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25 June 2002

The Community Relations Council (CRC) today honours six local people who have recently been given national awards and recognition for their community relations work in Northern Ireland. Eamonn McCartan, Chair of the Community Relations Council, praised the award recipients in a special event today at the Council's offices:

" Good work often goes unrecognised, and so it is particularly satisfying that the contributions of these six individuals to peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland have achieved such high recognition and acclaim.

All six award recipients have worked closely with the Community Relations Council over a number of years and the Council takes pride in the acknowledgement by others of their contributions and achievements in the field of community relations."

Four of the award winners received recognition in the Royal Honours List earlier this month: Dr Jonathan Bardon, Tanya Gallagher, Libby Keyes and Rev.Fred Munce. Two received the annual President's Prize, sponsored by the Newsletter and Irish News: Ian Bothwell and Liam Maskey.

"Whilst talk of reconciliation is everywhere apparent," said Mr McCartan, "responsibility for making it happen always seems to lie somewhere else. But it is people who make peace happen and the Community Relations Council as a development agency for peace and reconciliation has dedicated its efforts over the last twelve years to the building up of a community relations infrastructure that can sustain and encourage peace efforts on the ground. That means investing in people such as those who are honoured here today."

"Peacebuilding is a 'whole community' responsibility and everyone has their part to play in helping to move us beyond the divisions of the past. We all need the encouragement of good news and examples of individual achievement to spur us on. Those honoured here today have provided that."

The award recipients will attend a reception at CRC, 6 Murray Street, Belfast at 3.30 pm today, Tuesday 25 June.

For further information contact

Mark Adair, CRC Chief Executive

or Ray Mullan, CRC Director of Communications

Tel 028 90 227500

Notes on the Award Winners

Royal Honours Awards:

Dr Jonathan Bardon OBE, historian, and former Chair of the Community Relations Council,

Tanya Gallagher MBE, Director of the L'Derry Peace and Reconciliation Group, and also a former member of the Board of CRC,

Libby Keyes OBE, community relations trainer and member of the Future Ways Project, and formerly Community Relations Officer of Cookstown District Council, and

Rev.Fred Munce MBE, minister of the Methodist Church, now based in Derry's Waterside, but formerly active in Methodist Missions in North Belfast and South Derry (Magherafelt).

Two further people were this year's recipients of the annual President's Prize, established by the Irish News and the Newsletter after US President Bill Clinton's first visit to Northern Ireland in 1995. These were:

Ian Bothwell, director of the Crossfire Trust, a community relations project in South Armagh, and

Liam Maskey, director of Intercomm, a community relations project in North Belfast.