Dickens Takes Trip to Ireland

Council member Inez Dickens, D-Harlem, returned Wednesday from a trip to Northern Ireland, where she met with representatives of the political parties brokering the peace process there.

Dickens and council speaker Christine Quinn were accompanied by a delegation of council members and labor union and business leaders who hoped to lend support to the Irish and British officials working to transfer power to the new self-ruled government in Northern Ireland.

"Seeing firsthand the civil rights struggle here in Belfast, and hearing from both sides about the current issues before them, was just historic," Dickens said in a statement. She said there were parallels between the civil rights movements in Ireland and that in the United States, and was glad to be an actor in the peace process.

Quinn also accepted an invitation to march in the St. Patrick's Day parade in Dublin. Quinn, a lesbian Irish-American, has refused to march in New York's parade since parade officials forbid gay groups from marching. Dickens was there to support Quinn, said Lynette Velasco, a spokesperson for Dickens.

"The speaker has refused to march in the parade here because it was exclusionary," Velasco said. "There was a time when we [African-Americans] were excluded."