merrion street

The Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, has today announced €131,900 in funding to support cultural projects with significant cross-border elements under the Cooperation with Northern Ireland Scheme 2018.

Thirteen projects are benefitting (from 18 applicants), within maximum funding provided of €15,000. Projects range from exhibitions, workshops and festivals and all involve bodies on both sides of the border cooperating in a cultural context.

Some examples of the projects being funded include the Children's Book Ireland project, which is an all-island competition and platform for engaging young readers, contains a shadowing scheme whereby illustrators and authors meet with children and discuss their books. In 2017, over 2,000 children were engaged in the north and over 16 schools participated in the South.

Support is also being provided to the Gallery of Photography to continue their well-received Reframing the Border project (for which funding was provided through this Scheme in 2017) through short films of Orange Lodge members in South, videos or oral history of people on both sides of the border and capturing local images of people and landscapes.

On the performance sides of things, funding is being allocated to the Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre to perform a piece called Fulcrum right on the border as a cultural interpretation of the challenges of Brexit and other matters while celebrating the culture of the island as a whole.

Speaking today Minister Madigan said:

“The Cooperation with Northern Ireland Scheme 2018 is an important recognition that culture has no borders and transcends politics to manifest the heart of the individual.

“This Scheme supports projects with elements on both sides of the border, bringing an exchange of ideas and a joint experience that can only serve to further celebrate our culture as an island with a global reach."