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11 Chestnut Grove Bridge St. Strabane Tel/Fax 0287-884616
Establishment of Strabane Teach na Failte office. Establishment of Strabane Teach na Failte office. The main obstacles in practical terms to the development of the Project since its inception has been the lack of funding. Therefore no focal point for Teach na Failte (TnF) could be established nor could any proper equipment be acquired. Funding was acquired from the Strabane Dictrict Partnership Board, SDPB, for the rent of an office and to fully equip it. This office will now be used as the head office for TnF in the 32 Counties. Initially there were a number of teething problems getting the office up and running. This was mainly due to office equipment, stationary, connecting phone lines etc. arriving much later than expected. Also, confusion over payment of bills held up acquiring the office equipment. This took almost a month to rectify. The office has been fully equipped and functioning properly since the 29th November 1999. The establishment of the TnF office has clearly demonstrated, even at this early stage, that the Project is gaining momentum and has instilled a greater confidence within the catchment area, not only in Strabane but further afield, in Belfast, Derry and Dublin, that the objectives of TnF, as outlined in the Development plan and Back from the Margins report, is achievable. Another problem clearly identified was lack of information on ex-INLA prisoners. All this, lack of information, proper compilation of data, lack of funding for an office and a lack of proper equipment, led to apathy which we initially found to be a major problem in progressing the Project as first envisaged. Even though the local management committee has been functioning for quite some time they were very much hampered by the lack of a proper focal point and the availability of proper equipment which led to the lowering of moral. However since the establishment of the office there has been a significant increase in interest in the Project and moral amongst the local committee has been subsequently boosted. Usage of the office will be monitored by use of a visitors book with the relevant data included in reports. Number of people using the TnF office. Local marketing of the Project. There are thirty two ex-INLA prisoners in the Strabane area and all have been informed of the Project through visits from the Project officer and local chairperson Eddie Mc Garrigle as well as some members of the management committee. These visits were also expanded outside of ex-prisoners and included many connecting family members. During December 1999 and January 2000 a number of information sessions took place in the local office and were well attended. All received information packs about the Project and how it developed. It is intended to have these information sessions on a regular basis with minutes taken and all informed of developments as they happen. This has led to increased support for the Project by those participating to date with offers of services on a voluntary basis. It is expected that participation within the catchment area will increase as the Project develops and there are clear signs that the apathy that has existed since the inception of the Project has diminished and is slowly been replaced with optimism. A number of journalists, Belfast Telegraph, Derry Journal and the Strabane Chronicle, have been contacted and all have promised to do interviews with TnF about the Project. Establishing links with other groups. Since TnF was established links have been formed with a number of groups in the statutory and voluntary sector. This would include the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, the Irish Prisons Department and the Northern Ireland Office. Recently TnF has also became affiliated to the Organisation of the Unemployed Northern Ireland, OUNI, and to the North West Community Network. TnF has also been in contact with Donal Gillespie the lead partner in the Strabane District New Deal Consortium and requested to become a member of the Consortium, which is still under consideration. Links with a number of other prisoner groups such as Ex-PAC in Monaghan, Cairde in Strabane, Tar Isteach in Belfast and the loyalist group EPIC has also been established. A meeting did take place with a representative from EPIC and representatives from TnF to explore establishing either formal or informal links with each other. The overall management committee of TnF are in favour of such links with loyalist ex-prisoner groups, or any other group which will futher the aims and objectives of TnF, but feels that the membership of TnF are not ready for formal links at this stage. However informal links will be maintained and hopefully expanded on as time goes by. Links have also been established with T.E.A., D.H.S.S., H.E., N.I.A.C.R.O and the Unemployed Centre. Formal links have also been established with a number of community groups in the Strabane area. One of the advantages of those who have experienced long-term imprisonment is the fact that it has a tendency to raise the "street credibility" of the ex-prisoner within the community particularly amongst the youth. This fact has already been used to the advantage of community groups in the Strabane area in