WIP Weekly Round Up – 16th December 2011
Looking to catch up on the conversation in Ireland, Northern Ireland and DC? Check out our weekly series where we bring you the top five stories, events and opinion pieces that caught our eye this week.
1) WIP Xmas Party – 21st December! Calling all WIP Alumni & Friends, the WIP Christmas party will be held this Wednesday on the 21st December at BT1 in Belfast. As usual, the only cost of entry is an unwrapped gift for the Family Appeal – and they request that no soft toys this year. We hope to see you there!
2) Opportunities for WIP Alumni (and others!) Three opportunities were highlighted to us this week that we think might be of interest to our Alums. Get in touch with the WIP Office if we can be of assistance:
- The General Medical Council is looking for a Northern Ireland Officer (13 month maternity cover)
- The World Economic Forum is looking for applications for Young Leaders between 20-30 to participate in their conference
- Research Assistant to the Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (Internship)
3) Belfast Movie on the road to the Oscars! Congratulations to “The Shore”, a Belfast film by Terry George, which is among the final 10 live action short films which will advance in the voting process for the 84th Academy Awards®. The film was part funded by Lough Shore Investments, which has a number of WIP Alumni connections. Here is hoping for an invitation to LA in February!
4) We the Citizens launch closing report. We the Citizens is an independent national initiative exploring how new ways of engaging citizens in public decision-making. Earlier this year we highlighted the work of Orla De Burca, WIP Alum, who has been working as member of the We the Citizens team. On Tuesday they launched their final report outlining their results and providing a model for the Irish Government’s proposed Citizens’ Assembly in 2012. For a good summary of the report, check out this opinion article by We the Citizens Chairman, Senator Fiach Mac Conghail.
5) A weekly 10 minute DC politics update. If you’re looking to keep up to date on the news in DC, you should sign up for the Shields & Brooks PBS podcast (iTunes Link). Each Friday at the end of the PBS News Hour David Brooks (NY Times columnist) and Mark Shields (syndicated columnist and long time WIP speaker – photo above with WIP Class) sit down for 10 minutes for a broad ranging political discussion. Comes highly recommended!
