Introduction

The focus of this chapter is the Irish National Children's Strategy published in 2000 (NCO, 2000). The strategy is a high mark in central government policy making with regard to Irish children. It was an internationally innovative attempt to address, within a national jurisdiction, the global agenda of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), ratified by Ireland in 1992. The 10-year strategy commits to three overarching and interlinked goals: to give children a voice; to understand children's lives better; and to provide children with quality support and services. This chapter describes the origins, development and contents of the strategy, noting the links to the wider imperative of social inclusion within a society that, during the 1990s, saw rapid economic growth and cultural change. Attention will also be given to the place of participation within the development, content and early implementation of the strategy. Reflecting on the experience of the Irish National Children's Strategy from a critical perspective on societal structures and policy processes, it will be argued that within Irish society today there is an emerging policy space for a radical politics of childhood.