Locals in cross-community Dublin visit

Glenshane Community Development Limited recently delivered the Building Brighter Futures Project on behalf of The North East PEACE III Partnership by taking a cross community group from Limavady Borough to Dublin in order to provide an opportunity for people from different traditional backgrounds to engage in dialogue within a cross community perspective.

During the cross community visit to Dublin, the group visited Government Buildings and had a tour of the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny’s, private offices before being shown around the rest of the Buildings, including the Cabinent Office and Attorney General’s suite. They then visited the Garden of Remembrance which commemorates all those who lost their lives in the cause of Irish Freedom before continuing on to the National War Memorial Gardens which remembers the Irish men who lost their lives fighting in the First and Second World Wars.

The Glenshane group subsequently visited the Wellington Monument in Phoenix Park which commemorates the victories of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, including the Battle of Waterloo before visiting the National Museum. Their cross community tour was concluded with a visit to Malahide Castle - the estate of which began in 1185, when Richard Talbot, a knight who accompanied Henry II to Ireland in 1174, was granted the “lands and harbour of Malahide”. The estate survived such losses as the Battle of the Boyne, when fourteen members of the owner’s family sat down to breakfast in the Great Hall, and all were dead by evening.

The trip provided the opportunity for the participants to foster a better understanding of each other, increasing their awareness and knowledge of each others communities, in an effort to improve relations and break the cycle of fear that exists for some by visiting places significant to both communities history and providing a neutral forum to encourage in dialogue.