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Video-conference between An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, Prime Minsiter, Tony Blair and studnets from St Aidans, Dublin; Limavaddy Grammar School, Co Tyrone; Loreto Grammar School, Omagh; and Carrigaline Community School, Co Cork.
The focus of the occasion was on the prime ministers and students in all four schools engaging in a questions and answers session using video-conferencing technology. |
| Teresa Mannion, news broadcast for RTE News, 26 November 1998. Dublin: RTE. |
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When a student is enabled to ask a prime minister, “Mr Ahern, how can Ulster Unionists trust you when you make a statement hoping for a United Ireland in your lifetime?’ and receives a reply from the prime minister, I believe there are key elements of an ideal speech situation in place (Habermas 1984). In posing his question the student is, in effect, making ‘any assertion whatsoever’. By responding, the prime minister is acknowledging the legitimacy of the student’s assertion. The entire group, prime ministers and students, are exercising their right to speak and to challenge each others’ assertions.
In the case of the North/South video conference with two prime ministers, students worked collaboratively to devise questions to put to the two prime ministers. These questions reflected the range of interests of the students. Questions ranged from political to sporting questions. The range and diversity of the questions reflect the range and diversity of the students’ interests – an aspect of their plurality. But beyond the nature of the questions, the approach to devising the questions draws on the differing capacity of students to spark each other’s creative processes. The documentary evidence of the dialogical development of students’ questions can be found in the multimedia version of the thesis.
