Aberdeen is set to play a leading role in strengthening Irish-Scottish relations when it hosts the first of an annual series of top-level meetings between leaders of the main Irish and Scottish political parties, academics and civil servants.
Irish Premier Bertie Ahern has announced pilot funding from the Irish Sailors and Soldiers Land Trust to set up an annual Scottish-Irish Forum which will be managed by the recently-established Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies, the first of its kind in the world, at the University of Aberdeen.
The University is the only Scottish organisation to receive funding under the scheme out of a total of 59 projects. Speaking to the award winners at the Irish Embassy in London, Mr Ahern paid tribute to the “remarkable role” organisations like Aberdeen play in “reaching out to the Irish community in Britain and in promoting reconciliation on these islands”.
The Scottish-Irish Forum was proposed by Professor Tom Devine, Institute Director, and Mr Dan Mulhall, Irish Consul General in Scotland. It will provide a platform for discussion of the future development of Scottish-Irish links in the context of the devolution process and the British-Irish Council (or ‘Council of the Isles’) that is to be established as part of the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.
Each year, two-linked events will take place during which participants will consider key aspects of the historical, cultural, economic and political relationships between Ireland and Scotland in the aftermath of the opening of the first Scottish Parliament since 1707.
The first event will be a major evening public lecture given by a distinguished Scottish or Irish politician, civil servant or academic on the past, present or future of the two societies. The second event, which would take place the following day, would consist of a small symposium of invited participants, who would consider through short lectures, workshops and discussions an important issue in Irish-Scottish relations.
Professor Devine said: “At a time of significant political and constitutional change in both Scotland and the island of Ireland, it is important that new ideas are considered by policy makers in both countries. It is hoped that this new project will help to provide the academic context for fresh perspectives to emerge.”
Mr Mulhall said: “I am glad that the University of Aberdeen’s Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies has been awarded funding from the Irish Sailors and Soldiers Land Trust to organise a Scottish-Irish Forum. The work of the new Research Institute promises a considerable enhancement of our understanding of the historical and cultural experience shared by Ireland and Scotland.
“I would hope that the Scottish-Irish Forum would become an annual event that will help nurture existing ties between our two countries and lead to the creation of new ones,” he said.
It is hoped Trinity College Dublin, Strathclyde University, and Queen’s College, Belfast, will become involved in the project through their participation in the Irish Scottish Academic Initiative, set up in 1995 to promote scholarly and cultural links between the two countries, and of which Professor Devine is convenor.
The Irish Government’s Irish Sailors and Soldiers Land Trust Act 1988 was established under an Act of the British Parliament in 1922, to provide houses for Irish ex-servicemen, who fought with the British Armed Forces in the First World War. The number of beneficiaries had declined significantly by the 1980s and is now being wound up.