The four prizewinners in the annual Michael Sweetman essay competition (top) visited the Hague and Strasbourg during the month of May. They were Melanie Barnes, Hacketstown, Colette Glennon, Loughrea, Amy Walsh, Cork and Alan Weldon, Swords, accompanied by Killian Morgan. The competition is run annually in vocational schools for an essay on a European theme. This year the topic was to suggest how Ireland and the Union might develop over the next decade, taking account of developments in the past 25 years.
Also pictured at the Parliament in Strasbourg are the team from the Sacred Heart Secondary School Ferrybank, Waterford, the winners in the European Movement's schools competition which took place in Bundoran. Teams gave oral and visual presentations on the place of one of the EU's Member States within the Union, and the importance of the EU for it. Over 50 schools took part, with 16 in the final, which took place in the presence of President McAleese. The winning team (pictured above) were Maura Fitzgerald, Clara Gough and Sinead O Grada, who were accompanied by their teacher, Catherine Donegan.