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:
Organisation Amount
Artillery Youth Services €5,400
Atlantic Youth Trust €10,000
Ballinamallard Fisher Park €1,500
Ballybeen Women’s Centre €12,000
Ballykeel2 Residents’s Association €3,500
Ballymoney Community Resource Centre €3,000
Belfast YMCA €8,000
Bloody Sunday Trust €17,000
British Irish Association €20,000
Building Communities €5,000
CAIN Web Services €30,000
Carey Historical Society €3,000
Celtronic Derry €5,000
Centre for Cross Border Studies €10,000
Centre for Democrary & Peace Building €15,000
Centre for Studies in Irish Protestantism €40,000
Churches Trust Limited €10,000
Church Hill Silver Band €4,000
City Centre Initiative €12,000
Clonard Monastery Youth Centre €6,000
Coiste na n-Iarchimí €30,000
Community Engagement Network €10,000
Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer €11,715
Cookstown & District Women’s Group €9,600
Corpus Christi Youth Centre €15,000
Creeney Films €10,000
Dove House Community Trust €7,778
Dublin City Council Public Libraries €15,000
Duncairn Community Partnership €7,000
EPIC (ex- Prisoners Interpretative Centre) €5,000
European Youth Parliament €5,000
Falls Community Council €5,000
Forthspring Inter Community Group €10,000
Gaeláras €15,000
Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation €350,000
Greenore Greencastle Community Association €10,000
Holywell Trust €25,000
Impact Training NI €20,000
Inishowen Women’s Information €6,000
Institute for Conflict Research €25,000
Junction (The) €35,000
Kells Literary & Cultural Festival Committee €10,000
Kid’s Own Publishing Ltd €15,000
Kilkeel Parish Bridge Association €5,050
Newhill Football Club €6,760
NI Council for Integrated Education NICIE €25,000
North West Play Resource (The Playhouse) €20,000
Old Library Trust €10,000
Partners in Catalyst €5,000
Peaceful Futures €12,000
PeacePlayers International NI €10,000
Raphoe Orange Lodge €3,000
Poetry Ireland €7,000
Reach Across €6,000
Shankill Women’s Centre €30,000
Short Strand Women’s Group €10,000
Sligo County Council €100,000
Smashing Times Theatre Company €20,000
Speedwell Trust €15,000
St Columb’s Cathedral, Derry €6,000
St Columb’s Park House €25,000
St Louis House €9,000
St Malachy’s Youth Centre €9,000
St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin €5,000
St Patrick’s Centre, Downpatrick €8,000
Tara Centre, Omagh €40,000
Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation €20,000
Training for Women Network €15,000
Ulster Canada Initiative €4,500
UCD School of History €5,000
Windsor Women’s Centre €7,000
Women for Election €9,000
Women’s Tec €10,000
Young at Art €12,000
Youth Initiatives €18,000