During the Halloween midterm a delegation of nine girls from Dominican College Sion Hill travelled to London for the 22nd annual Model United Nations (MUN).

Out of the nine girls selected from 4th and 5th year students to take part in MUN, four of them were from the Ringsend, Irishtown and Sandymount area: Anne Reid, Lesley-Anne Lacey, Siobhan Egan and Etáoin Corr.

The conference was held in a beautiful boarding school The Royal Russell College in Croydon, London, which the girls said, looked like something straight out of a Harry Potter film. On arrival at the school they were all very excited and not at all nervous, as they had spent a lot of time in the previous weeks writing their speeches, preparing debates and practising their public speaking.

Sion Hill has taken part in previous MUN sessions, and believes it is an excellent experience for their students as it boosts their confidence in public speaking.

It is a great experience to learn first-hand about the importance of the United Nations. The UN plays an important role in global peace keeping and arbitration which helps bring about resolutions enabling countries to co-exist peacefully.

The students from Sion Hill represented two African countries The Congo and Lesotho and this was an opportunity to learn about these countries.

The debates were centred on very serious issues such as religious extremism, the Aids epidemic and vivisection, (experimenting on live animals). Discussion took place both at separate committee level and in the General Assembly. The process is based exactly on the UN general Assembly.

But it wasn’t all work for the girls as they got a chance to relax and socialise with the other delegations. The majority of boys and girls had travelled from countries all over the world to take part in the assembly.

It was a great achievement to have taken part in MUN and the girls are looking forward to next Easter when the Model United Nations will assemble in Ballsbridge and they fully intend to take part.

Model students…
Back row, left to right: Siobhán Egan, Etáoin Corr, Lesley-Anne Lacey, Maeve Hand.
Middle Row: Ruth O’Connor, Ruth Ronan
Front row: Ms Ciara Reid, Anne Reid, Elizabeth Treacy, Sarah Curran, Ms-Máire Walsh