Renewed faith in our student population

Wonderful as the Zogby talk last night at UU was, I had an even more uplifting experience when I visited the fifth and sixth floors of the new university city centre campus to check out its facilities for our forthcoming Belfast: City of the Quarters conference.

On the top floors, I was met by the inspiring sight of scores of young people (perhaps hundreds) working in an openplan space, typing on laptops, listening to ipods, printing off architectural plans, working a huge loom, building block towns, sitting round a warehouse space critiquing a wallchart. In short, learning. It's as inspirational image of the new Belfast as you're likely to see: hopefully, we'll see it in brochures and videos soon.

But there's more. On the way out, I witnessed an encounter which restored my faith in the studentworld. A twenty-something student was scrambling over an exit turnstile when a member of staff approached and told her she could operate the exit turnstile by pressing a small button. "I know replied the young lady but I'm not cattle. I'm refusing to press a button to leave the college. This is my protest."

I love that. She'll go far and Belfast has a bright future as long as we nurture such creative souls.

And focal scoir or final word: tonight as I was going into the dinner, a beautiful young lady of colour saluted me in Irish. Turns out it was a Brazilian lady who has made her home here and who is a student of Irish on the campus. She's married to an equally talented but not quite as beautiful Shaws Road Irish speaker and I'm told the language of their young family is a mixture of Portugese and Irish.

Áthas orm go bhfuair mé amach inniu!