A NEW initiative has been launched this week to bring members of Ireland’s global diaspora closer together.
Plans for the Shared Home Place: Diaspora Voices project were revealed in Boston while Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee was in the US for St Patrick’s week.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee announced the plans this week“As part of the Government’s Shared Home Place dialogue programme, I am delighted today to launch the “Shared Home Place: Diaspora Voices” initiative,” Minister McEntee said at a St. Patrick’s Day event held at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.
“Supported by the Shared Island Fund, this initiative will invite Irish people abroad, from all traditions and backgrounds, to come together to explore their shared heritage and cultural, place-based connections," she explained.
“It is appropriate that this launch takes place in Boston, one of the great centres of Irish migration,” the Minister added.
“Where better to start a conversation amongst the Irish abroad about our shared island, our shared home place?”
Minister McEntee described the project as an “opportunity for Irish people all over the world to offer their perspectives on the past, present and future of our shared island, and to be part of a national conversation about issues such as identity, reconciliation, inclusion, connectedness, and the future”.
A new Shared Home Place Diaspora Voices fund has been established which offers financial support to projects registered for the initiative through the Irish Government’s worldwide network of diplomatic missions.
That fund will be rolled out across 2026, on a pilot basis, it was confirmed this week.
It will be “focused initially on regions with Irish populations of high density and longevity” Ms McEntee’s department stated.
“Shared Home Place Diaspora Voices will be project-based and, while led by our diplomatic missions, should be rooted in local diaspora communities,” they added.
Such events could include, but are not limited to, “town halls, fireside chats, panel discussions, citizen assembly type fora, academic studies and research projects”, it was confirmed.
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