Agenda item

            The Committee considered the following report:

 

“1.0     Purpose of Report or Summary of Main Issues

 

1.1       To update the Committee on the Council’s Decade of Centenaries Programme.

 

2.0       Recommendation

 

2.1       The Committee is asked to note the update of the progress of the programme and that the Council will not develop its own exhibition for the final phase of the Decade.

 

3.0       Main Report

 

3.1       Background

 

The Decade of Centenaries Programme marks the anniversaries of key events from 1912 – 1922, one hundred years ago. It aims is to promote a greater understanding of our shared, but complex history, in a way that can promote better relationships and foster reconciliation.  

 

3.2       Prior to the onset of the Decade, the Council sought to take a leadership role. From the very first discussions in City Hall on the Decade of Centenaries, Councillors took a positive approach, agreeing that the marking of these events provided the City with an excellent opportunity to broaden our understanding of the past and to develop respect for the complexity of our inter-woven and shared history.

 

3.3       In 2011, Members of the then Historic Centenaries Working Group had agreed a three phased approach to the whole Decade in chronological order:

  

-        1912 – 1914;

-        1914 – 1918; and

-        1918 – 1922.

 

3.4       Members also agreed to a series of principles that would underpin Council activity as well as to guide external events taking place on Council premises, such as the City Hall.

 

3.5       The first period, 1912-1914, was entitled “Shared History, Different Allegiances” and covered a range of historical events such as the Balmoral Review, the Home Rule crisis, the Ulster Covenant, the Gaelic Revival, the rise of the Suffragette and Labour movements, the formation of the YCV, along with the arming of the UVF and the Irish Volunteers. The Council hosted a large scale exhibition in the City Hall and delivered a range of civic events.

 

3.6       The second period, 1914-1918, covered the period of World War I, including the Somme and the Easter Rising. The bulk of this activity took place over 2016, under the banner of “Belfast; Reflections on 1916”.

 

3.7       The third period, 1918-1922, which is currently being delivered, is covering the end of World War I, the 1918 Elections, Women’s Suffrage, the Anglo-Irish war, the treaty negotiations and ultimately the establishment of the two parliaments on the island.

 

3.8       Major exhibitions were commissioned for the Covenant, the Somme and the Easter Rising and there was a Civic Dinner to mark each of these three events, as had been agreed in 2012. In addition, the Council rolled out an annual programme of events during each year of the Decade, open to the public and free to attend.

 

3.9       In 2016, at the August meeting of the Diversity Working Group, Members requested that officers develop a programme for the remainder of the Decade, from 2017 until 2022. Central to the programme, Members requested that:

 

-        Activity being planned would continue with the objective of having a strong Belfast focus, exploring the human stories of lost lives and be respectful.

-        The current Principles, agreed in 2011, will inform all activity within the final phase of the Decade of Centenaries

 

3.10     The programme contains a number of themes and a series of events within each theme, which were approved by Party Group Leaders and further agreed by the Strategic Policy and Resources meeting on the 20th October 2017.

 

3.11     Members also confirmed that the Shared City Partnership and the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee would form the governance for the programme, with Party Group Leaders also having a regular input into programme development. Party Group Leaders also requested that officers explore the possibility of delivering an exhibition covering a number of themes during this final phase of the Decade.

 

Exhibition

 

3.12     The two previous exhibitions undertaken for the first two phases of the Decade cost in the region of £50,000 each, which were very well attended by residents and visitors.

 

3.13     However, in relation to developing any exhibition for this final phase, Members should be aware that there is no resource set aside for such. More significantly, the public areas within City Hall have been hugely developed since the last exhibition was staged in 2016. With the new permanent exhibition, there is not the space to develop a comparable temporary exhibition in City Hall. The only available space for a temporary exhibition would be in the small foyer area in the entrance of City Hall.

 

3.14     Officers are aware however that over the course of the next three years, other organisations will be developing thematic exhibitions on the Decade of Centenaries. One is the Ulster Museum's temporary exhibition on Partition, which will open in the autumn of 2020. The second exhibition is a mobile exhibition titled Ireland's Global Revolution, which has been commissioned by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. It will be displayed at Irish embassies worldwide but would be made available to other venues as well.

 

3.15     At its August meeting, Party Group Leaders were of the view that the Council should not resource and develop its own exhibition for this final phase and requested that officers look at other options for engaging with any exhibition that may be in Belfast over the next three years relating to Decade of Centenaries. 

 

Community Involvement

 

3.16     Members may be aware of the wider Centenaries programme contained within the PEACE IV Local Action Plan, titled Belfast and the World, under the Building Positive Relations theme. This programme is an engagement programme within communities, and is now in its second year. It has already delivered over 30 hours of contact learning and engagement work to 80 participants thus far and contains a budget of £190,891. It will run until December 2021.

 

Notice of Motion on the Centenary of

the Foundation of Northern Ireland

 

3.17     Members will be aware that a Notice of Motion was proposed by Councillor Dorrian and seconded by Councillor Hutchinson at Council 1st July 2019. The notice reads:

 

“This Council notes the centenary of the foundation of Northern Ireland in 2021, the commitment to celebrate this as part of the Decade of Centenaries programme and the pivotal role that Belfast City Hall played in the establishment of its political institutions.

 

The Council agrees that a significant programme is developed by the Council to celebrate, to educate and to fully examine the different perspectives on its creation and to recognise the role of the City Hall.”

 

The Notice of Motion has been referred to the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee and will be dealt with in a separate paper.

 

Financial and Resource Implications

 

3.18     The costs of the activities alluded to within paragraph 3.11 are being borne by the District Council’s Good Relations Programme, which is 75% funded by the Executive Office.

 

Members are also asked to note that, in terms of those activities, officers have been approached to include the musical War’s End in its event on 3rd October 2019. This production, would cost in the region of £4,000 to stage and can be covered within existing budgets.

 

Equality and Good Relations Implications/

Rural Needs assessment

 

3.19     The Decade of Centenaries Programme is part of the Council’s District Council’s Good Relations Programme, which was screened for equality, good relations and rural needs and was screened out.”

 

            The Committee adopted the recommendation and agreed that the motion on the Centenary of the Foundation of Northern Ireland, which had been deferred earlier in the meeting, be incorporated into the Decade of Centenaries Programme and considered in the first instance by the Party Leaders.