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Posts tagged ‘WIP Weekly’

Dec 16

21. Mark Shields

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!

Dec 9

Daithi-BoxingWeb

WIP Weekly Round Up – 9th 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 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) DCU Raising & Giving goes from strength to strength. Congratulations to Daithí Bán de Buitléir for another successful event with the new DCU society that he co-founded after returning from DC.  Last night Daithi and his friends organized the RAG Rumble, a boxing competition that brought in over €4,000 for charity. You can keep up to date with their activities by following them on facebook here.  Daithí can be seen in the photo above, on the right in red, after one of the fights.

3) Slate Civil War Stories. For those US history buffs out there, we recommend this excellent short podcast series of Civil War Stories – a collaboration between the Memory Palace and Slate.com. Highlighting unusual human stories from the US Civil War, this has brought great aural enjoyment to the WIP Office this week. The three episodes so far highlight the day-trippers who went to watch the Battle of Bull-Run, the amazing story of Elizabeth Van Lew (with guest appearance form then General US Grant), and Thaddeus Lowe the Civil War aeronaut.

4) A little bit of Challenge & Inspiration. We were directed to this short video about the history and potential for Northern Ireland to impact and influence the world by Michael O’Hara (Belfast born, Massachusetts Based – Chief Marketing Officer: GSMA) and we really like it. Have a look & start thinking about what we can make!

5) Some times its important to stop & listen. This is an old story (Jan 07) about Joshua Bell, grammy award-winning violinist that popped up again across Facebook this week. Mr Bell donned a Nats cap and started busking at Metro Center. Check out the video here & Pulitzer Prize winning story too.

Nov 25

Owen McMeel

WIP Weekly Round Up – 25th November 2011

Looking to catch up on the conversation in Ireland, Northern Ireland and DC? Check out the sixth in our weekly series where we bring you the top five stories, events and opinion pieces that caught our eye this week.

1) Happy Thanksgiving!  Thanksgiving was celebrated throughout the US on Thursday, and in DC with the annual pardoning of Turkeys. This year the two lucky birds were Liberty and Peace, who have retired to a life of leisure in Mount Vernon. They seemed to have a great trip to DC – including a night in the W hotel overlooking the White House.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American Friends.

2) Bryan Patten, WIP Executive Director.  It has also been a busy week at WIP, with the formal announcement of Bryan Patten as our Executive Director. Bryan will be announcing a number of new roles in WIP in the next few weeks – exciting times ahead!

3) The Queen’s Apprentice!  Congratulations to WIP 2011 Alum Owen McMeel, who won the competition to be named the Queen’s University Belfast Student Union’s Apprentice. You can follow the tasks that Owen had to complete through the videos here. Tough luck to Owen’s fellow alum Conal O’Hare, who finished 3rd in the competition.

Owen has now won an internship with Deloitte’s in Belfast.

4) RTE in crisis.  In Dublin the past week has seen one of the most significant crisis in RTE’s (Ireland’s national broadcaster) history, with the defamation of Fr Kevin Reynolds.

On the high-profile investigative news program “Prime Time Investigates” (equivalent to 60 Minutes) RTE alleged that Fr Reynolds had raped a minor and fathered a child by her in Kenya. These allegations were not true, and how RTE handled the matter has been a major issue, with the Government intervening and calling an independent enquiry. This has led to the cancellation of the program and the senior news executives standing aside.

5) FLAC & Nuala O’Loan.  Finally – if you’re going to one event this week, make it the Dave Ellis Memorial Lecture this Thursday in Dublin. This is FLAC (the Free Legal Advice Centers) annual lecture and this year former Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman, Baroness Nuala O’Loan, will be discussing the theme of “Access to Justice”.
Find out more here.

Nov 18

AmChamCover

WIP Weekly Round Up – 18th November 2011

Looking to catch up on the conversation in Ireland, Northern Ireland and DC? Check out the fifth in our weekly series where we bring you the top five stories, events and opinion pieces that caught our eye this week. Read more

Nov 11

Kamala With 2010 Celtic Cup Winners

WIP Weekly Round Up – 11th November 2011

Looking to catch up on the conversation in Ireland, Northern Ireland and DC? Check out the fourth in our weekly series where we bring you the top five stories, events and opinion pieces that caught our eye this week. Read more

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