Students from schools in ten counties will join a large gathering of politicians at an event in the Convention Centre in Dublin this Friday afternoon, 14 December, to mark the centenary of women exercising their right to vote.
The students from schools in Cavan, Clare, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Kildare, Laois, Limerick and Waterford are finalists in a video competition on the theme of ‘Politics Needs Women’. The Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan TD, and the Minister of State for Equality, Immigration and Integration, David Stanton TD, wrote to every secondary school in the country inviting them to enter a 90 second video on the theme.
The entries of sixteen schools have been shortlisted. The winning team, to be announced at the event, will travel to New York in March 2019 to attend the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women which in 2019 is chaired by Ireland.
In addition to the competition entrants, pupils from Pobalscoil na Tríonóide in Youghal will perform speeches delivered in the Houses of Parliament at the time of the debate on the right of women to vote.
The conference has an exciting programme of theatre, video, presentation and conversation, moderated by journalist and columnist Alison O’Connor. It will feature current female Ministers, three former female Tánaistí, former President Mary McAleese, Mairead McGuinness MEP, Bríd Smith TD, Maria Bailey TD and Senator Alice Mary Higgins. It will look at what women have achieved over the past 100 years and what needs to be done to encourage more women into politics as we look to the future.
