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Robin McNair Prize award ceremony January 2005
Towards the foot of this page there are captions which are links to photographs of the event.
Westminster, 17 January 2005 - Mr Desmond Swayne TD, Conservative MP for New Forest West, presented the awards to the three winners of the annual Robin McNair Prize in the Jubilee Room at the Houses of Parliament today.
The Robin McNair Prize commemorates one of Britain's leading fighter pilots in the second world war. After the war, Squadron Leader McNair fought for the rights of the unborn through his membership of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC). This competition is jointly sponsored by the SPUC Educational Research Trust and the McNair family.
Rt Rev Dr Peter Forster, Anglican Bishop of Chester, was one of the competition's judges, along with:
- Mr David Amess, Conservative MP for Southend West
- Mr Tony Charnock, a retired headteacher
- Mr John Clarke, grand president of the Catenian Association, an international Catholic men's fellowship.
The first prize of £250 was won by Miss Niamh Mason, 17, of Canon Palmer Catholic School, Ilford, Essex, who wrote an essay entitled "Is abortion justified if the unborn child has a disability?" Niamh said that it had taken her around two weeks to write the winning essay. She had concluded that no-one had the right to judge that another human being had no right to live. Niamh's three brothers have autism and she does playgroup work for children with special needs. Miss Joanne Spencer, who attended the awards ceremony with Mrs Rosemary Mason, Niamh's mother, has promoted the prize in theology classes at the school for some years. Niamh is studying art and design and hopes to go to university.
Second prize of £150 went to Miss Nuala McKay, 17, of St Louis' Grammar School, Ballymena, County Antrim, who wrote on "Some people say that a woman's right to choose to have an abortion over-rides her unborn baby's right to life. Discuss." Nuala had written that life was God-given and therefore not disposable. She is studying AS levels in French, English and science and hopes to attend Queen's University, Belfast.
The third prize of £100 was won by Martin McQuade, 16, of St
Bede's College, Manchester, who
chose the same essay title as Miss McKay. Martin, who wrote his essay in the
course of a day, said that certain rights, such as the right to life, were
God-given and governments should not intervene. He is considering a career in
medicine.
None of the winners had yet decided how to spend their prizes. Each of the winners' schools will receive a similar sum to the amount they have won. It is to be used for educational purposes.
In a letter to the organisers of the prize, Bishop Forster wrote: "I would warmly commend this competition, because it gives young people an opportunity to consider with care some of the deepest questions which affect their lives, and the wider life of society - because they are concerned with life itself."
In his speech to the awards ceremony, Mr Desmond Swayne thanked SPUC for its briefings to MPs on matters such as the Mental Capacity Bill. He had opposed the bill not least because elderly, disabled and long-term ill people might feel under pressure to accept euthanasia because they mistakenly felt they were a burden on society or their families. People were created to glorify God and the way for them to do that was through life. The Robin McNair Prize was valuable because it encouraged young people to address vital matters such as abortion.
John Smeaton, national director of SPUC, paid tribute to Mr Swayne's pro-life voting record, including on the Mental Capacity Bill. The Robin McNair Prize was a celebration of the dignity and inviolability of human life. Squadron Leader McNair, whom the prize commemorates, had shown great concern for humanity throughout his life. The young people who had entered the competition had submitted material of a very high quality.
Mr Duncan McNair, the youngest of Robin McNair's seven children, pointed out that this was the fourth such award ceremony. His father had been among those who had campaigned against the passage of the 1967 Abortion Act. Squadron Leader McNair had also worked to help displaced persons and other members of society who had suffered. There had been a record number of entrants for the prize. Niamh Mason's essay had quoted some chilling statistics, including the fact that a fifth of pregnancies in this country ended in abortion, and that almost all unborn children who were found to have spina bifida or Down's syndrome were aborted. Mr McNair said how essential it was to have organisations such as SPUC and he thanked the SPUC trust for organising the competition.
Details of the competition can be found on the worldwide web at www.spuc.org.uk/mcnair. Essays are of between 1,000 and 1,500 words and the topics change from year to year. The SPUC press office is on (020) 7222 5845 and at information@spuc.org.uk.
The captions below are links to jpeg photographs (each of around half a megabyte) from the awards ceremony. If the links do not work, please email information@spuc.org.uk for a copy to be emailed or posted to you.
The photographs are by Fiorella Sultana de Maria with post-production work by Bob McKenzie.
