Ogra Fianna Fail National Youth Conference 2007
February 19th, 2007Friday night saw Dr McDaid’s Valentine’s Banquet in the Mount Errigal in Letterkenny. I had to leave early as I had to travel to Galway for the Ogra Fianna Fail National Youth Conference.
Declan Cullen (Chairman of Donegal NE Ogra) and I left town at about 6:15 am in order to make it to the Hotel in time to register and vote in the Youth Committee elections. Congratulations to Donegal candidates Oilbhe Brady and Darragh McShea who were both succesful in their campaigns. James Carroll from Louth, who attended our recent Ogra AGM in Letterkenny, was beaten for the top job (Leas Cathaoirleach) by Galway candidate Lorcan Price.
Ogra Youth Conferences are a mixture of the political and the social. This year’s event was no different; from the election hustings, the policy workshops and debating competitions to the evening banquet, disco and ceili, the local organisation (NUI Galway’s Cumann De Barra) put on a great weekend.
This year’s Conference falls right at the start of the election campaign. There was a real sense of occasion about it; Ogra members are ready for the fight over the coming months. Ministers, Senators and TDs in attendance made sure everyone was aware of what lies ahead. The Taoiseach’s address focussed on Fianna Fail’s Environmental policy for the coming election, and contained some interesting ideas.
As one of Fianna Fail’s younger candidates in the General Election, 33 year old Niall Blaney TD featured heavily through the event. He chaired the election hustings on the Friday night, and was the winner of the “political speed dating” (more details here). The younger members who joined recently FF as supporters of IFF will be attending the Ard Fheis in March with our long-standing members.
Congratulations to Darragh McShea and all in NUI Galway for their excellent work. The event went great, and the were deserving winners of the Gobnait O’Conaill award for Ogra Unit of the Year.
Cllr Tiernan Brady, Minister Pat the Cope Gallagher, Cllr Sean McEniff, Oilbhe Brady and Darragh McShea
with Pat the Cope and Bertie Ahern at the Youth Conference
Update: It’s in Spanish/Catalan, but here’s an update on the weekend from Guillem Laporta, who visited the conference.
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3 Responses to “Ogra Fianna Fail National Youth Conference 2007”
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February 19th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
hey Damien! I’m wondering how you got my blog adress! Anyways, I had a great time in your Congress.It was so well-organized and I was really impressed by the high level of the debates.
You all were very kind with me!
Thanks and hope to see you in Barcelona!
February 19th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
The internet is a great thing, Guillem! I hope we will see many new connections developed in future between Ireland and Spain, and that you can make it to our events again in the future.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:28 am
We really should do that!
I think our organisations are very similar.
Thank you again