The Role of EU Structural Funds in Building Capacity and Promoting Reconciliation: The Example of the Museum Sector in Derry/Londonderry

EU Structural Funds have played a major part in the Northern Ireland peace process, with over £2.3 billion pounds being channelled through programmes such as the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) and, from 1995, the successive ‘PEACE’ programmes (Special Support Programmes for Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland). The impact has been particularly visible in the city of Derry/Londonderry. This paper proposes to look at the impact of ERDF and PEACE on the museum sector in the city, drawing on articles from the local press as well as interviews with key actors (project managers, current museum staff and former staff members). The first part focuses on the Tower Museum, Derry/Londonderry's civic museum inaugurated in 1992. It shows how the awarding of ERDF funding made it possible for the city to finally set up its first museum since 1945—putting an end to a long-standing anomaly, which had been identified as a priority from at least the 1970s. The new museum was explicitly given a role in favouring reconciliation, through an inclusive approach to the city's history. The second part looks at the Siege Museum, which could be called a ‘sectional’ museum, as it is run by the Apprentice Boys of Derry, the main loyalist organisation in the city. Again, we will see that the absence of a museum to represent the loyalist narrative had long been lamented, but successive plans to create one had always run into difficulties. PEACE III funding led to the museum finally being opened in 2016, again with the aim of fostering cross-community understanding. In the third and final part, we will see that the subsequent programme, PEACE IV, then built upon this foundation, providing funds for projects that combined the two ‘sectional’ museums of the city—the Siege Museum and the Museum of Free Derry. The opening of the Siege Museum opened up opportunities to combine both political traditions, in particular within a project known as the ‘Derry Model’ (officially, the Conflict Transformation and Peace Building project), which uses the two museums as a resource for reconciliation work. Overall, this paper shows how successive grants of EU funds have played a key part in helping the city build a very solid, well-rounded offer in the museum sector, allowing the realization of projects that had long been recognised as necessary, yet had been hindered by the difficulty of finding appropriate funding. This capacity-building then allowed more projects to flourish, which showcase the city's expertise in peacebuilding.