Mitchell Scholars Meet with Government Ministers in Belfast

The 2008-2009 George Mitchell Scholars traveled to Belfast in March for their annual mid-year retreat. While there, they spent a day at Stormont, sitting down for more than an hour with a number of government ministers and representatives, including Junior Minister Jeffrey Donaldson (DUP) and Junior Minister Gerry Kelly (Sinn Fein). They also met with David McClarty, MLA with the UUP and deputy speaker of the Assembly, as well as SDLP’s MLA, Alex Attwood. Later in the week, the Scholars met with a panel of former paramilitaries, took a tour of the Crumlin Gaol, dined with poet Michael Longley and his wife, writer Edna Longley, and braved the gale force winds and rain along the Antrim coast, from Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge to Giant’s Causeway. Before returning to Belfast, they warmed themselves up with an Irish whiskey tasting at Bushmills Distillery.