Sir Jeremy Greenstock paid his first visit to NI in his role as Chairman of UNA-UK in October this year. The day started with a courtesy visit to the Lord Mayor, Councillor Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, who warmly welcomed Sir Jeremy to the City of Belfast. Discussion included the ongoing reconciliation work and strengthening the bridges between Northern Ireland and the UN.
A lunchtime reception for UNA members and guests at the Parliament Building, Stormont, was hosted by Jim Wells MLA of the All Party Group on International Development. The occasion gave the UNA-NI committee the opportunity to invite a wide range of persons with interests in the UN and international issues to attend and thereby to raise the profile of UNA in Northern Ireland. They included representatives of the Local Assembly, the wider UN ‘family’, the universities and NGOs. Other guests included teachers and students from the Royal School Armagh and Our Lady and St Patrick’s College and one of the pupils, Peter McManus, later wrote the following report:
We ... ‘had the opportunity to attend a talk from the former UK ambassador to the United Nations and current chairman of the United Nations Association, Sir Jeremy Greenstock. Sir Jeremy is a former diplomat who worked at the United Nations at the start of the Iraq war and later served as UK Special Envoy for Iraq. He spoke on the theme of Northern Ireland and the Wider International World and explained how as the world’s freedoms have increased, people have become more selfish and have narrowed their horizons, becoming more concerned with themselves and not thinking about global problems. He also talked about the need for people to lose their tribal mentality where they only interest themselves with people in their own community. I think the most striking, yet obvious, point he made was that, “Freedom is of no value unless it is in the interest of order” which is testament to the fact that with freedom comes responsibilities.’
During the day, Sir Jeremy was able to undertake a number of media engagements; he recorded items for the late night BBC NI Politics programme, the Evening Extra programme on Radio Ulster and, most importantly, the Thought for the Day piece which was broadcast by Radio Ulster on UN Day. The UNA-NI committee met with Sir Jeremy before his departure and welcomed the chance to discuss with him the challenges of running a national branch.
Undoubtedly Sir Jeremy’s visit was a valuable opportunity for UNA to reach out to the wider NI community and we have been delighted to make new links with a number of organisations as a result as well as consolidate our endeavours.
Judith Fawcett, Chairperson of UNA-NI