Flanagan announces €1.3m of funding to support peace and reconciliation on the island of Ireland

Minister Flanagan announces €1.3m of funding to support peace and reconciliation on the island of Ireland

Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Charlie Flanagan TD, has announced €1.3 m in recent grants to support community organisations working in Northern Ireland and throughout the Border region, through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Reconciliation Fund.

Announcing the funding, Minister Flanagan said:

“I am delighted to announce that my Department will be supporting more than seventy organisations on both sides of the border through over €1.3m of funding. Peace, reconciliation, mutual respect and inclusion must be at the heart of communities - this is central to the vision of the Good Friday Agreement and of the Reconciliation Fund and the projects it supports across the island.

“The support given to community organisations through the Reconciliation Fund is a key pillar of the Government’s efforts to promote ever greater peace and reconciliation. The Government is proud to work closely with civil society in building a brighter future for the people of this island.”

The projects supported in this round of funding, the majority of which operate on a cross-community basis, cover a range of sectors including youth, culture and language, sports, dealing with the legacy of the past, and women, peace and security. It also includes support for the Glencree Centre for their programme of activities, including their work in support of peace and reconciliation.

As the State’s programme to commemorate the 2016 centenaries continues, Minister Flanagan welcomed the fact that a number of the projects funded will engage with these important moments in the island’s history. Minister Flanagan added:

“I am glad to see that a range of groups from across the community will, with the support of the Reconciliation Fund, take advantage of the rich opportunities offered by the 2016 centenaries to explore our shared and overlapping histories. It is fitting that one hundred years on from seminal events such as the Easter Rising and the Battle of the Somme, communities will come together to reflect on the past in a spirit of reconciliation and respect.”

ENDS
Press Office
31 January 2016

Notes for Editors:

As part of the Good Friday Agreement, all parties to the Agreement undertook to “positively examine the case for enhanced financial assistance for the work of reconciliation".

As a result, since the signing of the Agreement the Irish Government has provided significant support through the Reconciliation Fund. In the Stormont House Agreement, the Government committed to “support measures to promote reconciliation, including through continued annual provision of €2.7m in the Reconciliation Fund”.

Applications for the next round of funding must be received by Monday 4 April 2016; information and application forms can be found at www.dfa.ie/reconciliation

Projects approved for funding under the recent round of grants are set out below: