After the opening ceremony while delegates were leaving the Whitla hall, a small black cat ran across the Whitla hall and over the top of the shiny piano. (To the soundtrack of Mozart's Organ Toccata, it was pretty farcicle) The message had to be delivered across the radio several times due to it's unexpected nature. After being chased around the hall by some chairs and security (the press wish Yakety Sax had been played at this point) it was finally caught by Michael on our security team, who safely released it to the wild. Unfortunately he was also bitten, and had to have a tetanus jab in the hospital. He's back at the conference and seems to be well.
I only hope this sends out a clear message to what will happen to all other delegates who try to sneak in without paying their registration fees. Michael can just hope our feline friend doesn't have a ticket to the ceildh!
Pressing Issues is the student run media publication for the MCBMUN conference. You can view articles by committee, or see a selection of articles from all the committees by going to one of the published editions.
Bill Neely is the International Editor for ITV news. He studied Modern History and English at QUB and has worked in journalism for over 25 years. Mr Neely has reported on many major international stories, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, 9/11, the first and second Gulf Wars, and, more recently, the Mumbai terrorist attacks and the Iranian election. We can all learn a lot from someone who has witnessed so many world events, and he’s sure to impress upon us the importance of our work on international relations at MUN, because as we’ve heard so many times before, we are the future.
The guest speaker at this year’s MCBMUN will be none other than the Lord Mayor of Belfast, Naomi Long. Councillor Long was elected Lord Mayor in June of this year, and is the second woman ever to hold the post in Belfast. Having gained a Civil Engineering Degree from QUB, she practised as an engineer for 10 years before being elected onto the Northern Irish assembly, though she had been a member of the Alliance Party for several years beforehand. As well as being Lord Mayor, Councillor Long is currently a deputy leader of the Alliance Party and an MLA. The theme for her mayoral year is ‘Belfast without Barriers’ so she is sure to have invaluable advice for us on creating harmonious world relations.
If you have ever experienced MCBMUN before you will know the importance of bribes in getting along with the chairs (and your ever important press team) so in the interest of better bribes we have prepared our guide to the top ten bribe shops: