Integrating Communities Visits Stormont

23 August 2011

A number of community groups from across Northern Ireland and the 6 border counties came together recently to undertake a Good Relations study visit to meet local MLAs at Stormont.

MLAs in attendance included Anna Lo from the Alliance Party, Paul Frew of the DUP and Barry McElduff from Sinn Fein who gave short presentations to the large group on the ongoing efforts to improve relationships at grass roots level among the two main communities and power sharing in action. The presentations ended with a question and answer session, where honest opinions, thoughts and viewpoints on some of the sensitive issues raised were exchanged.

The group then made their way to West Belfast where they were given a very informative tour of both the republican and loyalist areas by Coiste Irish Political Tours and EPIC (Loyalist Ex-prisoners Interpretative Centre). The tour visited murals depicting the history and culture of both the main traditions and gave insight into what life was like in the area during the most difficult times of the Troubles.

The day was organised as part of the Integrating Community Organisations Programme funded by the International Fund for Ireland and managed by the Northern Ireland Rural Development Council.