Belfast dream for NUIG politicos

Student political junkies travelled to Belfast this weekend for a dream date with leading figures in the Northern Assembly. Committee members of NUI Galway's Political Discussion Society (PDS) managed to persuade members of all the parties in the Assembly to meet them in Stormont for a discussion.

Some 40 students, all regular PDS attenders, left Galway on Sunday for Belfast accompanied by the Mayor of Galway, Cllr Angela Lynch Lupton, and NUI Galway vice president Ruth Curtis.

PDS correspondance secretary Catherine Noone wrote to Women's Coalition leader Monica McWilliams during the summer to invite her to speak at a meeting of the society in Galway on any Monday night. Guests of the society in recent months included RUC Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan and Republican Sinn Fein leader Ruairi O Bradaigh, while Jeffrey Donaldson of the Ulster Unionist Party, and Ulster Democratic Party leader Gary McMichael are to visit the society soon.

According to Noone: "Monica McWilliams contacted me to apologise for the fact that she wouldn't be able to attend one of our meetings because there are plenary sessions of the assembly on Mondays. Then I had the idea, `Well if you can't come down to us, why don't we come to you?'

"With a combination of determination, espionage and a lot of luck, we managed to get the direct phone numbers of Assembly members and, one by one, they agreed".

The students arranged to meet the party leaders in two separate groups. The first group they were pencilled in to meet included representatives of the SDLP, Sinn Fein, the PUP, the Alliance Party and the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition.

Following that, the student were to meet with leading figures in the UUP, the DUP, the UKUP, and the newlyformed Northern Ireland Unionist Party. The meetings were preceded on the student itinerary by a guided tour of the assembly. Spice was added to yesterday's visit by the motion of no confidence in Lord Alderdice.

"We feel privileged to be allowed to walk in the doors of the Assembly, never mind speak to the party leaders", says Noone. "Our parents generation ask each other where they were when John F Kennedy was shot. Our generation will ask each other `Where were you when the Good Friday agreement was signed?' The Assembly is the embodiment of the Agreement, so this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the peace process in action."