Ireland’s peace process, shaped by the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, created the conditions for community-based and bottom-up peacebuilding to develop over time. While the Agreement provided a political framework, much of the work of reconciliation, trust-building, and dialogue has taken place at the local level — through communities, youth organisations, and cross-community initiatives.
Many Irish peace initiatives were not led by institutions alone, but by local actors working directly with young people and communities affected by division. These efforts were frequently supported by EU PEACE programmes and the International Fund for Ireland, both of which prioritised social cohesion, youth engagement, and cross-border cooperation.
This experience makes Ireland especially relevant to Paths to Peace (P2P), a project that focuses on:
- Youth participation
- Non-formal learning
- Tourism as a civic and peacebuilding tool
- Long-term sustainability beyond formal agreements
Ireland demonstrates a key lesson for Europe: peace does not end with a treaty. It requires ongoing engagement, dialogue, and local ownership to be maintained across generations.
What Ireland Contributes as a Learning Case
Ireland contributes practical peacebuilding knowledge drawn from decades of experience working with young people in divided or sensitive contexts, particularly in border regions affected by historical sectarianism. Key Irish learnings that inform Paths to Peace include:
1. Peacebuilding Works Best When It Is Local
Irish peace initiatives have shown that local narratives, lived experience, and community trust are essential. This directly informs P2P’s Global Peace Perspectives, which gathers grassroots insights rather than relying solely on policy frameworks.
2. Youth Are Not Passive Beneficiaries of Peace
Ireland has developed strong practice in engaging young people as active contributors to peace, through education, creative expression, cross-border exchanges, and community-based initiatives. This learning feeds directly into P2P’s:
- Practical Paths to Peace workshops
- Youth-led peace proposals and hackathon
These approaches recognise young people as agents of continuity, not simply recipients of peace.
3. Tourism Can Be a Safe Entry Point to Difficult Conversations
Ireland’s experience shows that heritage, place, and storytelling can create accessible and non-threatening spaces to explore contested histories. When handled responsibly, tourism can support reflection and dialogue without sensationalising conflict. This principle sits at the core of P2P’s approach to tourism as a tool for dialogue rather than division.
Within the partnership, Ireland (through Momentum) contributes expertise in:
- Youth engagement in post-conflict regions
- Cross-border and intercultural education
- Promotion and impact solutions
- Translating complex peace narratives into accessible learning
This role strengthens the project’s ability to connect peacebuilding concepts to real community experience, ensuring outputs are practical, usable, and transferable across different European contexts.
What Other Countries Learn from Ireland Through P2P
Ireland does not present itself as a “perfect peace model.” Instead, it offers something more useful: evidence that peace is ongoing work. Through Paths to Peace, Ireland helps other partners and youth participants understand:
- How peace can evolve over decades rather than years
- Why unresolved narratives still matter
- How youth engagement helps prevent regression into polarisation
- How tourism can support civic participation without exploiting trauma
These lessons are embedded into the Global Peace Perspectives Roadmap and the Paths to Peace Advocates Network, ensuring Ireland’s experience informs future peacebuilding initiatives across Europe.
Why This Matters for the Project
Ireland’s inclusion ensures that Paths to Peace is not only about responding to conflict, but also about maintaining peace by:
- Equipping young people with tools to prevent future division
- Promoting active citizenship through tourism, culture, and heritage
- Building sustainable, youth-led peace networks that continue beyond the project lifespan
In Summary
Ireland’s role anchors Paths to Peace in real, tested experience, making the project’s objectives stronger, more credible, and more transferable.
Ireland fits into Paths to Peace not as a case of crisis, but as a case of continuity — showing how peace can be protected, renewed, and passed on to the next generation.
That is its greatest contribution.
Written by:
Laura Magan,
European Projects Specialist in Tourism,
Momentum,
Ireland
Sources & References
Good Friday Agreement (1998) – UK Government
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-belfast-agreement
EU PEACE Programmes – European Commission
https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/policy/cooperation/european-territorial/peace/
International Fund for Ireland
https://www.internationalfundforireland.com/
CAIN Web Service (Ulster University) – Peace & Post-Conflict Context
https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/
Council of Europe – Youth Participation & Peacebuilding
https://www.coe.int/en/web/youth/peace
European Commission – Erasmus+ Youth Participation
https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/programme-guide/part-b/youth
Paths to Peace – Official Project Website
https://pathstopeace.eu/
Momentum Consulting (Ireland)
https://momentumconsulting.ie/