Past pupil gets Obama over the line in 1st place!
Past Pupil Jack Farrell, who left the college in 2008, recently worked on President Obama’s successful re-election campaign in the swing-state of Ohio.
I wouldn’t be where I am if it wasn’t for St. Colman’s College. I left the college in 2008 to study political science at Trinity, but my interest in politics firmly began at Violet Hill.In 4th year Mrs Mohammed encouraged us take part in the Junior 8 summit competition. After weeks of slaving over a communique outlining how we would solve the debt problems of sub-Saharan Africa, we ended up winning the competition and were ed to attend the J8 summit in Edinburgh with students from other G8 countries. This was a tremendous experience and there were further opportunities. Once again under the tutelage of Mrs Mohammed, we won the National Political Journalism Competition which earned us a trip to Downing St. From there I was invited to represent Ireland at the People to People Future Leaders Summit in Los Angeles, which was where my interest in US politics began. After that, mentored by the memorable duo of Mr Goss and Mr McDaid, I was part of the European Youth Parliament team that successfully represented Northern Ireland in Durham in 2007. I took Politics at A-level under Mrs Quinn at St Colman’s too, so it was a natural progression to study Political Science at Trinity.
After graduating in May, I was asked to join the US presidential campaign as an Organising Fellow for President Obama. I always wanted to get involved in US politics and in President Obama, I had a candidate I could believein, due to his economic vision, his enlightened approach to foreign policy and his pursuit of universal healthcare in the face of powerful vested interests. I arrived in Ohio at the beginning of September and began to live out my dream. Life on the campaign was exhausting, often monotonous, but also exciting, energetic and full of surprises. I was based in Toledo. The 4th biggest city in the state and overwhelmingly democratic, it epitomised the conundrum facing democrats in this election; how they were going to turn out the voters that turned out so enthusiastically for the President in 2008.