MUSEUM IRELAND 2020
The EU as a driver of cross-border museum projects in Ireland: history, context, legacy and the future Catherine McCullough
Since the mid-1990s, cross-border museum
Economic Community in 1973 not only affected
projects on the island of Ireland have been driven
the constitutional and legal positions of both
by European Union (EU) intervention and support.
states, but also ensured their participation in EU
The rationale, methods and working practices of
institutions, altering their relationships with
these projects, which have focused on exploring
each other. This new dynamic encouraged local
histories, identities and cultural expressions on
representatives to work together on the European
both sides of the border, have shaped creativity
stage, outside their habitual domestic platforms,
and impacted audiences, stimulating new thinking
allowing new alignments and partnerships to
about the purposes, activities and intrinsic value
develop. The collaborative work of the Members
of museums.
of the European Parliament focused attention on Northern Ireland in a way that had never happened
This paper documents a Collaborative Doctoral
before, and was to the ultimate advantage of
Award based at Ulster University, funded by the
everyone on the island.
Arts and Humanities Research Council within the 1 Northern Bridge Consortium. Working with the
As a result of the IRA’s declaration of a permanent
Irish Museums Association, the project started
ceasefire in the summer of 1994, and with the
in October 2020 and will run until March 2024.
strong support of President of the Commission
It will provide insights into how EU cultural and
Jacques Delors, the EU affirmed its ‘support
peacebuilding strategies have impacted museum
for the ongoing peace process’, indicating that
practice. It will garner new appreciation of how
it was willing to provide additional funding.
EU projects have shaped workforce skills, project
In December that year, at a European Council
development and audience engagement in the
meeting in Germany, ‘the EU voted to prepare
museum sector. It will also look to the future, at
and fund a special programme to facilitate peace
how the best of such projects can be nurtured and
and reconciliation in Northern Ireland and the
fostered, ensuring that cross-border cooperation
3 Border Region of Ireland’. This programme,
can continue to grow and develop.
now known as PEACE I-IV and not replicated
2
in any other country of the Community, was a EU funding and the PEACE Programme
unique cross-border initiative with the avowed
1995-2020
aim of embedding the peace process after the
As the Troubles were beginning in Northern
paramilitary ceasefires were confirmed. Since 1995
Ireland in the 1960s, both Ireland and
under the four iterations of EU PEACE funding,
Britain were negotiating to join the EU. Their
combined with European Regional Development
achievement of membership of the European
Funds, INTERREG and match-funding from the
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