Tuesday 16^th April 2024

(first of three p7 trips)

Primary Sevens were very excited to travel to Belfast on an amazing trip to Northern Ireland’s parliament buildings at Stormont. The gruelling one hour bus ride filled with 34 kids some singing and some going to the land of nod was chaotic to say the least.

We saw some famous landmarks such as the colossal cranes named Samson and Goliath, used to build the Titanic.

We saw some vibrant pink coloured cherry blossom trees out of the bus window just a sample of the many we were going to see at Stormont.

When we finally arrived, we saw the Lord Carson statue glimmering in the bright Spring sunlight on the main avenue which leads to the impressive building.

Having passed through security, we were met by our tour guide, James who brought us inside the Great Hall and showed us the magnificent, brightly coloured ceiling which amazingly, hadn’t been painted since 1932 when it was originally installed. Some even said it was as bright as the day it was painted, the chandelier in the middle was adorned with eagles the rest were just replicas of the centre piece.

At the top of the grand staircase, we became acquainted with the 6 foot 7, life sized statue of the first prime minister of Northern Ireland.

Our tour guide, James, took us up to see the Plenary Session of the debating chamber. Everyone tip-toed in and watched Mr O’Toole and other MLAs debating child poverty and the welfare system.

We left about 10 minutes later and walked down the corridor where we met an MLA in a room set aside for us. His name is Paul Frew, and he is a local MLA. We were delighted that he sat and talked to us for a while about his job in Parliament buildings and his constituency.

By 12 noon it was time for a picnic, so we left the grand surroundings of the building and walked down an excruciatingly long path to the Mo Mowlam Park at the bottom of the steep hill.

When we arrived, we chose a picnic table to sit at under oodles of pink cherry blossom trees. The warm April sun shone brightly through the boughs of blossoms as we tucked hungrily into our lunch.

Everyone was impatient to get into the huge park and rushed over to use all the brilliant equipment. There there were loads of places to play, (approximately 40 activities) and we stayed in the park for about 1 and a half hours!  The time flew while we were having so much fun!

 While opinions varied, our favourite part of the playpark experience was the zip line -it was thrilling.

Too soon our day was over, and it was time to go back home on the bus. We think even more people drifted off to sleep this time because of all the exhausting running around.

Primary Seven learned so much about our government on our visit to Stormont but also had so much fun running around the park and trying out all the climbing frames, swings and trampolines, all under the beautiful pink blossom and the golden sunshine – a day to remember, indeed!

By: Luna Marks and Erin Colville – P7