The Journal of Cross Border Studies in Ireland
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THE JOURNAL OF CROSS BORDER STUDIES IN IRELAND NO.7 THE JOURNAL OF CROSS BORDER STUDIES IN IRELAND NO.7 NO.7 THE JOURNAL OF CROSS SPRING 2012 BORDER STUDIES IN IRELAND with information about the £8.50/€10 CENTRE FOR CROSS BORDER STUDIES (including 2011 annual report) SPRING 2012 featuring an interview with the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny TD THE JOURNAL OF CROSS BORDER STUDIES IN IRELAND No. 7 Spring 2012 Cover illustration: The Falls, Belfast 2011 by Hannah Starkey, @ the artist, courtesy Maureen Paley, London The Centre for Cross Border Studies is part-financed by the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund through the EU INTERREG IVA Programme managed by the Special EU Programmes Body JOURNAL OF CROSS BORDER STUDIES IN IRELAND No.7 1 The artist Hannah Starkey explains the cover picture, The Falls, Belfast 2011. This is a scene I photographed while visiting the area where I grew up. I used to help my mother in the Andy Town market and remember the terrible poverty and desperate circumstances people were living in. My mother would help where she could, allowing people to buy on credit and making sure they had their school uniforms and other essentials. She taught me life lessons in empathy and compassion which I now employ in my art. The mural wall references the romantic idealism and political reality of West Belfast. The 10-year-old girl is isolated on the rock, a symbol that represents the stifling political situation and lack of economic investment in these areas. Belfast may look great now, but the working class communities who suffered the most are still lacking good infrastructure and facilities for their children. I met wonderful kids with so much potential but nowhere to play. After the ‘Troubles' I would have thought that it would be possible to find funding to help such a community to turn itself around. The will is definitely there, but not the money. The picture is asking: What is the legacy after 30 years of conflict? Editor: Andy Pollak Picture research: Patricia McAllister ISBN: 978-1-906444-30-3 The staff of the Centre for Cross Border Studies: From left to right (front row): Andy Pollak, Ruth Taillon, Annmarie O'Kane: (back row) Mairead Hughes, Patricia McAllister, John Driscoll (Director of International Centre for Local and Regional Development), Eimear Donnelly, Joe Shiels. CONTENTS A Word from the Chair 05 Helen Johnston ‘As an island, let us show the world what we can really do’ 13 Interview on North-South cooperation with the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny TD The Agreement Generation: Young People’s views on the cross-border 23 relationship Aoibhín de Burca and Katy Hayward Rethinking Regional Renewal: Towards a cross-border Economic 37 Development Zone in Ireland John Bradley and Michael Best North-South Research Collaboration: a drop in the international ocean 59 Brian Trench A Paradox in Irish attitudes: Garret Fitzgerald and the 71 North-South relationship Eoin Magennis JOURNAL OF CROSS BORDER STUDIES IN IRELAND No.7 3 Cross-Border Hospital Planning in Ireland: learning from local 85 success stories Shane McQuillan and Vanya Sargent Cross-Border Undergraduate Mobility: an obstacle race that the 99 students are losing? Andy Pollak Index of Journal articles, 2006-2012 117 INFORMATION ABOUT THE CENTRE FOR CROSS BORDER STUDIES 121 INICCO projects 129 Universities Ireland 140 SCoTENS 145 International Centre for Local and Regional Development (ICLRD) 150 Past research projects 169 Conferences 179 What they say 185 Evaluation quotes 188 Extracts from the Centre’s 2010-2011 Financial Statements 195 Contact details 197 The views expressed in this journal are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Special EU Programmes Body or the European Commission. 4 JOURNAL OF CROSS BORDER STUDIES IN IRELAND No.7 A WORD FROM THE CHAIR Helen Johnston It gives me great pleasure to write my first foreword as chair of the Centre in this, the seventh Journal of Cross Border Studies in Ireland. Since its establishment 13 years ago the Centre has seen many changes in the political and economic climate on the island of Ireland. The Centre was established in the aftermath of the Helen Johnston 1998 Good Friday/Belfast agreement. Optimism was in the air, the economy was booming and there was renewed vigour in forging North-South co-operation at political, administrative, business and community level. While, thankfully, we continue to have peace on the island of Ireland, the context within which the Centre is now operating is very different from its earlier years. The focus in both parts of the island is can provide a valuable resource in this now on addressing the economic crisis. regard. Over the years the Centre has The Republic of Ireland’s Programme built up a wealth of evidence on cross for Government states its support border synergies in areas as diverse as for North-South co-operation and telecoms technologies, health services, the Northern