Edward Shevlin
Pat Finucane Centre
Ireland
This winter was atrocious; the seemingly endless snowstorms filled the life of this graduate student/sanitation worker with stress and caused a veritable backlog of assignments. Just as light began to appear at the end of the tunnel, the painful stabs of sciatica began in my leg as wedding bells tolled for my darling and me.
Some background would be helpful at this point: during the fall semester of 2014 I became aware of a fabulous opportunity offered by the Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Gallatin was accepting applications for their 2015 Global Human Rights Fellowship from all of the schools under the umbrella of New York University. As I pondered the fellowship criteria, I realized that there was human rights work to be done in the north of Ireland. For too many years, the trampling of human rights has been a matter of policy for the British government in the region. While the McBride Principles and the Good Friday Agreement greatly alleviated the suffering of many victims of human rights abuses, a look back reveals that in many cases the victims were left unacknowledged and uncompensated by the government, which had been at the very least disingenuous about its intentions going forward.
The Human Rights Fellowship required that I find a human rights organization that was willing to take me on. Since I wanted to serve my fellowship in the north of Ireland, I contacted the Pat Finucane Centre with my proposition. After exchanging emails over the next couple of weeks, the staff there agreed to accept me as a human rights research intern.
I am incredibly grateful for the honor to be confirmed as a 2015 Gallatin Global Human Rights Fellow. This year finds me receiving many honors, among them being my recent marriage to my darling Mary Ellen on 21 March 2015. This fellowship has also caused me to hasten towards a life in academia and away from my 22-year career as a NYC Sanitation Worker, from which I am filing for retirement by the end of April. As I continue preparations for my work in the north of Ireland this summer, let us hope that I have left all of the obstacles behind me.