Overview of Assembly Commission and Speaker’s Initiatives in 2021

“Perspectives On…” Lectures

The Commission will continue its “Perspectives On…” series of virtual lectures. Between April and June Dr Eamon Phoenix will deliver a series of four lectures on:

• The events leading to, and following, the creation of Northern Ireland/ partition.
• The unionist perspective and unionist and loyalist leaders in 1921.
• The nationalist perspective and nationalist and republican leaders in 1921.
• The old Northern Ireland parliament.

“100 Years, 100 Words”

In line with the Commission’s principles on centenaries to acknowledge and respect different narratives, all MLAs will be invited to submit short thoughts (approximately 100 words), giving their perspective on the centenary in text or video. These will then be used on the Assembly website and Assembly social media accounts over several months beginning in April.

Parliament Buildings Open Day

Subject to the public health situation, the Speaker and the Assembly Commission hope to host an Open Day at Parliament Buildings on Saturday 13 November 2021 (Parliament Buildings was opened on 16 November 1932), with a range of activities to encourage those who may have never had the opportunity to visit Parliament Buildings before.

Exhibition on the Construction of Parliament Buildings

The Assembly Commission exhibition produced in 2012, on the construction of Parliament Buildings will be redisplayed when Parliament Buildings reopens to the public.

Exhibition on 100 Years of Women Members

A new exhibition will be produced highlighting all of the women who served as Members (110 in total), of the local parliamentary and political institutions over the last 100 years (including the Northern Ireland Parliament from 1921, the 1973 Assembly, the 1975 Constitutional Convention, the 1982 Assembly, the 1996 Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue, and the Northern Ireland Assembly from 1998). This exhibition will be produced to be launched for the Parliament Buildings open day in November.

Speaker’s Events

The Speaker hopes to preside over a number of outreach parliaments in the Assembly Chamber later this year focused on different sections of the community including:

• The first sitting of the Youth Assembly
• A Pensioners Parliament
• A Parliament for People with Disabilities
•  An Ethnic Minorities Parliament