Department of Foreign Affairs Funding

Speedwell is delighted by the recent news that the Department of Foreign Affairs, Dublin,  have agreed to fund  their ‘Diversity within Sport’ project. Thirty Protestant and Catholic primary schools have taken part in this new and innovative project.   Sport, like many other facets of life in Northern Ireland, is largely segregated along religious lines.

The objective of this project is to give children the opportunity to learn about each other’s sporting traditions, understand and respect their differences and recognise and value what they hold in common. It also encourages them to see sports played by members of an opposing tradition as a positive influence rather than something which is distant and viewed with suspicion and allows them to become familiar with sports and a sporting culture which is not normally celebrated within their community. The sports which are explored in this project are rugby, gaelic football, hockey, hurling, camogie and soccer.

At the recent Reconciliation Networking Forum at Dublin Castle the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Micheál Martin said “Reconciliation must be taken beyond the political level – genuine, lasting peace depends on reconciliation at the level of local communities”. Addressing the Forum, the Minister praised the great wealth of cross-community work going on at the local level, work which has been instrumental in “cementing good community relations, building peace and reconciliation, and helping our society make great strides in combating sectarianism”. He stressed the continuing need for reconciliation work, now and into the future, tackling the blight of sectarianism and bringing down the barriers – both physical and psychological – which have been built up between communities over decades.