North’s politicians need to work on making a better case for themselves

I WENT last week to listen to a talk given by Martin McGuinness on education at the Patrick MacGill Summer School in the Donegal town of Glenties. This year, under the broad theme of Building a More Civilised Society in Ireland, the summer school organised an evening’s discussion on the role of education, at which three speakers each gave a paper on the topic.

The first speaker was Derek West, the principal of the large Newpark comprehensive secondary school in Dublin. He had some interesting and innovative things to say, informed by his frontline perspectives.

The second speaker was Fine Gael front-bench spokesperson Olwyn Enright. A year into the education brief, she has certainly mastered the subject. She has the details of education process at her fingertips and appears to be well on the way to giving Fine Gael a distinctive voice on education policy.