Day 13 - June 13th

Thursday marked our final full day of the trip, and we started it off at the St. Patrick Center with another lesson in Gaelic. We learned a few more conversational phrases as well as some colorful curses and blessings, including "Droch áird chúgat lá gaoithe" (That you may be badly positioned on a windy day) and "Fad saol agat, gob fliuch, agus bás in Éirinn" (Long life, a wet mouth, and death in Ireland). 

After our lesson, we met with Councillor Gareth Sharvin, a member of the Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP) and representative for the Downpatrick district electoral area. He talked about his involvement in the community, both with official projects and playing Gaelic football with the local GAA club. We then met with the Sinn Fein member Chris Hazzard, who currently serves as a Member of Parliament for South Down. Hazzard won his seat in 2017 from Margaret Ritchie, another politician that we met earlier on our trip. Given Sinn Fein's ultimate goal of a united Ireland, we had a discussion about what a new Ireland might look like and what steps are required to reach the point where we can have a united Ireland. A lot of what we talked about revolved around opening the conversation to unionists who are adamant about preserving the partition between the north and south, which mirrored the Ireland's Future conference I attended at the Irish center before my trip with the Young Ambassadors.

Next, we met with Councillor Cadogan Enright, a member of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland. He led us through a brief history of the British Isles, tracing family names as different peoples invaded and moved through Scotland and Ireland, notably the O'Neill's, Picts, Normans, etc. I was part of a group consisting of druids and other religious leaders, who served as legal authorities, priests, medical professionals, and scientists. Over time, and especially with the rise of Christianity in Europe, the druids either disappeared as a result of Roman suppression or changed their tune about what they were preaching.

To round off the night as well as the trip, we played trivia games at a local pub, both on local and global knowledge. We also shared poems that were more like diss tracks, but it was all good fun. 

This trip has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet people and see things that I would never have been able to otherwise. From visiting Stormont and meeting the First Minister and Deputy First Minister to making lifelong friends with other ambassadors, this trip has been an absolute blessing. I want to thank everyone involved in sending me to Northern Ireland, namely Danny O'Connell, Dr. Tim Campbell, and everyone at Div. 17 of the AOH, San Francisco.