Aisling Twomey-O’Connor at her workplace at Parliament Buildings, Stormont

This article is from the SDLP Newsletter November 08.

Aisling Twomey-O’Connor has worked as an SDLP Administration Officer based in Stormont for more than 1 year. Everyday she brushes shoulders with the people in power – Assembly Members and Ministers. Aisling recognises that the corridors where she works are steeped with history and many interesting stories and characters, but that doesn’t faze the 27 year-old.

Aisling explains how she got involved in the SDLP, “Although I had not been a SDLP member before joining the staff at Stormont, I joined the SDLP Youth wing of the party and was elected to the position of Treasurer in June of this year.

“When I applied for the job I didn’t think had any chance of getting it, due to my lack of background in Northern Ireland politics. But I was very pleasantly surprised when SDLP General Secretary Gerry Cosgrove offered me the position. My role is a very busy one as I deal with many different issues and no two days are ever the same. However I have been lucky to have been working along with Catherine Matthews, who I think is the real boss of the SDLP!”

A modest Aisling may well brush aside her experience and knowledge of Northern Ireland Politics but that is not to suggest that this young woman doesn’t know anything about politics and people. On the contrary! During her time at Manchester Metropolitan University she got involved in student politics, and was elected as Vice President.

“I have always been very political since high school and always had comments on my report card like “has no problem sharing her views with her peers”. It seems it was destiny for me to end up working for a political party,” explains Aisling.

“I graduated from MMU Cheshire in 2004 with a BA Hons American Studies. Throughout my time at University, I became involved with the Student Union and served as Site Officer (VP) for my University. As vice president, I represented the Students on Student Staff Forum and Faculty Committee. Unfortunately I had been bitten by the politics bug – In the presidential election at my university, I was defeated by 14 votes out of 1800. “

Turning to her work with the SDLP at Parliament Buildings in Stormont Aisling says, “I am always taken back with this building; there is so much history here and it in surrounding buildings. One of the most interesting and amusing facts of this building is that it survived the Blitz by being covered in cow manure. It is very surreal working here as you may find yourself queuing up for your lunch with Mark Durkan or BBC reporters such as Martina Purdy.

“If you were to ask me what the highlight of my first year within the SDLP has been, many would expect me to say that it’s been working with the best political party in Northern Ireland. But I have to confess that my highlight so far has to be is when I met Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol, one of my favourite bands. I was so nervous; I hardly said more than two words to him the whole day. Amazing the people you meet here.

“I am very proud to work for the SDLP and I hope that I can continue to have a part to play within the SDLP.”

Something to watch on the TG4 archives:

Soviet na hÉireann explores socialism in Ireland post-WWI and looks at whether Ireland could have had a Soviet-style revolution.

“Could our history have been very different had the labour movement rather than Sinn Fein led Ireland to nationhood? Had Labour leaders launched a worker’s revolution against Britain, could we have avoided, the trauma of the civil war, decades of grinding poverty, the tradegy of emmigration, and the bitter sectarian partition of the island?”

To view the programme, go to the TG4 archives, then click ‘Faisnéis - Cartlann’ in the left menu and select Soviet na hÉireann from the list. It was originally shown on the 22nd. The programme is in Irish with English subtitles.

Hey Guys,

Michelle here from SDLP!! Firstly, thank you for signing up to the SDLP at the freshers fair in Magee - hope you all enjoyed your rubix cubes!!

Now for the exciting news…..SDLP is finally coming to Magee for their first meeting this year ….why not come along for some information and show your support??

The meeting taking place on Wednesday 29th October at 3:30pm is just a short introduction which will last about half an hour and possibly elect a new executive…we need a President, Chair,treasurer and secretary…these posts are not time consuming at all…plus, it looks good on the CV! If you are interested, please email me.

Date of meeting: 29/10/2008

Time:            3:30pm - 4:00pm

Venue:           MIO22 Aberfoyle House

Please get back to me if you will be attending the meeting - email me

SEE YOU ON WEDNESDAY!!!

Michelle

University & Colleges Officer
SDLP Youth

Skerries Councillor Maura Hickey has been rated ‘top date‘ by members of Coleraine Youth Forum at a political speed dating event to mark Local Democracy Week.

Cllr Hickey was delighted with her win: “Engaging with young people is very important and although this event was light hearted in nature we must continually give our attention to issues that affect them. Now they have got a taster for speaking to their elected members, I encourage them and all young people to speak to their local Councillor’s at anytime not just at planned events like this.”

Following the horrific attack of a young woman in South Belfast, Michelle Byrne, Vice Chair of SDLP @ Queens is urging people to make a stance and stop this happening again.

