Final stop for Assembly and Ritchie

The last few days have been great in learning about two major parts of government in Northern Ireland not always seen on a regular basis. Monday I had the honor of having a one on one meeting with the Speaker of The Northern Ireland Assembly, Robin Newton MLA. When you are appointed Speaker of the Assembly you are no longer in a partisan position and represent the Assembly in a spokesman sense as well and carry out the regular business and protocol of the chamber. Very different from the United States and Speaker Newton is a fantastic public servant. He is very focused on programs with other countries to assist bridging the gap between youth and senior citizens and how to create more opportunities for both. He also gave me an Assembly challenger coin and member lapel pin. Very cool experience.

Tuesday I got the chance to return to Margaret Ritchie’s Office in Downpatrick and it was a fantastic time. Got to do a lot more research on major issues facing MP’s and had a great time. Also Margaret’s office arranged a meeting with the Newry, Mourne and Down council to learn about local government structure and it was very different from our system. All the districts within the council boundary have equal representation when it comes to political parties. This council system creates many checks and balances and really gives a lot of power to the people to influence the council and how it brings about policy. All in all it was a two days and so sad I only have two more to go.

Speaker Newton and Myself

District Council