About FLOURISH
The project will focus on Irish, Ulster Scots and Scottish Gaelic language and culture in particular.
Framing the legacy
FLOURISH (Framing the Legacy of our Irish and Scottish Heritage) has been funded by the PEACEPLUS Programme* under investment area 1.3 - Building Positive Relations.
The project will contribute to good community relations and peacebuilding in Northern Ireland and the border counties of Ireland by addressing contentious issues surrounding language and cultural diversity.
We will gather first-hand evidence of cross-community, cross-border and cross-jurisdictional attitudes to, and experiences of, Irish/Gaelic and Ulster Scots languages and cultures, and intervene with communities and their civic bodies to ameliorate the potential threats to the peace process which have been fuelled by cultural and linguistic antagonisms.
Continuing to frame language and culture as a contentious issue is a barrier to building positive relations and, hence, a threat to the peace, stability and prosperity of the region.
Developing pathways to accommodating difference
The project will develop pathways to accommodating difference, and to increasing buy-in and productive engagement around the Irish language and Ulster Scots, so that language and culture become an accepted and a less controversial aspect of political and cultural life in Northern Ireland and the border counties of Ireland.
The Irish language and Ulster Scots are deeply rooted in the heritage of the region and their potential as an enriching cultural asset has not been fully realised to date.
A PEACEPLUS project
PEACEPLUS is a cross-border funding Programme designed to support peace and prosperity across Northern Ireland and the border counties of Ireland.
The total value of PEACEPLUS is €1.14 billion. PEACEPLUS is co-funded by the European Union, the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Government of Ireland, and the Northern Ireland Executive.
The Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) is a North South Body with the statutory remit for managing EU funding programmes within Northern Ireland and the border counties of Ireland.
What FLOURISH aims to achieve
FLOURISH will run for three and a half years, and it has three main areas of focus that will will aim to:
Build positive community relations
Build positive community relations around Irish language and Ulster Scots language and culture via a broad programme of evidence-based community engagement, including workshops, and training and knowledge exchange events.
Sustained engagement will be conducted regionally throughout Northern Ireland and the border counties of Ireland and will include participants from the Protestant, Unionist and Loyalist (PUL), and the Catholic, Nationalist and Republican (CNR) communities as well as newcomer communities.
This engagement will consist of a programme of discussion and reimagining workshops that will examine the current situation and explore possibilities for transcending contention.
A residential programme/ exchange visits have also been planned in order to enable community participants to experience life in the traditional Gaeltacht areas of Ireland and Scotland as well as Ulster Scots communities and organisations in Northern Ireland and the border counties of Ireland.
Enhance and develop local government
Enhance and develop local government capacity to deal with sensitive language and culture issues.
In conjunction with councils, the project will co-design a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training programme for council officials that will inform better official practice when addressing issues of cultural and linguistic difference.
This work will seek to transform what is currently perceived as a problem into a civic positive.
The CPD programme will also specifically aim to reduce the potential for citizens to feel culturally alienated when dealing with their own local authorities.
Inspire future generations
Inspire future generations to cherish our Irish and Ulster Scots linguistic and cultural heritage.
The project will design an awareness programme to be delivered to secondary schools throughout Northern Ireland and the border counties of Ireland that will facilitate an informed understanding of this key aspect of our collective identity.
A Youth Congress will also be convened to allow for a wider, more inclusive discussion among young people from Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland about Irish, Gaelic and Ulster Scots heritage.
Project Partners
The project is being led by the School of Arts and Humanities at Ulster University and it brings together a range of organisations that have substantial experience in researching the linguistic and cultural heritage, and sociolinguistic contexts of Irish, Ulster Scots and Scottish Gaelic, and in promoting the positive societal benefits of these languages and their associated cultures.
The main partnership includes: Ulster University, the Language Sciences Institute at the University of the Highlands and Islands; the TURAS project at East Belfast Mission; the Droichead project at Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin; and Comhaltas Uladh.
The project's associate partners include: Foras na Gaeilge, Donegal County Council, Monaghan County Council, Louth County Council and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar.
