Following on from the morning seminar ‘ Good Practice in Cross Border Cooperation’ at the Canal Court Hotel Newry and as part of the TEIN International Study Visit, our guests from the ‘Transfrontier Euro-Institute Network’ were taken on a visit to the PEACE Link in Clones. Supported with €7.8 million worth of funding from the European Union’s PEACE III Programme, managed by the SEUPB, the PEACE Link is a cross-border cross-community sports facility. The facility is at the heart of a movement to build better relationships between people in Clones County Monaghan and their neighbours across the border in County Fermanagh, using sport as the medium.
Setting out from the Newry, the journey wound its way along the border through the south of Armagh before crossing into Monaghan at Ballynacarry Bridge. On the way to Clones local historian, Donald McDonald, talked about life along the Irish border and some of the challenges that border businesses will face because of Brexit. Upon arriving at the PEACE LINK, the TEIN team were given a tour of the facility by one of the PEACE LINK team members and after this Donald McDonald presented ‘The PEACE Link Story’, offering insight into the many problems that had to be over-come in order for the project to succeed. Donald also shared some of the lessons learned in the process. This gave the members of the international study visit access to those with valuable first-hand experience in cross-border projects and showed a way in which sport can be used as a method of bridging differences.
Donald McDonald’s presentation is available below.
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