Dissolving Boundaries? Forget it

Name three good things the cross-border bodies which were set up through the Good Friday Agreement have done…No? Nothing springs to mind? Well, humble though it is, or was, I know of one you may not have heard of. It’s called Dissolving Boundaries.

This was a project co-funded by the north and south of Ireland. There wasn’t a huge  amount of money involved because the great majority of the work happened online. What it did was, it put young people in second-level education north and south in touch with each other.  Schools were paired and linked in smaller clusters, so they weren’t overloaded with new information and institutions. The pupils would tell each other about themselves, where they lived, what they liked to do. They’d also share information about the school work, helping each other see the difference in the curriculum  north and south and sometimes the different perspectives this involved. Sometimes they engaged in joint work – for example, if two schools were working on the same novel, they’d pass their insights to each other, discuss differing conclusions, shine fresh light. Occasionally – maybe once a year, once every two years – the teachers would get a chance to meet face to face.

Nothing wildly ambitious, as I say. But it was doing the very thing we all say there should be more of – it was allowing young people to learn more about each other, both across the north and from north to south. Helping the adults of tomorrow on this island see what they have in common and how their interests and concerns overlap. The teachers loved it. The pupils loved it. It was good.

Note I say ‘was’. Because at the end of last month the funding for the project, which has been going for over a decade, was withdrawn. The funding from the south, that is. The north were prepared to keep doing their bit. Did the southern government talk about their difficulties in maintaining funding? Nope. Did they express regret that such a splendid and universally approved project was going to bite the dust? Nope. The southern government simply showed what some of us have always known and others of us have long suspected: bringing the people who live on this island together, even through the internet, ranks low – very low – on their criteria list. Our young people are our future? Well yes. But that doesn’t mean we’re going to work so ignorance is replaced with information, suspicion with friendship, isolation with co-operation. Remember the name : Dissolving Boundaries. Because its fate shows, with dismaying clarity that the Dublin government, when even the smallest of chips are down, frankly my dear, doesn’t give a damn.