Alan Chambers: How I became a cheerleader for Northern Ireland international outreach

The two DC attendees explained that they were selling the skills of NI workers and the wonderful investment opportunities that existed here. The negative tone and direction of the debate and questioning reminded me my own attitude to international outreach in my early days in local government.

Stephen Nolan kept pressing the unionists in Washington what they would be bringing back from their trip. That line was eagerly seized on by the MLAs in the studio whose parties were boycotting any activity involving the White House.

So back to my previous attitude towards international outreach.

During the late nineties my council, North Down, sent out a delegation every July to the annual conference of an American peace and humanitarian organisation called Sister Cities International (SCI). Each year I challenged the expenditure and branded it a junket. On their return I asked where was the factory they brought back?

One year a member of the annual delegation withdrew from a trip to San Diego. The town clerk challenged me to take his place. “Go and see for yourself. If you think it is a waste of time and money, come home and say so from a position of knowledge. However, if you see any value in it then be man enough to admit you got it wrong.”

It was quite the challenge. I did go, and it was a life-changing experience. To witness the enthusiasm of everyone I encountered talking up their city was amazing. To see people from so many different races, religion and cultures living and working together in common cause helped me put the difficulties of living together in Northern Ireland into prospective.

I became a convert, and cheerleader for the value of international outreach.

I dedicated myself to becoming involved with Sister Cities. My attendance at their annual conferences in future years were paid for from my own pocket. I eventually became the first non-USA citizen to be elected to their 24-member board of directors and went on to serve a six-year term as a member of their six-member executive committee that made the day-to-day decisions of the DC based organisation that facilitates twin city arrangements between hundreds of communities in the USA and sister communities all over the globe.

What I quickly discovered was that the average American, with Ulster Scots DNA, knew little about our forefathers’ pioneering spirit that helped build America. I also learned that until you earn their respect and trust you can forget about bringing anything home.

With over 40 trips across the Atlantic I feel qualified to know a bit about what makes our American cousins tick. I think I achieved that trust and respect as they appointed me in 2005 to be MC at their glittering 50th anniversary dinner in the magnificent National Building Museum in DC, attended by 2000 guests.

That mutual respect and trust allowed me to broker a few local commercial export deals to the USA and to set up stateside training to enable the fire service here to develop a specialised rescue team to operate in situations not involving a fire. They adapted our ‘Thumbs up on Monday’ advertising theme in return.

I brought a troupe of champion native American dancers to Northern Ireland on an expense only trip to share their culture during 15 public performances over a period of a week. Police, school and educationalist exchanges followed with best practice shared. I brought President Eisenhower’s granddaughter, Mary-Jean Eisenhower, to Bangor to open the Eisenhower Pier.

My biggest prize may not have been a factory, but it did open Belfast up to major conferences at a time when organisations were still unsure about coming here.

In 2009 I convinced the SCI Board to hold their conference for the first time ever outside the USA, in Belfast. They trusted me when I reassured them of their safety. On March 8, 2009, I travelled to Washington to finalise the details. The front page headline in the News Letter I picked up at the airport was about the two soldiers murdered outside their Antrim base the day before. I feared I was going on a lost mission. However, a statement in the News Letter from President Obama was the key to overcoming the elephant in the room. He spelt out a core message that terrorism must never win, and we must all face it down.

My copy of the News Letter with the presidential quote was the clincher in that board meeting. An understandable cancellation was averted.

In July 1,200 international delegates were in Belfast for a full week attending the conference in the Waterfront Hall and other centres throughout the country. At Queen’s University an additional 150 young people attended a youth break-out conference. Northern Ireland was showcased to residents from over 25 countries and was a huge success, aided by many stories of Northern Ireland kindness and generosity. Many of the delegates still come here to sightsee, and play golf on our world-class courses

I think I proved that there is much more to international outreach than bringing a factory home, though it is a worthy aspiration.

Those who ridiculed the Washington business and political expedition last week, and who continue to pick at it, need to learn that if you are not in the game, you can expect to gain nothing.

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l Alan Chambers is UUP MLA for North Down