Ireland: Day 2

Day 2 started with our first trip on public transportation here in Northern Ireland. We had to hop on a bus at 8:10 AM to make it into Downpatrick. We are staying in Dundrum (which I soon learned talkin to the locals to emphasize the second half of Dundrum) and it is about a 15 - 20 minute drive from Downpatrick.



We arrived at the St. Patrick Centre to see Dr. Campbell and to be sent to our placements. I'm working with Minister Margaret Ritchie with the Social Democrat and Labour Party...I know, it sounds appropriate for me doesn't it ;-)

Minister Ritchie is also a member of the executive branch of the Northern Irish Goverment and serves as the Minister of Social Development.

Here is a website to see her biography:
http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/members/biogs_07/ritchie_m.htm

I showed up to the office around 9:45 AM and began work with Maria, one of the Minister's head staff members. Maria took me with her to the Northern Ireland Electoral Office in Banbridge, directly west of Downpatrick. We had a great car ride and talked about politics, religion, school, family and many other things. I learned several things throughout my car ride including her perception on universal healthcare, government housing, American politics and working as a legislative staff member.

On the way to Banbridge I found out that Maria, 25 years old, had just received her driver's license about four months ago. While trying to park in a parking lot she made the comment, "I really like my car because it has great bumpers...I can run into anything and it doesn't damage things she runs into. It was a funny moment. We also ran into, (figuratively...not literally), what Maria called a cliche "Irish Traffic Jam". A farmer had stopped us in the middle of the road with a long wooden paddle to allow his cattle to cross the road. She said it wouldn't have been a true Irish countryside road trip without seeing cattle or sheep crossing the road along the way.

We stopped at the Northern Irish Electoral Office in Banbridge and dropped off paperwork that showed who would be working for the SDLP at the polls checking off individuals who would be voting in the election. They use this data then to determine which wards had high turnouts and then hopefully determininng early who would win the election.

The European Union elections will be held on Thursday, June 4th 2009 and I, along with Bobby Hamill from UW-Eau Claire, will be working with the SDLP at the election booths. They will not know from the government who won the election until Monday, but they will use this data to hopefully understand earlier.

The political world is very intriguing here. I first thought that it would be very beneficial having multiple political parties. They have basically two major sepeartions between political parites determined by their stance on becoming a unified island with the Repulic of Ireland. The nationalists consist of two major parties (Sinn Fein and the SDLP) and they want to end British rule in Northern Ireland and nationalize with the Republic. The unionists consist of the Ulster Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party (UUP and DUP). The major differences between these two parties within each branch are their demeanor in political action (i.e. the IRA was considered the "military arm" of the Sinn Fein).

Partisan politics is very prevalent in Northern Ireland and it seems that those here are much more willinng to identify and stay faithful to their party. Talking to people it seems that they care more about what the party's original core values are instead of the current work of the party. For example, the Democratic Unionist Party controls the Assembly and has been very inactive with debatable legislation. One of those instances includes the 11+ test which determines the fate of those in primary school to whether they will attend a secondary or grammar school (secondary means that individuals will typically move directly to the workforce...grammar school is like a college prepatory school).

After work was over at 4:00 PM, I ventured back to the St. Patrick Centre to meet up with Dr. Campbell and the rest of the crowd. Only Bridget was done so her and I went to the bus stop to catch our bus home. We were sitting there for about twenty minutes and finally realized that our bus had already come and gone!!! We had completely missed the bus!

That gave us an excuse to walk around Downpatrick for 35 minutes and to even grab a pint of Guinness before hopping on the 5:35 bus back to Dundrum.

Returning from Downpatrick, we went to Newcastle to the beach and area shops. Shops in the area seem to close at 5:00 PM so we had very few options for shopping. But, there were surely pubs open so we were sure to go in for a couple pints. Bartenders in the area were extremely helpful and had fun with their customers...we found that much more pleasing than the pompous attitude of the typical bartender in college towns.

We ended up eating dinner in Newcastle and then finishing the night at a pub across the street from our apartment called "The Dundrum Inn". We actually had to bang on the door of the bar because they had closed at midnight, but they let us in and we had a couple drinks along with a little takeout for the apartment. :-)

I'm just finishing this up on Wednesday afternoon and I'm looking forward to telling you about our adventure in the Mountains at Mourne as well as our lunch and tour at Castle Ward