‘I was born in the USA: Up Stairs Altnagelvin’

“I was born in the USA: Up Stairs Altnagelvin,” the Ballinascreen-based MLA Emma Sheerin quipped on Monday.

The South Derry Sinn Féin representative made the joke during a debate on harmonisation of both third level application systems on the island.

On a serious note Ms. Sheerin spoke in support of a motion calling for the elimination of barriers for students from Donegal seeking to attend university in Derry and vice-versa.

“At the time when I was born, a few miles over the road, several cousins of mine were born in Donegal, in the Twenty-six Counties. I have cousins — I am one of something like 35 grandchildren on my mum's side — who are of a similar age to me, and nothing separated our start in life except the border on our island, yet we had completely different opportunities as a result,” she declared.

Ms. Sheerin described barriers to cross-border mobility ‘ridiculous’.

“When I think of my cousins from west Donegal trekking to Dublin and the challenges in that — other Members mentioned them — it seems ridiculous that they were not able to go to Derry or Belfast, which are much closer, much cheaper and much easier places for them to attain their education.

"However, because of the differences in our system, there was another barrier in place, and so they were not able to avail themselves of such opportunities and ended up driving for four hours to Dublin and paying ridiculous rents and all the costs incurred in that regard.