On Friday, 10th March, three 11th class students represented St. Kilian’s at the Model European Council Debate in Dublin Castle. Killian Conyngham, Cathal Kelly and Mihovil Dzidic debated European Trade Laws from the perspective of the Czech Republic.
“We arrived at Dublin Castle at 9 am on the Friday morning, and immediately took on the role of Czech ambassadors; affixing name tags to our shirts and conversing with other representatives as if we were truly representing the Czech people, as we had breakfast. We were then called for a picture with the actual Czech Ambassador, after which the debate began. The debate was modelled after a European Parliament meeting, with a school representing one of each of the 28 EU member states, and the discussion centering on the theme of International Trade Policy. The first round of debating was 2 hours long, after which there was a much appreciated lunch break. Even during the lunch break, however, teams were attempting to get support for various amendments to the Communication. After lunch the final leg of the debate commenced, where the many amendments were discussed, and one was even adopted, a joint amendment proposed by ourselves and Lithuania. Once the time was up the winners were announced, and our team was awarded an honourable mention for our contributions to the debate. We left Dublin Castle at 4pm, exhausted but glad we had taken part.”
Report by Killian Conyngham
Pic shows: St. Kilian’s German School, Clonskeagh students (Front L-R) Killian Conyngham, Cathal Kelly and Mihovil Dzidic with (back L-R) Head of the European Commission Representation in Ireland, Gerry Kiely, Journalist for The Irish Farmers Journal, Mairead Lavery, teacher Linda Golden, HE Ambassador of Czech Republic Mrs. Hana Mottlova at Dublin Castle where they where debating the hot topic of EU trade policy at the eleventh annual Model Council of the European Union. St. Kilian’s German School, Clonskeagh, role-played Czech Republic in an intense and well informed discussion among 26 other schools from across Ireland.
PIC: NO FEE, MAXWELLPHOTOGRAPHY.IE
