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different, to the extent that (as oneenvironmental project reported) shootingwildlife illegally on one side of the borderwould earn a fine or worse on one side,but no penalty on the other; and fireengines could put out a mountain fire upto the borderline on one side, but notdouse the flames a metre away on theother. One statutory body might fund across-border housing project from thenorthern side, but this was no good ifthe southern opposite number wasnot interested.Especially absurd were fundingrestrictions which prohibitedparticipation from people from the oneside of the border at a location on theother. Thus one men’s health crossborderproject based in the North wasrequired to turn away people withsouthern addresses; an arts project lostits grant for ecumenically but foolishlyholding an event 250 metres ‘on theother side’; and one playgroup in theNorth found an official noting downDonegal-registered plates so as toquestion southern participants whatwere they doing there! These incidentsmight be amusing were it not that theyidentified such an extraordinary level ofinflexibility in the bureaucratic mind andthe still deadening legacy of back-tobackdevelopment.It would be easy to portray these issuesas minor irritants, but they went furtherthan that. Not only were they operationalobstacles to voluntary and communityactivity and contrary to the imperativesJOURNAL OF CROSS BORDER STUDIES IN IRELAND No.5 39
of European integration, but theynegatively affected the quality of life andefforts to turn the region into a desirableplace in which to live. What was morefrustrating still was that voluntaryorganisations were rebuffed when theysuggested to statutory authorities thatthey should get their act together and tryto sort out these difficulties.Positively, though, there was evidencethat models of good practice in onejurisdiction were successfully appliedto the other. Most of the traffic wasfrom the North to the South andwas evident in the fields of mentalhealth, volunteering and projects toimprove the physical environment.Here, southern organisations began toemulate the activities and approach oforganisations in the North which hadexperience and a track record in theseareas. A weakness of the cross-borderprojects generally, although there wereexceptions, was that few had the timeto document and disseminate their workcomprehensively and develop the policyissues arising. The struggle for fundingtook precedence, to the extent that thepolicy focus of projects was limited andthe lessons arising were not fed into thepolitical and administrative systems.Staying with the funding picture, astriking feature was the limited numberof funding opportunities for crossborderactivity. Apart from the PEACEprogrammes, which included strandsto fund cross-border activities, the onlyother significant funding opportunitywas INTERREG III (2000-2006). Thefirst two INTERREG programmes in the1990s had been entirely governmental,but INTERREG III included animaginative strand to fund cross-borderactivity for voluntary and communityorganisations: Priority 3 - Civic andCommunity Networking. This was a realbreakthrough and was, unsurprisingly,oversubscribed fourfold.Perhaps the most extraordinaryfeature of cross-border funding wasthe absence of a commitment tocross-border cooperation by voluntaryand community organisations fromthe two governments. This mightbe understandable in the case ofNorthern Ireland, but granted theiconic significance of the border to theRepublic’s government, its absencewas more difficult to comprehend.While the Irish Department for ForeignAffairs operated a small ‘reconciliationfund’ for voluntary and communityorganisations, it was precisely that,a reconciliation fund, not a fund forcross-border cooperation. And it wasnot that the government’s attentionhad not been drawn to the issue,for Cooperation Ireland had beenvocal about the problem ever sinceit was established. Ninety yearsafter partition, the two governmentshad still to work out strategies tosupport cross-border cooperationby civil society organisations. Manyvoluntary and community organisationsvoiced the suspicion that so long asEuropean funding was there, they couldcomfortably postpone facing the issue.The issue is actually more profoundthan that, and an extraordinary exampleof a lost opportunity. In the case ofcommunity development, there wasand is no institute to support such workin either part of the island. The border40JOURNAL OF CROSS BORDER STUDIES IN IRELAND No.5
Page 6: A word from the ChairmanChris Gibso
Page 9 and 10: Universities Ireland, SCoTENS and t
Page 12: Making the here and now a better pl
Page 17 and 18: helps to overcome the distortions o
Page 19: enal services in the Cooley area. T
Page 23 and 24: and that the proximity to France an
Page 25 and 26: war came to an end, and free Spain
Page 27 and 28: McVitty, unarmed, was farming his l
Page 29 and 30: speak with admiration of a politici
Page 31 and 32: it is all our business.” Ruttledg
Page 33 and 34: Loneliness and dignityOne of the re
Page 35: social development of the cross-bor
Page 38 and 39: try to capture the dynamics of such
Page 42 and 43: The Sliabh Beagh hills on the Monag
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Page 46 and 47: cooperation of the Office of the Fi
Page 48 and 49: A sense of proportion in crossborde
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Page 57 and 58: 26 November 2009. These headlinesca
Page 59 and 60: is a loyalist stronghold. We havepe
Page 61 and 62: not all the children in a linked gr
Page 63 and 64: step from virtual contact at a dist
Page 65 and 66: this part of Dissolving Boundaries,
Page 67 and 68: other elements of the programme. In
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Page 73 and 74: e-emergence of ‘political economy
Page 75 and 76: counter-cyclical investment to boos
Page 77 and 78: union and environmental leadership
Page 81 and 82: the national grid and building anew
Page 83 and 84: has only been witnessed in a widera
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Page 87 and 88: 25. ibid.26. Hopkins, R., The Trans
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the context of the present economic
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Media students on graduation day at
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Letterkenny Institute of Technology
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its provision of higher educationco
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Nationalism in the service of abett
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The date is also important as it ma
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that nationalism’s strongest crit
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James Connolly Hannah Sheehy- Sean
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that the British government’s 200
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social and economic justice, andpol
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President McAleese with board membe
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www.crossborder.ieYear Unique Visit
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It was developed in response to aco
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cross-border cooperation at its mos
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North South Ministerial Council Joi
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Speakers at the January 2010 ICLRD/
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might be enabled to expandby exploi
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Winners of the 2009-2010 Universiti
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Participants at the third Irish-Afr
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held in Entebbein Uganda on10-13 No
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education, gender and ICT researcht
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STANDING CONFERENCE ONTEACHER EDUCA
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were seed funded: a conference onpo
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Recovery: PlanningIreland, Northand
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Speakers and researchers at the lau
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• Applied research on theimplicat
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The final meeting of the North/Sout
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Chief Executive of NI-CO, the Deput
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College Dublin,which analysed thein
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support are provided to minority et
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The President of the University of
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months to discuss a research and/or
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Astronomer Jay Tate and Professor M
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Left to right, Bruce Robinson, Head
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I want to thank the Centre for Cros
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BOARD MEMBERS AND STAFFDr Chris Gib
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EXTRACTS FROM 2008-2009 FINANCIAL S
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CONTACT DETAILSMAIN OFFICEThe Centr
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