Conferences don’t come free

The recent conference at Queen’s, involving the Clintons, Senator George Mitchell, Tony Blair, Bertie Ahern, Jonathan Powell and whatever you’re having yourself was a joyous occasion in more than one way.

The most obvious was that it presented a feel-good factor,  a happy climax (they worked all night!) and an ensuing 25 years that were largely peaceful. No wonder participants were happy, no wonder their part in the Agreement remains sharp in their minds a quarter century later. Some, including Rishi Sunak, the British prime minister, predicted an even happier 25 years to come.So really, everybody was happy with the Queen’s shindig.

Well, maybe not everybody. Conferences like this, we’re told, do tourism a big favour – they put the location on the map and people begin to scratch their heads or wherever and say “Gee, I’d like to visit or even study at that place!”  The conference, we were assured, put Belfast on the map for all the good reasons. This kind of publicity just can’t be bought.

But if we were to peel away the happy façade of the conference, we might run into some facts that would moderate our joy.

1. For a conference, a conference hall is needed. If it is lent out, those who own it will have to be reimbursed for the cost of heating, lighting, big screens. Staff to run things. Queen’s is a prime location and prime locations don’t come cheap.
2. The many big shots attending came from elsewhere, and obviously they required transport to so do. First class transport, you may be sure. And when they got to Belfast they required top-notch accommodation at the Grand Central Hotel, which is a few notches above your bog-standard Premier Inn.
3. Food and beverages were needed by all hands and at every turn. Plus there would have been dietary requirements of a special nature for these special people.
4. High-profile people require payment if you’re going to ask them to spend their time here and, in many cases, make speeches. If the disgraced Boris Johnson got over £50,000 for a speech, I guess a lot of people in Queen’s University would command that and more.
5. In all the thousands of words spilled at the conference, not one (that I heard) mentioned the physical border in Ireland or the opportunity that presently exists to prepare for that reunited Ireland via a border poll.

Still, it was flattering to have the great and the pseudo-great gathered together in Belfast. One way and another, we’ll probably have to foot the bill but hey – there’s no way of having a Queen’s thrash without money to make the mare go. And which of us would begrudge these people who live on a higher plane than us?  And isn’t it heartening to have them assure us that NEI will still be standing in 25 years from now and doing even better than now?