settling disputes within the community and even between the communities as already experienced in the Carlton Drive area of Strabane during the yearly Drumcree crisis. TnF are considering setting up a formal mediation service to work on disputes within and between the communities because of the successes of the past. Creating a database of ex-INLA prisoners. Another major problem TnF faced since the beginning of the Project has been lack of information on ex-INLA prisoners. A proper infrastructure, which most other prisoner groups have had since the beginning of the conflict, had not been established for many years for INLA prisoners. This in turn meant no proper files being kept and general information on both serving and ex-prisoners not being available. There is an estimated 500 ex-INLA prisoners and research is still ongoing into ascertaining the exact amount. The creation of a database of ex-INLA prisoners is well underway though this work is time consuming as a lot of travelling and interviews with ex-prisoners throughout the 32 Counties was and is still necessary in order to compile the proper information and create a comprehensive database. This work is still ongoing. Most of the ex-prisoners interviewed had many difficulties in giving some information requested for a variety of reasons e.g. few wanted their addresses or the addresses of their relatives logged because of past information falling into the wrong hands thus possibly endangering personal safety. The database of Strabane ex-INLA prisoners is almost complete but much more work has yet to be done on the 32 County database though progress to date has been significant. Creating a 32 County Teach na Failte Infrastructure. Again lack of funding has been the major problem in creating a 32 County infrastructure particularly in the 26 Counties. However, after a number of meetings between Paddy Logue, the Cross Border Project Officer for Peace and Reconciliation, and Strabane TnF, and after discussions with Martin O Fanim, Irish Foreign Affairs, an application for funding to progress the Project in the 26 Counties was successful. This recent funding acquired from ADM/CPA will enable Teach na Failte to build a proper infrastructure in the 26 Counties, which has been very poor to date. A lot of work has yet to be done in this catchment area. A number of meetings took place in the Strabane offices during late November and December 1999 with representatives from Belfast, Derry and Dublin TnF with the sole purpose of consolidating and expanding the infrastructure already in place. The infrastructure already in place in the North of Ireland is in a much more healthier position than that which exists in the South of Ireland. This is due to funding already being acquired in the North which has enabled the Project to progress at a much faster rate. However, with funding now recently acquired through ADM/CPA it is expected that the Project will develop much more rapidly in the South. Organising residentials and capacity building training courses. Four residentials has been organised through Brid Ruddy, Technical Development Facilitator, for January, March, April and May 2000. The format of these residentials are: A report on "Way Forward" will be launched by Brid Ruddy on 30th May 2000 after the conclusion of the above residentials. Training providers have been contacted in relation to providing training courses. We are still waiting for the detailed programmes from them. These training programmes are to be given to the Derry District Partnership Board by the end of January 2000. Work involving serving prisoners. During November and December 1999 TnF was in contact with the Sentence Review Commission (SRC), Northern Ireland Office (NIO) and the Irish Prisons Department in relation to problems concerning serving INLA prisoners. Three INLA prisoners in the North were excluded from the Xmas parole scheme and this was brought to the attention of Jackie Johnston, NIO, at a meeting in Belfast. Even though it was a political decision to free all prisoners from Long Kesh over the Xmas period it is believed that the representations made by TnF secured the release of those prisoners mentioned. TnF was also involved in negotiations with the NIO and INLA prisoners on operational matters within Long Kesh with a satisfactory outcome. TnF have also been in contact with the SRC on behalf of the families of serving prisoners with satisfactory outcomes in all cases. There has been regular contact with the Irish Prison Department on behalf of both prisoners and their families with mixed results. The IPD are very difficult to work with mainly because of beauracracy which we hope to have resolved in the very near future. All INLA prisoners in both Long Kesh and Portlaoise have been fully informed of the Project since its inception and are regularly informed of all developments. They have been taking part in courses within the prisons such as Welfare Rights, computer training courses etc. with a view of using these skills to progress the Project after release. During the period of December1999 TnF assisted representatives of the POW department in Belfast, Derry, Strabane, Dublin and Dundalk in raising funds for the families of serving INLA prisoners. £100 was given to twenty two families for Xmas.
Project Development Officer. |