Shared Home Place

In April, at the 4th Shared Island Forum, Taoiseach Micheál Martin launched a new dialogue phase of the Shared Island Initiative: Shared Home Place. This is a participative, community-driven initiative that invites people across the island—and beyond—to explore what a shared home place means, past, present and future, through the lens of heritage and culture.

Through dialogue and engagement, Shared Home Place aims to connect people through Ireland’s shared heritage and diverse cultures, in the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement.

Shared Home Place will:

• engage with the contributions of traditions across the island of Ireland, including Irish, British, Anglo-Irish and Ulster Scots traditions.
• connect with Irish communities abroad.
• reflect the growing ethnic and cultural diversity that enriches Ireland today.

The Government has announced five initial components of the Programme to be delivered between 2026 and 2030:

• Heritage: The Heritage Council will lead a €5 million programme promoting public engagement with Shared Home Place themes. This will include programming delivered through local libraries, museums, archives, and galleries, as well as the creation of an all-island Local Government Heritage Network to support collaboration and knowledge sharing.

• Diaspora: The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will develop a dedicated Shared Home Place diaspora strand as part of the Government’s new Diaspora Strategy. This will invite the global Irish community to actively participate in the conversation about what a Shared Home Place means.

• National Cultural Institutions: Ireland’s National Cultural Institutions will be able to bring forward proposals aligned with the aims of Shared Home Place, working with partners in Northern Ireland under the Shared Island Cultural Cooperation Scheme.

• Intangible Cultural Heritage: Managed by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport, this work will support the exploration of North/South and East/West cultural connections between 2027 and 2030. It will build on the UK’s 2024 ratification of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage and the development of new inventories in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England.

• Home Place Talks: A series of public talks and discussions to frame and facilitate dialogue across the island, with more information to be made available soon.