Reconciliation Fund

Variable and can cover the direct cost of Project activities, Core Operational costs, or Capital costs.

The Reconciliation Fund awards grants to organisations working to build better relations within and between traditions in Northern Ireland, between North and South, and between Ireland and Britain. From 2023, the Reconciliation Fund will move to operating one annual funding round for 12-month grants.

The eligibility criteria for funding are intentionally kept relatively broad to ensure that the Fund can support a wide range of organisations and activities that promote reconciliation, with grants varying in size from just hundreds of euros to small groups, up to amounts in the hundreds of thousands for a small number of larger partners. We give funding to non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community groups, and voluntary organisations to support reconciliation and to create better understanding between people and traditions on the island of Ireland and between Ireland and Britain.

Thematic Pillars

Our funding priorities continue to be rooted in two key thematic pillars – repairing and building. The Reconciliation Fund will focus its support on reconciliation and peacebuilding work that seeks to:

• Repair those issues which lead to division, conflict, and barriers to a deeply reconciled and peaceful society;
• and/or Build a strong civil society that encompasses all communities, through the continued implementation of the Agreements and promoting a rights-based society, political stability and respect for all.

Priority areas

Applications should be in line with one or both of these overarching pillars, while also focusing on one or more of the Reconciliation Fund’s priority themes/activities. Requests for funding support should therefore involve projects which:

• Through dialogue or other means, seek to build understanding between peoples and traditions, whether within Northern Ireland, on a North-South basis, or on a British Irish basis.
• Promote inter-community links and reduce segregation in Northern Ireland, including in the areas of integrated education and housing, and the use of shared community spaces.
• Build sustainable North-South links through the development of relationships and connections.
• Develop and deepen relations between Ireland and Britain.
• Seek participation in the most hard-to-reach and marginalised communities (in terms of economic and social deprivation), or those not normally involved in reconciliation and peace-building work, in line with the Government’s commitments made at the time of the NDNA Agreement.
• Seek to address the legacy of violence during the Troubles.
• Specifically target sectarianism, and which are aimed at eliminating sectarianism from society.
• Help to tackle paramilitarism and support the transitioning of members of paramilitary groups to peaceful, democratic activities.
• Employ a transgenerational approach, helping a younger generation to be more aware of the recent past and to break the cycles which are barriers to long term reconciliation.
• Develop the role of women in peace-building and civic and political life, in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1325, and which build their capacity to take their rightful place as leaders in society.
• Educate and illuminate the events of the past, and in particular the events of the Decade of Centenaries, in order to deepen understanding and promote respect and tolerance between different groups and traditions.
• Explore issues around identity (including language and other cultural traditions) in ways that promote understanding, tolerance and inclusivity, or help to recognise the common aspects of traditions and identities shared by different groups.
• Involve academic research likely to significantly promote mutual understanding, peace and reconciliation, including in the context of the Government’s commitment at the time of the NDNA Agreement to commission research on the challenges faced by border communities (with a particular focus on minority communities in border counties).
• Empower diverse, underrepresented or new voices to articulate their views on issues relating to reconciliation.
• Assist communities from different traditions in trying to build a shared vision of the future.

For further information check www.gov.ie or find contact information at www.dfa.ie.