Write a commentNewry and Mourne Youth Council held a Hustings conference on Tuesday 7th February in Newry Teachers Centre. The event was organised to give young people the chance to voice their concerns and raise burning issues with candidates from a number of political parties in the upcoming election.
The Newry & Mourne Youth Council are a group of young people who act as a representative voice of young people from the Newry & Mourne area. We develop social action programmes based on issues identified by young people as important to them. The group are supported by the Education Authority Southern Region and based at the Youth Resource Centre, Carnbane in Newry. We also run the Youth & Future Talent Awards (YAFTAs) which were created by the Newry & Mourne Youth Council to help raise the positive profiles of the work young people are involved in across our district. We aim to highlight the “unsung heroes” who don’t normally receive recognition.
A hustings event is were election parties or candidate’s debate and answer the questions of those keen to know more about their policies.
The event was chaired by Dr. Briege Rice who said 'The hustings event is a wonderful opportunity for the young people of Newry & Mourne to engage with their local politicians in anticipation of the election on March 2nd. As our future leaders it is encouraging to see our young people taking an interest in politics, and meeting the candidates will foster their interest even more and will no doubt lead to many fruitful discussions.'
The candidates and parties who were in attendance were,
Patrick Brown, Alliance Party candidate for South Down.
Danny Kennedy, Ulster Unionist Party candidate for Newry & Armagh.
Conor Murphy, Sinn Fein candidate for Newry & Armagh.
Justin McNulty, SDLP candidate for Newry & Armagh
Emmet Crossan, CISTA candidate for Newry & Armagh
Rowan Tunnicliffe, Green Party candidate for Newry & Armagh
William Irwin, DUP candidate for Newry & Armagh
Gary Hynds, NI Conservatives candidate for South Down
James Treanor, Peer Support Worker with Newry & Mourne Youth Council said ‘This hustings event was held on the run up to the quickly approaching election and was aimed at young people, some of whom will be voting for the first time, so that they could raise issues they have with candidates and find out what each candidate stands for so that they can make their vote count on March 2nd. I think it speaks volumes to these young people that nearly all the parties sent a candidate to this event, which gave these young people the chance to ask their questions and will allow them to make a more decisive decision come Election Day as to who will best represent them in Stormont’
Each candidate introduced themselves and gave a brief outline of their background, their party and what they stand for which was followed by some questions from the audience on burning topics such as Education, Youth Service cuts, Brexit and each candidate was asked what their party can offer that the others cannot. Overall young people left the event feeling a bit more informed on were each candidate stood on issues that were important to them which will hopefully help them when it comes to casting their vote on March 2nd.
Conor McLoughlin Chairperson of Newry & Mourne Youth Council said ‘This is an event where young people can finally make their own decisions on who they can and should vote for without having to rely on the opinions of others. This event offers young people the chance to ask the questions they feel need answered and decide who can best represent them in today’s political world’
For more details on the Newry & Mourne Youth Council and other events we run please contact the Youth Council Co-Ordinator, Paul Bradley, Senior Youth Worker with Education Authority NI on 028 3025 1515 or Paul.Bradley@eani.org.uk.
