Annual Northern Ireland Debate

dublin | miscellaneous | event notice Tuesday October 14, 2003 19:27 by John McGuirk - College Historical Society mcguirkj at tcd dot ie GMB, Trinity College, Dublin 2 086 083 2011

High Profile Guests for Annual Northern Ireland Debate at the Hist

Join the Hist to Discuss the current difficulties in NI tommorrow night. This event is being covered by BBC Northern Ireland.

The College Historical Society is delighted to announce an exciting line-up of Guests for its annual Northern Ireland Debate, to be held in the GMB, Trinity College Dublin, at 7.30pm on Wednesday evening. The Northern Ireland Debate is by now an institution and has been addressed by the most influential figures in Northern politics over the years, including Jeffrey Donaldson, Brid Rodgers, Garret Fitzgerald, and Sir. Patrick Mayhew and was chaired last year by General John De Chastelain on the day the IRA pulled out of the decommissioning body.

This year, the Society plays host to David Burnside M.P., and Rev. Martin Smith M.P., of the Ulster Unionist Party, Alex Attwood of the SDLP, David Ervine of the PUP, Daithi Doolan of Sinn Fein, The British Ambassador, his Excellency Mr. Stuart Eldon, Noel Thompson of BBC Newsline, and the PSNI Chief Constable Mr. Hugh Orde, who will chair the proceedings. The debate comes at a critical point in the peace process, - so much so that the British Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, had to withdraw from the event only this morning in order to be at Stormont for the ongoing talks.

This years debate will be on the motion “That this house would go back to the drawing board”, and will focus on whether or not it is time to renegotiate the Good Friday agreement. Speaking this morning, Hist Correspondence Secretary Carl Cullinane was keen to express his pleasure at the debate in prospect. “Obviously months of hard work goes into preparing the Northern Ireland Debate every year. This year we will have the chance to hear what is going on in Stormont from the people involved and from eminent commentators on the Northern peace process. I am delighted with the number of Politicians who have taken time out of their schedule to come and address the Hist”