The Centre for Cross Border Studies

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We live in an information society in which the creation, distribution, diffusion, use, integration and manipulation of information is a significant economic, political, and cultural activity1. The public library service is the largest information infrastructure on the island of Ireland. Determining library usage is notoriously difficult and particularly so on [...]

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The island of Ireland has a total population of just over 6.5 million people separated by an internal border stretching over 470 km.  It is well documented that the creation of the border in 1922 divided the island into two insular and centralised states whose institutions [...]

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The future belongs to those who collaborate1. However despite the scale of investment in cross-border co-operation we still do not have an overall picture of the spread or the strength of collaborative arrangements developed on the island. Understanding the formal and informal linkages within each distinct sub-region—and the organisations that [...]

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INTRODUCTION

Co-operation on the island of Ireland extends far beyond the highly regarded and often publicised work of the EU Peace and Interreg Funding Programmes. Since 1994 the government development plans in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland1 for EU Structural Funds have included a common chapter or agreed text. [...]

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The creation of the Irish border in 1920 divided the island of Ireland into two insular and centralised states whose institutions and political culture developed back-to-back. Even then the border proved ‘permeable’ and inter-governmental and voluntary society contacts (primarily sporting, cultural and religious organisations) continued albeit on a fragmented and [...]

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The economic contribution of agriculture to the ‘island economy’ generally and the two economies, North and South, separately, has been declining in recent years. Comparison of statistics for 2005 showed that agriculture, forestry and fishing accounted for 2.0% in the South and 1.3% in the North of total Gross Value [...]

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INTRODUCTION

In October 2006 the two governments published their joint vision for economic collaboration on the island. This British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference (BIIGC) study, which was led by InterTradeIreland1, outlines the challenges, rationale and benefits for joint government intervention and proposes co-ordinated policy intervention in R&D, skills enhancement, joint investment opportunities and [...]

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The tourism industry is never far from the news. Sometimes it is the opportunities provided by large events such as the St. Patrick’s festival, the Ryder Cup golf tournament, the Rally Ireland stage of the World Rally Championship or new arrangements such as the ‘Open Skies’ arrangements. Alternatively, it is the [...]

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The development of transport infrastructure and policies is a critical area for all-island co-operation. Recent newspaper reports and the all-island economic study of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Council have highlighted the potential for co-operation on the rolling out of transport infrastructure. Great air access onto the island, better cross-border primary roads [...]