Integrated Education Fund

The celebrations for the 20^th anniversary of the Integrated Education Fund continued with a reception at Hillsborough Castle on 15 May.

The Earl of Wessex was greeted by Baroness May Blood, IEF Campaign Chair, the Fund’s Campaign President David Montgomery and Chair of the IEF Marie Cowan, alongside Minister of State for Northern Ireland Hugo Swire.    (more…)

The late, great comedian Frank Carson was celebrated at an intimate fundraising dinner at the exclusive Corrigan’s Mayfair restaurant in London. Family and close friends including Baroness May Blood, attended the event which was organised by Tony Carson, Frank’s son and which was generously sponsored and hosted by Richard Corrigan, the Michelin-starred Irish chef.  (more…)

Before Easter the Fund were delighted to get the chance to meet with the new Irish President, Michael D. Higgins. Chair of the Fund, Marie Cowan, Campaign Chair, Baroness May Blood and Campaign Director, Paul Caskey travelled to Phoenix Park in Dublin and took the opportunity to update President Higgins on the Fund’s current work in Northern Ireland and the progress made during its 20 year history.

Omagh Integrated Primary School welcomed IEF Chair Marie Cowan and her husband Ronnie when they officially opened the school’s new Dergmoney Pre-School Centre.  The event also gave the school and its supporters the chance to thank the generous donors, including the Jim and Lynn Moroney Family Foundation of Dallas Texas  who have funded a new playgroup which will bring more children into integrated education each year.  The pre-school facility will offer 20  places in addition to those already available at Omagh Integrated Nursery.  It’s been established thanks to a gift from the Moroney Family Foundation via the IEF’s Increasing Places in Integrated Schools (IPIS) grants scheme. (more…)

Paul Caskey, Campaign Director of the Integrated Education Fund, joined past and present integrated school principals to share their experiences with an international gathering in Belfast recently.

Teachers from Israel, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Croatia and Cyprus as well as academics from Germany, the USA and Northern Ireland attended a Conference for Integrated Peace Education which focused on ways of bringing young people from different cultures together in a context of division and conflict.  The conference was hosted by Queen’s University Belfast and the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education in conjunction with the Hebrew University Jerusalem and the Open University of Cyprus and is supported by the Open Society. (more…)

Ballymena- born actor Liam Neeson recently held a reception in New York for high-profile American supporters of the Integrated Education Fund, given in honour of the Fund’s Campaign Chair Baroness May Blood MBE. 

The party, at the Fitzpatrick Grand Central Hotel was jointly hosted with the American Ireland Fund (AIF) and the Northern Ireland Bureau.

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