Today was a bit of a rough start for me... oops! I was super late to the first meeting of the day, the traffic was terrible and we went to the wrong place first, but no worries we got there eventually, sadly I did miss the first meeting. The rest of the group heard Judge George Connors speak about youth justice, I'm sure it was amazing! (like the rest of this trip). We then headed off to the Youth Conference Service. We heard from Martin McAnallan and Yvonne Adair. They spoke to us about restorative justice. It's an extremely interesting idea that I think all countries should attempt. Instead of immediately sending a child to prison, the mediators attempt to work with victims and perpetrators towards a better end. Apology notes, community service, etc... Mr. Hubbard was very interested in it and how he could apply it to our school!
We then headed off (wow I use that alot) to see the Community Restorative Justice, they are two groups, 1 Catholic, and 1 Protestant who similar to the Youth Conference spoke about restoring justice. Instead of working through the courts and police they are community members who are trusted to attempt to mediate problems. It was extremely interesting and informative (I have 2 pages of notes!)
Next we went to school!!!!!!!!! I never thought I would be happy to say that over spring break =). Probably one of my favorite parts of this trip is going to visit schools, its just so interesting. We started in a political studies class where they were learning the difference between the Good Friday Agreement and the St. Andrews agreement, or if there was any difference at all. A little background The Good Friday agreement was established the Northern Ireland Assembly with devolved legislative powers and marked a deescalation of violence in The Troubles. It was signed in Belfast on 10 April 1998 (Good Friday) by the British and Irish governments and endorsed by most Northern Ireland political parties. On 23 May 1998 the Agreement was endorsed by the voters of Northern Ireland in a referendum (thanks wikipedia for so nicely summing that up!) and the St. Andrews Agreement which was an agreement between the British and Irish Governments and the political parties in relation to the devolution of power to Northern Ireland. The agreement resulted from multi-party talks held in St Andrews in Fife, Scotland from 11 October to 13 October 2006, between the two governments and all the major parties in Northern Ireland, including the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin. It resulted in the restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly, the formation (on 8 May 2007) of a new Northern Ireland Executive and a decision by Sinn Féin to support the Police Service of Northern Ireland, courts and rule of law (once again thanks Wiki!) We then went to an Irish class, we learned how to say my name is... and where we were from, sadly i can't remember how to say those anymore. Language isn't my talent but Evelina was amazing! Then at the end of the day we just got to sit down and talk to some seniors about their lives! Then.... I TOOK THE BUS HOME!!!! The school we went to was Kathy's so we took a double decker school bus home, as they say here, it was good craic!
For dinner I had some good ole fish and chips! They were so yummy and I was excited to eat this Irish staple. Ice skating followed dinner with all the TABU students and the host teens, it was so fun and so funny to see people attempt to ice skate, including me. We just talked for awhile after, always one of my favorite things to do! So I'm going to bed now... but wait! In Ireland they have these things called hot water bottles (My host family offered me one the first night and I was like no thank you... why would i want hot water?) Turns out its a big rubber jug/bag about the size of a pillow that you fill with hot water and put in your bed and it makes your bed toasty warm. I'm coming home with at least 100 they are so the best things ever!!! Now I'm going to get into my toasty bed =) and get ready to see Dublin tomorrow!!!!
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