St. Attracta’s represent Ireland in the European Parliament
St. Attracta’s Community School represented Ireland in the European Parliament in Strasbourg last week.
Ms Gillespie’s TYC history class, having won the national Euroscola competition, travelled to Strasbourg with their teachers Ms Gillespie, Ms Mc Connell and Mr Beglane.
On 19th of May, 24 students from St Attracta’s C. S, along with students from all 28 member states of the E. U., became MEP’s for the day.
Iga Piotrowska acted as the Irish spokesperson, making a presentation to all 400 delegates in the parliament, introducing the school and commenting on issues that affect the youth in Ireland today. Iga introduced herself in Irish and Polish, then continued her presentation in German. She spoke of the fact that so many different cultures were represented in the Parliament and that Europe needed to be united in its diversity.
In the wake of the events in Manchester, her words have never rung so true, “in times of uncertainty, we must build bridges and stay united”.
Iga concluded her speech by declaring herself “the poster- girl of Europe” being born in Wolsztyn, Poland and now living in Tubbercurry, Ireland, with her final words being “is mise Iga Piotrowska”. ( which confused all the simultaneous interpreters!)
The delegation was later addressed by vice- president of the European Parliament Rainer Wieland and the floor was then opened up to questions from the students. St Attracta’s student Tom Fallon led the questioning, asking about the need for a centralised, European- driven coastguard.
The final question of the day was posed by Erin Timlin, who was concerned about trade issues between Ireland and Great Britain in the wake of Brexit.
The delegation of students spent the day debating, negotiating, amending, voting and adopting resolutions on real E. U. issues, giving them a real insight into the workings of the European Parliament.