the journal of cross border studies in ireland - The Centre for Cross ...

The Sliabh Beagh hills on the Monaghan-Tyrone border: the Sliabh Beagh Cross-borderPartnership is one of the very few examples of a ‘single company’ cross-border partnershipregion of the island provided an unusualexample in Europe of an intense levelof community development in a borderregion coming out of conflict, one wherethe Irish experience could be mostuseful to other countries. In his masterlyIreland 1912-85, Lee identified as oneof the most serious problems in theisland’s development experience ourinability to develop self-knowledge andbuild our own intellectual infrastructure,especially in those areas in which weactually excel 5 . The Workers EducationalAssociation in Belfast pressed the ideaof a community development institute,one which could support such activityacross the island, but the Departmentof Social Development there was noteven prepared to enter a preliminarydiscussion on the topic.Policy issues arisingThe single most important policy issuewas the question of how the issuesarising from community developmentalong the border could be channelledinto the administrative political systemso as to ensure the socio-economicdevelopment of the border region.European research has shown howgood levels of cross-border cooperation,both at governmental level and at civilsociety level, can transform borderzones from ‘problem’ regions into areasof prosperity, the best example being theMeuse-Rhine triangle between Germany,Netherlands and Belgium. Indeed, theinvestment of PEACE I programmefunding from the mid-nineties onwardswas such that within a few years, theborder counties (with the one exceptionof Donegal) were no longer at the topof the list of the poorest counties ofJOURNAL OF CROSS BORDER STUDIES IN IRELAND No.5 41