Australians at The June Conference in Dublin 2003

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A group of Australians traveled to Ireland for the June conference including Governor and Director Peter Cosgrove, Director Jane Cosgrove, Director Kevin Luscombe, Director Ted Johnson, Ambassador John Herron, Benefactor and Executive Director Teresa Keating.

The highlight was obviously the opening of the Special Olympics. We sponsored ten Australian athletes for the Special Olympics during their time in Ireland, so it was an especially proud moment when we saw the team parade out on the track.

During the conference, Directors of the Australian Ireland Fund met with those associated with some of our major projects including Northern Ireland Children’s Enterprise and Springboard.

Speedwell Trust at Parkanaur Forest was visited to experience at the first hand the integrated work with Catholic and Protestant children through the medium of the environment education. Parkanaur Forest is rich with flora and fauna and it was wonderful to see the children being taught in the classroom environment and then go out into the forest and put it into practice.

A visit was made to the 174 Trust, a very worthwhile project filling a vital need in a community deeply divided. The Trust is creating a ‘drop in centre’ which they are calling the ‘Australian room’ in recognition of our support. Recently over 1000 people from the McCracken Summer School and the New Lodge Festival used the complex of the 174 Trust.

As part of the Festival, the 174 Trust arranged an ‘Evening of Celtic Poetry & ‘Song’ – the highlight of which was a Northern Ireland singer songwriter (who has just toured Australia) Brian Kennedy. He was backed up by a ‘cross community’ choir made up of two Catholic and two Protestant schools – a first! The evening was an unqualified success in every way and the beginning of a relationship between the four schools. Bill Shaw’s role was to facilitate their coming together and he now plans to follow this up with a joint Carol Service at the Trust in the weeks leading up to Christmas.