NI peace projects awarded €10m funding from Dublin

The Irish government has announced new funding worth almost €10m (£8.54m) to support peace and reconciliation work in Northern Ireland.

The money will go to 154 organisations including St Peter's Immaculata Youth Centre in Belfast, R City Youth in Londonderry, Women's Aid groups and the Wave Trauma Centre.

Ireland's foreign affairs minister Helen McEntee said the funding awarded placed particular focus on projects working to tackle violence against women and girls.

"I believe that we must support women affected by abuse if we are to see stronger cohesion in Northern Ireland," McEntee said.

"I have ensured that this new strategy includes specific provisions for these types of projects, along with ones that promote the inclusion and development of women in civic society."

Groups awarded funding include Clanrye Group who run a violence against women and girls learning programme, the Fall's Women Centre for their No Woman Left Behind project and the Playhouse in Derry, where an arts project addressing rising levels of violence against women and girls is to be developed.

Money has also been awarded to groups working with young people and in the arts.

McEntee met with some of the organisations awarded funding in Dublin on Tuesday.

That included, she said, some of the groups who were on the ground during disorder in Belfast last month "working directly to reduce tensions, keeping young people from harm and supporting migrant families who had been displaced due to the unrest."

She said the Reconciliation Fund money, to be allocated over three years, is "an investment in those organisations and in the people who work every day to build trust, strengthen relationships and create a more peaceful and shared future across Northern Ireland".

Some of the organisations to have been awarded funding include:

• €132,468 over 3 years for the Cathedral Youth Club in Derry
• €474,000 over 3 years for the Integrated Education Fund
• €101,400 over 3 years for Omagh Support and Self Help Group
• €107,400 over 3 years for Kilcooley Women's Centre
• €24,962 for Belfast and Lisburn Women's Aid
• €29,000 for FactCheck NI
• €22,120 for Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum

Established in 1982, the Reconciliation Fund has provided more than €67m (£57.2m) to over 3,200 projects in Northern Ireland.

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