NESC Contributes to Director’s Panel at The Centre for Cross Border Studies 25th Anniversary Conference

• 11 October 2024
• Types: News

Senior social policy analyst Dr Helen Johnston attended the Centre for Cross Border Studies 25^th Anniversary Conference “Celebrating a shared journey and the path ahead” on 19^th September 2024 in the Ballymascanlon Hotel, Dundalk. The conference was attended by more than 150 delegates from across the island of Ireland and all walks of life who are interested in cross border cooperation. The conference was addressed by politicians from Ireland, the UK and the Northern Ireland Executive, as well as by senior civil servants, local authority officials, academics, business leaders, European cross border advocates, and voluntary and community cross border workers.

As a former chairperson of the Centre for Cross Border Studies, Helen participated in a Panel of Directors on how the Centre was set up under the Good Friday Agreement and how it subsequently evolved, discussing the enablers and challenges it faced. Helen also participated in a Panel discussing how the Centre dealt with the fall out of the 2008 economic crisis, Brexit, and the collapse of the Northern Ireland Executive. Some of the lessons emanating from this work include: the precarious nature of peace building, reconciliation and cross border cooperation, and the need for resilience; the importance of links with Europe to provide a broader perspective; the importance of connectedness – with communities, local authorities, businesses, and government officials – north and south/east and west; and the benefits of cooperation now being borne out by the Shared Island work.

The conference was followed by the launch of Volume 19 of the Journal of Cross Border Studies in Ireland, which carries key articles from previous journals documenting 25 years of cross border cooperation.