AMBASSADOR'S OUTREACH

Ambassador Foley and U.S. Special Envoy on Northern Ireland Paula Dobriansky Meet Members of the Youth Wings of the Political Parties: Ambassador's Residence: June 7, 2007. 

L-R: U.S. Special Envoy on Northern Ireland, Paula Dobriansky,  Ambassador Foley and members of the Youth Wings of the Political Parties at the Ambassador's Residence.

Representatives of almost every political party in both Ireland and Northern Ireland attended a riveting evening of discussion. Slated to run from 6:30 to 8:30, in fact, the discussion did not break up until well after 10:00 p.m.

The variety of topics was wide-ranging from debates about the future of the newly devolved government in Northern Ireland to the government being formed in the Republic of Ireland to U.S. foreign policy and a dozen topics in between such as education, poverty relief, agricultural subsidies, and the situation in Darfur.

At the end of the evening many of the invitees thanked the Embassy for facilitating the meeting, commenting that they have very few occasions to meet with each other. Everyone present expressed the hope that the Embassy would host similar events in the future.