The young girl suffered this horrific attack on Agincourt Avenue. Michelle says “It is ridiculous that this girl was the victim of such a violent attack. Seeing as this is the fourth sexual attack in South Belfast in just one month, I think it is essential that the PSNI work hard and do everything in their power to ensure that this does not happen again. It is important now that the University works in conjunction with students and the PSNI to ensure a safe environment for all students and residents in South Belfast. I would urge anyone with information to contact your local PSNI station. Stop these attacks from happening in the future.”

Dear Friends,

Due to last minute funding, SDLP Youth are able to send one representative to the IUSY - PYO Seminar 2008, which takes place from 30th October to 4th November in Beirut. This is an amazing opportunity but it’s just over a week away, and we must decide who to send by Tuesday (see deadline below).

The event is hosted by Progressive Youth Organisation of Beirut and 25 fellow representatives of IUSY (International Union of Socialist Youth) will attend.

Flight costs will be covered. IUSY/PYO will provide hotel accommodation and daily meals for all participants in Beirut.

Aims of the seminar
• To strengthen and support youth organizations and democratic forces in Lebanon that work towards democracy and openness, against fundamentalism and totalitarianism
• To share experiences in democratic organizing, gender conscious work, etc
• To update IUSY member organization about the political situation in Lebanon, and encourage common activities and projects
• To discuss and share views about the situation in the middle East in general, the current situation in Palestine in particular as well as to raise awareness about the situation of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon

Do you want to attend for us?
SDLP Youth have one place at the conference and we must decide who to send by Tuesday 21st October @ 12 midday (please note this is a final deadline!). Our representative will be required to represent the SDLP, to make speeches at the seminar, to share views on conflict resolution, and to send us back reports of the trip. This trip is open to all SDLP Youth members BUT previous experience at representing SDLP Youth in Ireland will be necessary before you can represent us internationally.

You can put your name forward by replying to the topic on our members forum @ http://forum.sdlp.ie/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=422 OR by contacting us by email.

The University of Ulster Students’ Union is organising a protest against the extortionate ticket prices for the bus to Jordanstown.

Date: Thursday 16th October
Time: 1pm
Place: Outside Great Victoria Street Station, beside the Europa.

SDLP Youth will be participating in the protests so please come along and join us. Translink want to increase the bus fare to Jordanstown yet again, but students are already paying way too much. Stop robbing students!

Via Slugger, PR-guru and former SDLP advisor Conal McDevitt was on the Politics Show on Sunday. He was asked who is winning the PR battle during the current impasse at Stormont?

The truth is that all sides are losing. It doesn’t really matter now whether it was the DUP or SF who started this mess. It matters more who has the balls to negotiate and work out a situation where our Executive can meet, free from deadlock, to get down to the real business of government and solve the many many problems facing people in NI.

On Friday the Kids’ Life and Times Survey 2008 was released.

The results (pdf, 14mb) are discussed in the Belfast Telegraph which has a breakdown of what it all means:

Twenty-two percent of the children said they have been physically bullied at school, 39% have been bullied in other ways, 10% have experienced bullying by text message or on the internet and 51% think that children in their school get bullied.

More children said they had been bullied at school in the last two months by getting called names, getting left out of games, or having nasty stories spread about them on purpose than said they had been physically bullied at school — for example getting pushed around or threatened or having their belongings stolen.

The vast majority of children said their school had a set of rules on bullying (87%) and that they had talked about bullying in their class (88%).

As far as I’m aware, it’s the first time this survey has been carried out online, with 3,440 children at many schools across Northern Ireland completing the survey over the Internet. Previous surveys had to visit individual schools to run a survey so they couldn’t include that many young people.

In 2003 the Young Life and Times Survey (687 pupils surveyed and some were post-primary pupils) posed the question: “Do you think that pupils at your school get bullied?”. The 2003 survey indicated that 18% thought pupils got bullied ‘A lot’ but the 2008 survey shows only 5%. There’s still work to be done but such a change has to be positive.

On bullying, Mark Durkan has suggested what is needed is an “integrated, preventative and responsive strategy that brings together schools, communities and families to address the very serous and, sadly, growing problem of bullying“.

The survey also dares to ask what P7 pupils think of the 11+! Not surprisingly, 61% of those that got grade A wanted to keep the 11+, but 51% of those that got grade D wanted to get rid of it.

There’s no real consensus among children on whether it should stay or go. The results demonstrate that plans to replace the 11+ by the Education Minister Catríona Ruane are a mess, and it’s both parents and children who are confused about what is happening. Some children are scared they or their friends will fail the test; they don’t think it’s fair that 2 tests decide your future school, and some children wish to keep the transfer test because they aren’t aware of any proper proposed alternative.

A petition has been launched which reads:

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to develop policy which supports Mutual Societies and Building Societies and puts people, not profit at the heart of finance.

Please take a moment to sign it at:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Building-Soc/

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