On the 13th of January, G. Reilly and I, A. O Reilly, made the trek down to Kilkenny for the Leinster Session of the European Youth Parliament. It was a two-day conference in which we debated, discussed, and proposed a new resolution about an issue involving the EU. For example, I was in the group ENVI I and our topic was Euthanasia. We discussed what we believe the law should be on it and what laws/directives, we believe the EU should put in place to encourage all EU countries to have a joint stance on ‘The Right to Die.’
The first day of the conference was intended for team building with the other 70 delegates that were in attendance. We played games, ate pizza, and made some new friends. On the second day we got into our separate groups, (most had 7 or so people) and we discussed our issue. We also wrote up a resolution to help us prepare for the General Assembly (GA) happening on Sunday.
Sunday came and the General Assembly took place in Langton’s Hotel. Each group read out their opening statement and then we went into 3 rounds of debate where the floor was open for questions. During this time, we had to work as a group to collectively answer the oppositions questions. These rounds lasted well over 45 minutes and gave each person the chance to voice their opinion. Then our group presented our closing speech. Finally, each group would vote whether they believed the resolution should be passed or dismissed. Our resolution passed! Then the process was repeated 10 times for all the different groups. We were there from 9am to 6pm!
Overall, we both thoroughly enjoyed the weekend, and it was a wonderful opportunity to make new friends and connect with people from across Europe! It was also brilliant to get some experience in debating and to consider if we would be interested in politics/law as a career. We will definitely be returning to EYP next year and we would encourage more students from Scoil Mhuire to get involved too.
Written by: A. O’Reilly – Transition Year
