This article is from page 35 of the 2007-05-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 35 JPG
FORGET the general election, it’s the European Union that has been cap- turing the imagination of students in north Clare over the past few weeks.
Mary Immaculate Secondary School in Lisdoonvarna and Scoil Mhuire in Ennistymon have taken part in a number of exciting interna- tional events all centered around Eu- rope Day and the 50th anniversary of the EU.
First came Dublin, and a mock sit- ting of the European Council featur- ing the fifth-year students from Mary Immaculate.
The students, who were the only
ones from Clare chosen to take part, were asked to represent the Europe- an Commission on the day and pre- sented a report on global warming and terrorism.
Thirteen students from Mary Im- maculate were then joined by 12 more from Scoil Mhuire for a Eu- ropean trip to take part in the Euro Schola programme.
The students, along with teach- ers Marian O’Callaghan, Mary O’Flaherty and Helen Cleary, joined 650 students from every corner of Europe who took over the EU Parlia- ment in Strasbourg for a day.
“We found the discussion very good, especially in term of the dif-
ferent languages,’ said Marian O’Callaghan from Mary Immaculate Secondary School in Lisdoonvarna.
‘Each student received a certificate and this was the first time that they were printed in Irish. Later in the af- ternoon, there was a mini quiz with questions in all different languages.
‘The students had to go around and try and communicate with people from other countries to find out what the questions meant.
‘There was an Irish question so we were very much in demand from the 0) ates mi AUCOCo LAS
“Fifth-year student, Daniel Col- lin, then addressed the parliament in Irish, which was a very proud mo-
ment for all of us.”
Ennistymon’s Aisling Geraghty was also given the chance to address the Parliament.
“We went over as acting MEPs for the day. We were broken into dif- ferent groups, discussing different topics. The group I was in was En- vironment, Energy and Transport,’ she said.
“IT was chosen as president of my committee and had to report back to the parliament in the evening. It was scary, but it was a brilliant experience as well. I was asked questions from the house and it was really exciting. It would give you a real insight and wake you up to that sort of career.”