Speech by Taoiseach Micheál Martin on the occasion of the Creative Ireland Shared Island Conference on 13 November 2025

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Good morning everyone.

Together with Minister O’Donovan, I am delighted to join you here today for the first Creative Ireland Shared Island conference, celebrating what you have created together.

To quote one group you may have heard of that came through a Creative Ireland programme, “If you're proud of who you are and what you do, shout it”

Today is all about that spirit so wonderfully expressed by Kabin Crew’s young people. Did I mention some of them are from Cork?

Creative Ireland & Shared Island

In recognition of the vital role of creativity in the fabric of our lives, some eight years ago the Government established the Creative Ireland programme.

It has gone from strength to strength, working with people and communities across a truly wide and diverse range of areas.

And three years ago, with support of €6 million from the Shared Island Fund it became an all-island programme – a development and investment I was pleased to drive forward, believe has enormous potential, and hope we can continue to build on.

Within the Good Friday Agreement, there is a commitment to “strive in every practical way towards reconciliation” on this island. But finding those practical ways to bring people together to further reconciliation is not always easy.

The Shared Island initiative was established to give further effect to that commitment to reconciliation and to explore ways to better live alongside each other and share this island into the future.

That is not always easy.

It takes commitment, leadership, goodwill and engagement at every level. It requires people to reach out, challenge our own pre-conceptions, build new bonds, and develop trust and confidence across communities and in each other.

And it takes creativity. A willingness to find words and ways to express and explore our differences and create a common ground. And a willingness to imagine a future that is different to our past.

There’s an Irish saying ‘Castar na daoine ar a chéile, ach ní chastar na cnoic’. In direct translation, it means that people can meet each other but the hills cannot.

Coming together and being creative together is fundamental to human nature and wellbeing. And coming together and being creative together across the island is fundamental to our shared future and wellbeing.

Creative Island Shared Island programme

And that is exactly what all of you have been doing through the Creative Ireland’s Shared Island programme.

The projects you have undertaken have established bonds, pulled down barriers and connected people and communities.

The range and the reach of the Creative Ireland Shared Ireland programming –is impressive.

From circus to heritage crafts, music to creative writing, visual arts to dance, people from towns and communities throughout the island have come together in a spirit of creativity. Projects have spanned generations and found ways to include more marginalised groups – which I am very glad to see.

Last April at the Shared Island Forum, I spoke about the ‘Birds of a Feather’ project, which brought together women from Ballinasloe, Belfast, Ennis and Inishbofin, including new Irish communities, with a common interest in craftwork.

Some of those who took part in that project had never crossed the border before.

Today, we can see their journey over three years documented in the tapestry they created on display just outside.

One participant spoke of “fears and barriers reducing” and of being “fascinated how people can build relationships while they’re busy doing other things.”

I can’t think of a better expression of the aim of reconciliation, creativity and connection which are at the heart of the Shared Island initiative and of this Conference.

Creative Ireland Shared Island evaluation

And those positive changes are also recognised in the Creative Ireland Shared Island evaluation, which you will all have a copy of.

The evaluation recognises the complexity of all-island work, the challenge of navigating different systems, building relationships from scratch, finding that progress can be slow. One project organiser noted that "building respect and trust with communities is a slow process and shouldn’t be rushed". It was ever thus.

It also recognises the reward. The potential for positive change, for stronger partnerships, new connections and flourishing creative lives.

A Shared Home Place

Earlier this year, I announced the new Shared Home Place programme.

This new participative, community-led dialogue programme will build on the work already underway on a Shared Island, from co-operation on infrastructure to biodiversity, finding ways to work together to improve lives.

The Shared Home Place programme will explore what does a shared home place mean?

What does it mean to each of you?

What does sharing a home place mean across this island, past, present and future?

We are shaped by our past, sometimes in ways we don’t even realise or recognise now.

During the Decade of Centenaries, that ten years where we explored some of the key events that shaped this island a century ago, many of us found just how complex, entwined, and multifaceted our history and the stories we tell about the past actually are. And we found ways to acknowledge and understand our differing perceptions and versions of past events.

The Government’s Expert Advisory Group on centenaries wrote at the time that the aim should be to “broaden sympathies without having to abandon loyalties”.

Building on this, the Shared Home Place programme will offer a chance to explore and engage with the heritage of our home places - open to people in every town across this island, and beyond. What has shaped our sense of home place, how is that shared? What does that mean on a local level and what does it mean island-wide?

The programme will seek to connect people, creating a better understanding of all the traditions that have influenced the island that we live in today. Irish, British, Anglo-Irish, Ulster-Scots, these and others are all part of the fabric of this shared home place.

By exploring our heritage, our culture and deepening our understanding of each other, we will find new ways to connect, to share and to explore what a shared future looks like.

Some of the Creative Ireland Shared Island projects have already shown how we can start to do that.

The Laces of Ireland initiative - a partnership connecting lacemaker groups and heritage institutions in Limerick, Armagh and Cork - created meaningful links through craft and tradition.

In the Shared Histories: Diverse Views project, photography was a way for participants to share personal stories about identity and memory, creating a starting point for dialogue rooted in lived experience.

Shared Home Place will offer an opportunity to build on this approach: something lasting, rooted in heritage and culture yet forward-looking, open, and imaginative.

Conclusion

Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil le gach aon duine a chabhraigh chun an t-imeacht iontach seo a eagrú.

A huge thank you to all who helped organise today’s excellent event.

And to all of you who have participated in the Creative Ireland Shared Island programme or are here today because it has sparked an interest for you, I want to thank you.

Is faoi cheangail a dhéanamh idir daoine, pobail agus traidisiúin ar fud ár n-oileáin é Tionscnamh an Oileáin Chomhroinnte. Tríd an gcruthaitheacht a roinnt, is féidir linn comhthuiscint agus meas cultúir níos fairsinge a fheiceáil ag teacht chun cinn; sa cheol, san ealaín, sa scéalaíocht, agus sna naisc a bhíonn mar thoradh ar an gcomhoibriú sin.

Tá an bealach ar féidir leis an tsamhlaíocht agus le cuspóir comhchoiteann cabhrú linn todhchaí níos gile agus níos ceangailte a mhúnlú do gach duine ar an oileán seo léirithe ag an gClár Éire Ildánach.

The Shared Island initiative is about building connections between people, communities and traditions across our island.

Through shared creativity, we can see a more expansive common ground of understanding and cultural appreciation emerge; in music, in art, in storytelling, and in the bonds that grow from these collaborations.

The Creative Ireland Programme has shown how imagination and shared purpose can help us shape a brighter more connected future for everyone who calls this island home.

Go raibh maith agaibh, thank you.