Sarah gets BEM in New Year Honours

Sarah gets BEM in New Year Honours

1 January 2025

DOWNPATRICK woman Sarah Taggart has been awarded a BEM in the New Year Honours for services to scouting and the local community.

Remarkably, she is the third leader from Downpatrick Scouts to be awarded for services to scouting, following in the footsteps of her mum Cecelia (BEM) and Liam Byrne (MBE).

Sarah – who works for Newry, Mourne and Down Council – saiys she feels “humbled” to have been nominated for a BEM and wishes to share it with her fellow leaders and Scout group members.

The local government official has been involved with Downpatrick Scouts for three decades. The organisation currently has 50 members with Sarah assisted by a number of leaders, some of whom are former members.

Members range in age from six to 16 with the group leader assisted by 12 leaders and the scouts meeting three nights a week.

All Sarah’s brothers were involved with the scouts and it was no surprise that she also got involved. But she had to wait as girls were not allowed to join.

Venture Scouts admitted girls and Sarah joined when she was 14 and four years later she became a leader, paving the way for girls to join.

“When I was younger, I was unable to join because there was no female leaders and there were no girls,” Sarah explained.

“When I turned 18 I did all my leadership training courses which meant Downpatrick Scouts was able to take girls and around 40 per cent of current members are girls.”

Sarah’s mum is also a leader and was awarded her BEM in 2019, while Liam Byrne was recognised for his services to scouting in 2014 when he was awarded his MBE.

“We are Scouting Ireland and it is a big thing for three of us to be recognised for what we do,” she said. “I think we are the only three in Scouting Ireland to have been nominated for an honour.”

Sarah, who has worked for the local authority for 20 years, enjoys the teamwork associated with her role as a scout leader.

“I have been very lucky over the years to have worked with some fantastic role models. People may not believe that I was a very shy, young individual before I joined the scouts. Joining the organisation completely brought me out of myself and helped shape me into the person I am today,” she continued.

“For me, it is the self confidence and the life skills I am able to teach young people and leadership skills which will help them. Whenever I see them flourishing and growing in confidence it is great. When they eventually leave and go on to bigger and better things, hopefully some day they may come back as young leaders and it will be a case of job done for me.”

Sarah said said a number of former scouts have come back as young leaders.

“Quite a few have come back and we recently invested three former members as new leaders. I still think I am very young but some of my scouts are now coming back with their children.”

With so many distractions for young people, Sarah is delighted that Downpatrick Scouts has a healthy membership.

“We put a lot of stuff out on social media about what we do and young people see that. If we are hiking up a mountain or camping in the South, or even just just doing something in the local community, other people see that and think it is actually something they would like to do.”

Sarah said that during the Covid pandemic a lot of parents realised their children were not really involved in anything. “We took a hit during Covid and maintained an online presence, but a lot of young people had online fatigue, so we devised a programme and went round delivering packs to the kids. 

“We did a Zoom call once a week so everything was laid on for them so it wasn’t like school and we had great engagement for that,” she said.

“Coming out of Covid, there was a realisation that young people need to be outdoors and learn lifeskills they were not being taught anymore.”

Sarah said while the BEM is an individual award, it’s one she shares with Downpatrick Scouts.

She added: “I would never have been nominated without many people, past and present, who have supported me and contributed to the group.

“It is very humbling and a huge honour, but I have a bit of imposter syndrome as there are so many other people in the community that are probably doing worthier things than me. But to be nominated is unreal.”