Jul 18
Billy Tate is one of the unsung heroes of cross-border and cross-community cooperation in Northern Ireland. This Ulster Unionist Party member and former soldier in the Royal Artillery is the principal of Belvoir Park Primary School, on the edge of an overwhelmingly Protestant working class housing estate in south-east Belfast. After trying hard - and failing - some years ago to attract a local Catholic school to twin with his school, he went south and forged a partnership with Scoil Mhuire National School in Howth, County Dublin, through the ICT-based Dissolving Boundaries project. Both schools have since been to Áras an Uachtaráin together to see President McAleese.
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Jul 09
Welcome to the new Border Ireland feedback facility. Use this to give feedback and request help on the Border Ireland website and its content.
Jun 20
So the people of the Republic of Ireland have voted ‘No’ to the Lisbon Treaty. They listened to the siren voices of right wing mavericks like Declan Ganley and Coir (Youth Defence under another name) and left wing mavericks like Sinn Fein and Joe Higgins rather than to the 95% of their elected representatives who – along with business, trade union and farmers leaders – had urged them to vote in favour.
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May 30
I attended a lovely event in Monaghan town this month. It was the last ’showcase’ presentation of the
Immigration Emigration Racism and Sectarianism (IERS) Schools Project, which is funded by the EU Peace Programme and managed by the Centre for Cross Border Studies. This project brought eight primary and four secondary schools in Counties Antrim, Londonderry, Louth and Monaghan together to learn about the immigrants and emigrants who have always flowed in and out of Ireland and Northern Ireland over the centuries. The aim was to teach the children that since every Irish family has experienced immigration and emigration, racism and xenophobia are not good ideas. To hate the Africans and Indians, Poles and Lithuanians who have enriched our societies in recent years is to hate a bit of ourselves.
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May 23
Over 20 articles have been added to Border Ireland this week including articles on a cross-border mayors’ meeting and European cross border pensions moves.
In the meantime publications added to Border Ireland include latest documents from CARDI, Glencree Centre for Reconciliation and Ncompass.
May 16
Over 50 Articles have been added to the Border Ireland Media Centre since early May. A lot of attention has been given to the recent US/NI investment conference in Belfast and the promotion of North-South economic cooperation -an encouraging sign of growing confidence in an all-island economy. Mayor Bloomberg’s speech can be downloaded here.
More positive news carried in the Media Centre relates to the announcement of jobs for the North-West.
Related to all of this is the recent launch of Border People (www.borderpeople.info) - an online information portal for those who work, live, study or commute across the border. The website is proving to be a vital central point for information relating to both jurisdictions.
Over 100 International Fund for Ireland (IFI) activities have been added to Border Ireland – relating to projects in the year 2006/2007. Activites added included information on Youth Programmes, Sharing Education, Integrated Housing, Integrated Community Organisations etc .
Work on adding IFI funded activities information for the year 2005/2006 is ongoing.
Border Ireland currently holds almost 2000 publication records in its system – recent publication additions include material from:
- Safefood
- The Loughs Agency
- Tourism Ireland
- Foras na Gaeilge
- Institute of Public Health
- North South Rural Voice
May 02
Border Ireland continues to grow and recent developments include the ‘opening up’ of the Border Ireland system to all – taking away the need to register for full access. Thus, Border Ireland is now an entirely open, free information resource detailing cross border and all-island cooperation across the island of Ireland.
New publications added to Border Ireland over the past week include:
The process of updating Border Ireland information relating to International Fund for Ireland funded activities has begun in earnest with over 45 records added relating to a number of programmes including:
- Community based Economic and Social Regeneration
- Communities in Transition
- Community Leadership
- Community Bridges
30 articles have been added to the Media Centre over the past week alone - it currently holds over 957 cross-border stories.
Apr 29
It is easy to be cynical about the inevitable inefficiencies and occasional examples of waste when well over a billion euros of EU money are spent, as they have been in Northern Ireland and the Irish border region over the past decade. The media in Belfast and Dublin are only too eager to cover this massive effort to support our peace process when something goes wrong and money goes astray. But with their congenital suspicion of anything that smacks of ‘do goodery’, they rarely, if ever, write about the unglamorous success stories that are everywhere if one takes the trouble look below the media-created radar.
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Apr 25
New publications added to Border Ireland over the past week include recent publications from:
- The Institute of Public Health
- InterTradeIreland
- Safefood
- SEUPB
- The International Centre for Local and Regional Development
All Recent Department of Foreign Affairs (Reconciliation and Anti-Sectarianism funded) activities have also been added to the system and the process of adding recent International Fund for Ireland funded activities details has begun.
The Media Centre has been updated with 23 stories and currently holds over 925 cross-border stories.
Apr 21
38 articles have been added to the Border Ireland Media Centre over the past week.
Following on from the news of US investment the week previously, it was another week bearing positive economic news for Northern Ireland. The week’s Media Centre was dominated by the announcement of plans by the Republic’s finance minister Brian Cowen and his Stormont counterpart Peter Robinson, for the Dublin-based IFSC to expand into the North.
Other article topics included a CAWT project that will use the latest mapping technology to help identify the needs of local young people and any gaps in services provided to them along counties on both sides of the border.
Border Ireland has also been updated with latest InterTradeIreland publications including a Freight Transport Report for the Island of Ireland.
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