Pictured at Erne Integrated College:
Back row left: Mikolaj Dawidowski, Clodagh Upton, James Gillespie, Aidan Jones
Front row from left: Paul Burke, Aisling Maguire, Steven Agnew MLA, Tanya Jones, Sharon McKee (acting principal)
THE LEADER of the Green Party in the North paid a visit to Fermanagh last week, offering his support to the party’s Fermanagh and South Tyrone Westminster candidate, Tanya Jones.
MLA Steven Agnew also lent his voice to the integrated education system, paying a visit to the Erne Integrated College.
Mr Agnew and Mrs Jones met with the Fermanagh Trust to discuss education issues and community energy projects. They then went on to the Erne Integrated College, where Steven spoke with Year 14 students.
He told them about how he, growing up in Belfast, had not had any interest in traditional divided politics, but had discovered the Green Party through his passion for human rights, international development and animal rights, and most of all his opposition to the Iraq War.
Students explained their concerns about the current state of politics in Northern Ireland and in particular the lack of respect shown by some members of the mainstream parties towards their opponents and those of the ‘other’ tradition.
As young people educated together, with no exclusions by faith, class, gender or academic ability, the students of EIC are, as Steven put it, not just looking forward to a shared future, but living in a ‘shared now’.
As the parent of a child educated at an integrated school, and as a former director of NICIE, the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education, Mr Agnew commended the achievements of Erne Integrated College and thanked the school community for its warm welcome and lively, thoughtful discussion.
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