Ireland Executive’s draft education, animal disease, local Programme for Government refers to government, regional economics and the importance of formal structures and sustainable development to name but a day-to-day contact between the two few. Government departments, public administrations. However the reality in and private agencies, and NGOs can these economically straitened times is look to the Centre to assist in informing to look first to what can be done in our their work and in researching the own jurisdictions before we look across potential of cross border linkages the border. By lifting our heads up, and partnerships. nevertheless, we may see the economic, social and community opportunities and More Europe-facing benefits of greater co-operation across the border, especially if we build this in Over the past 12 months the Centre to our day-to-day work. has been positioning itself – through publishing new tools like the Impact The Centre for Cross Border Studies Assessment Toolkit for Cross Border JOURNAL OF CROSS BORDER STUDIES IN IRELAND No.7 5 Cooperation, active membership of the are about to be completed. The second Transfrontier Euro-Institut Network (TEIN) report of the cross-border hospitals and in other ways – to do more work in study – entitled Exploring the Potential of the broader European field and to Cross-Border Hospital Planning on the re-brand itself as a ‘Europe-facing’ Island of Ireland: A Prototype Modelling institute. In this context, the highlight of Framework – was launched in Belfast the past year has been the publication in December 2011. It examined the and roll-out – in the form of training potential of cross-border services in workshops – of its new Impact five areas: orthopaedic surgery, ENT, Assessment Toolkit for Cross Border paediatric cardiac surgery, cystic fibrosis Cooperation, which was widely and and acute mental health. enthusiastically welcomed for its timeliness and usefulness in both parts The Centre’s sister organisation, of Ireland and by a range of EU agencies the International Centre for Local and departments such as the Special and Regional Development (ICLRD) EU Programmes Body in Belfast, continued its excellent work through DG Regional Policy in Brussels and the third project, the Cross-border INTERACT in Bratislava. Deputy Director Spatial Planning and Training Network Ruth Taillon, who led this project along (CroSPlaN). A particular success with colleagues Joachim Beck and here has been its work in training Sebastian Rihm from the Euro-Institut local authority officials in the three in Germany, was in great demand as a cross-border regions – the eastern, trainer in Ireland, North and South, and north-western and central border Scotland, as well as travelling to speak regions – in planning for future cross- about the toolkit in Brussels, Rome border development. The most and Valencia. outstanding output of these executive training courses was the signing of At time of writing the other four so-called a Memorandum of Understanding INICCO projects – funded under the between Newry and Mourne District 2009-2012 INTERREG IVA programme Council and Louth Local Authorities through the Special EU Programmes in Brussels in March 2011 to allow Body – have either been completed or them to work together formally on a 6 JOURNAL OF CROSS BORDER STUDIES IN IRELAND No.7 range of environmental, energy, tourism information on social security, tax, and regeneration projects. European welfare, healthcare, pensions and other Commission officials hailed this as the practical issues for people moving most advanced cross-border instrument across the border to live, work, study of its type in the EU. and retire. In the autumn of 2011 its monthly usage was running at over The fourth project was the Border 9,000 visits and nearly 20,000 page Region Economy research study, led by views, well up on previous years. It two internationally eminent economists, also ran several well-attended cross- Dr John Bradley, formerly of the border business information events Economic and Social Research Institute with the IBEC-CBI Joint Business in Dublin, and Professor Michael Best Council in Monaghan, Letterkenny and of University of Massachusetts Lowell Manorhamilton. and Cambridge University. This saw a highly successful ‘emerging findings’ The Centre’s ‘house’ website also conference in November 2011 and a went from strength to strength, with final report - Cross-Border Economic a particularly dramatic 20,000 rise in Renewal: Rethinking Regional Policy in monthly page views, so that its usage Ireland - ready for publication in early has now risen tenfold since it started in March 2012. The conference concluded 2003. The four other CCBS websites with a proposal for a special 'Border have also maintained or increased their Development Zone' to address the usage levels: particular economic weaknesses (and www.borderpeople.info (see above); occasional strengths, including some www.borderireland.info (particularly very dynamic SMEs) of the Irish cross- its Media Centre’s monitoring of cross- border region.