No Limits is a group of four Transition Year students from St Joseph’s College in Lucan that took part in the Student Enterprise Awards and Young Social Innovators Programme this year. Their names are Aoife Dardis, Katie Grogan and Caoimhe Currie. They write fairy-tale books which features the main character having a disability or special needs.
The girls came up with the idea from personal experience as two of the members, Aoife and Katie, have family with a disability. Aoife’s cousin, Niamh, suffers from severe epilepsy, while Katie’s dad, Colm, has cerebral palsy and is a wheelchair user. The girls feel so passionate about the idea of equality in this area and thought that if you teach this acceptance from a young age, it will help with inclusion and equality. The group’s aim is to improve the underrepresentation of people with disabilities and special needs in children’s literature.
Their books to date include ‘Wonder Wheels’ (about a superhero who is in a wheelchair) and ‘Anna’s Amazing Aura’ (about a mermaid with epilepsy). They have recently launched their third book which will feature twins with Down Syndrome, a prince and a princess, A Royal Rescue. The cost of the book is €7.00 with 20% of the price going to the charities of the Irish Wheelchair Association and Epilepsy Ireland.
No Limits won the South Dublin Student Enterprise Regional Final and went on to represent the region in the National Final in Croke Park on the 3rd of May. The girls also competed in the final 17 competitors in the Griffith College National Final back on the 29th of March. No Limits then won the YSI Make Our World Fair And Just Challenge Award. They also competed in the final 11 in the YSI Programme handing in a report and performing a public Speak Out in the Convention Centre. The girls continued to win the Overall Silver Award. Aoife, Sarah, Caoimhe and Katie have also been working with people such as Mark Pollock and myself over the process of their books.
No Limits can be reached on their Facebook page (No Limits), Instagram and Snapchat pages (nolimits164), Twitter page (nolimits1234), email (nolimitsbooks@gmail.com) or on their website (http://nolimits.strikingly.com/).
Vicki Casserly 