Our Lady’s students get to grips with MLAs
Sinn Fein MLAs Megan Fearon and Conor Murphy were in Our Lady’s Grammar School, Newry recently for a Q&A session with the school’s Year 6 and 7 History and Politics classes.
Sinn Féin MLAs Megan Fearon and Conor Murphy with students of Our Lady’s, Newry
While the pair may be used to gruelling negotiations and relentless questioning from the press they said they were hugely impressed with the interest and knowledge of politics on display from the students, who quizzed the South Armagh and Newry representatives for over two hours.
South Armagh MLA Megan Fearon said it was important that young people were interested in politics. “I was hugely impressed by the students who showed a real grasp of not just the big national and international issues of the day but also the inner workings of the political system,” she said.
“These are exactly the kind of people who need to be interested in politics. In just a few years all of them will be eligible to vote and their understanding of what the actual issues facing us are and what the policies of the parties here are could make them the generation to end tribal politics and bring our elections away from being a tribal headcount.”
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Newry MLA Conor Murphy was also impressed by the classes. “You often hear it said that young people are disconnected from or disinterested in politics but the students in Our Lady’s proved that all too often that is a lazy assumption,” he said.
“What we found were astute, articulate young women who knew what the issues facing them were and as well as wanting to know what we were doing about them, actually had their own ideas for what could be done.
He added, “I don’t think it’s any exaggeration to say we could very well be seeing some of these young women in Stormont or the Dáil in the not-too-distant future.”
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Posted by Newry Times News
on Mar 11 2016. Filed under Community.
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