ABOUT US

With the help of notable members of the unionist and nationalist communities throughout the island, the Irish Association was founded in 1938. Since then the Irish Association for Cultural, Economic and Social Relations has been working to make reason and good will take the place of passion and prejudice in Ireland, North and South.

During the past seven decades, the Irish Association has made a real contribution to the growth of tolerance, reconciliation, mutual trust and human rights; the record of seminars, interactive dialogues and conferences attached indicates our capacity to sustain and develop this contribution.

The Irish Association has developed effectively during the past 4 years, especially in the northern part of the island of Ireland. I placed emphasis on creating and organising events, mainly in Belfast, which prioritised social, economic and political (not party political) issues and discussions and continued the search for dialogue and reconciliation. I included southern speakers at conferences and seminars, 22 in all, and encouraged attendance of southern members. The 2 annual conferences held in the North in 2005 and 2007 were very successful as were the seminars, panel meetings and other gatherings.

We can build on the success of the Annual Conference 2007, in Belfast, at which President Mary McAleese delivered an inspiring overview of current major change: devolution in Northern Ireland with elected representatives taking forward the peace process. Despite recent paramilitary killings, a current credit crunch economic crisis in the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland and the challenges of globalisation, the search for dialogue and reconciliation grows stronger.

We are now faced with a challenge to continuously transform and sustain the dynamism to continually recreate platforms and processes to enable new forms of relationships to emerge in Northern Ireland and on the island of Ireland.

To negotiate successfully this new, critical juncture in the island's history, an impartial forum for dialogue and debate, respected by all, is required. The delicate period ahead of social and political change demands broader and deeper analysis, debate and communication at all levels of Irish society. The Irish Association, with its established reputation of fairness and hospitality to the most diverse traditions, is ideally placed to assist in this task.

The Irish Association will continue to provide as many opportunities as possible to encourage key participants in social and political change to put forward for examination and debate their ideas on the issues that will shape the patterns of life on the island of Ireland in the years to come.