Organisations that tackle violence against women and girls are to receive a share of €10 million in Government funding for peacebuilding and reconciliation projects in Northern Ireland.
Money has also been allocated to community groups that worked to reduce tensions, support displaced families and keep young people away from violence in Belfast in June. Migrants were attacked during several nights of rioting in loyalist areas, with cars, houses and businesses set on fire and 27 people left homeless.
FactCheckNI has been awarded €29,000 to expand its work in tackling misinformation (false information spread by mistake) and disinformation (false information spread deliberately) due to the role played by social media actors outside Ireland in fuelling the violence.
Eleven groups that address domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, including Belfast & Lisburn Women’s Aid and Kilcooley Women’s Centre in Bangor, Co Down, are among those allocated support from the Reconciliation Fund.
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The Training for Women Network was awarded €180,000 over three years for a project on understanding and managing the effects of trauma to help reduce domestic abuse.
Speaking in advance of the announcement on Thursday, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Helen McEntee, said dealing with violence against women and girls was a “key priority”.
Thirty-one women have died violently in Northern Ireland since 2020, including, earlier this month, a mother and her daughter who were killed in their home in Ballymena in a suspected double murder and suicide.
McEntee, who met groups supported by the reconciliation fund earlier this week, said it was “clear from speaking to Women’s Aid and other representative groups in the North that violence and sexual violence against women was used as a weapon during the Troubles”.
“I believe we must support women affected by abuse if we are to see stronger cohesion in Northern Ireland,” she said, adding that “this new strategy includes specific provisions for these types of projects, along with ones that promote the inclusion and development of women in civic society”.
In total, 154 peacebuilding and reconciliation projects and organisations have been allocated support from the fund, including Wave Trauma Centre, the Cathedral Youth Club in Derry, St Peter’s Immaculata Youth Centre in Belfast and the Omagh Support and Self-Help Group, for its work providing advocacy and support services in relation to the continuing public inquiry into the 1998 Omagh bombing.
McEntee said the funding was “an investment in those organisations and in the people who work every day to build trust, strengthen relationships and create a more peaceful and shared future across Northern Ireland”.
“Their work often happens quietly, but its impact is lasting, helping to build understanding across divides and ensuring that progress towards reconciliation continues,” she said.
