​​JCI Galway kickstarted the month of February by organising a #SexTalk for #SHAGweek 2017; which was a week dedicated to Sexual Health Awareness and Guidance as the acronym stands for.

The issue of consent and alcohol is one that is very relevant today with the new Sexual Offences Bill introduced in the Dáil by Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald.

This bill seeks to give a statutory definition of sexual consent in Irish legislation, and to clarify those situations where consent cannot be given, including when someone is asleep or too intoxicated to consent. This is a hot topic globally among university students with many universities springing into action to improve the lives of its students.

As the topic is sometimes a difficult one to discuss openingly in Ireland, JCI Galway decided to overcome the awkwardness by putting a sexologist and a comedian in a pub at lunchtime to discuss alcohol and sexual consent.

The event with Karl Spain and Dr. Siobhan O'Higgins was a huge success especially considering it was the first one of it’s kind in the area. Using comedy as the vehicle to deliver important yet tricky to discuss information worked really well.

We hope that this concept will run for years to come as the topic of young people’s sexual health will always be relevant and what better way to discuss it then having a giggle during your lunch break! We aired it live and had many tune in!

JCI Galway showed that we are not afraid to empower, support and educate young people on important topics, creatively we did that with facts and fun. A huge thank you to JCI Ireland  and the Kings Head Galway for supporting this event!

Olivia Lavelle

JCI Galway Communications Director 2017