit just email your entry to comms.ireland@actionaid.org, with your name and school clearly in the heading.
- After submission, each entrant must fill out the following short survey, available here.
- By submitting a speech, the student and school are giving permission for the speech and the student and school name and image to be publicized on the ActionAid website and in third party publications. Only finalist speeches will be published.
The competition in 2024
In 2024, students wrote speeches on the climate crisis, gender-based violence and unpaid care work. ActionAid received 112 entries from 20 schools across 12 counties.
Emily Wall, a student at St Leo’s College, Carlow, was announced as the winner at the national finals, which were held in Dublin’s Royal Irish Academy in March. For winning first place she received a €500 voucher, and her teacher received a €100 voucher.
Her winning speech can be read here.
“It was heartening to see so many students across the country take part in the competition this year and share their views on global issues so articulately and with such passion. The high standard and obvious passion made it very difficult to judge at every stage of the competition. Emily clearly researched the topic of gender-based violence at length, she developed strong arguments and then delivered the speech confidently. We are delighted to announce Emily as the winner of ActionTalks and she should be very proud.” –Karol Balfe, CEO of ActionAid Ireland.
Along with Emily, six other student’s exemplary work made it to the national finals, receiving a €50 euro voucher each. Their work can be read here below.
Taking Further Action:
Would your students like to take further action on the issues they have learned about as part of the competition such as contacting a local politician or writing a letter to your local newspaper? If so, you can download our free take-action guides here to support your students to take further action.
