A GROUP of youngsters have embarked a special peace mission to Southern Ireland this weekend in memory of 12-year-old Tim Parry, the Warrington school boy killed during a terrorist bomb attack on the town in 1993.
The group, involving youngsters from Warrington and Leeds, is staying at the Glencree peace centre in Sourthern Ireland and will work alongside young people from Northern and Southern Ireland.
The Tim Parry leadership development programme, formerly ‘The Tim Parry Scholarship’, is cultural youth exchange programme developed in 1996 as the first Foundation programme.
It is an Anglo-Irish youth exchange programme working with young people aged 16+ who have demonstrated leadership skills within their schools and communities.
The programme aims to improve Anglo-Irish- Northern-Irish relationships (including across the communities in Northern Ireland) and foster friendships between the young people of Britain, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Twenty-four young people from Belfast, Warrington, Leeds and Dublin live, learn and socialise together, while exploring the differences and similarities of their respective
communities and cultures. The programme raises the self-awareness of participants concerning the different prejudices they can hold and how this can lead to conflict.
Thanks to its success, the Foundation has expanded the Leadership Development Programme to a wider international context to be delivered, for example, to young people from the Middle East or Balkans.
Past participants of the programme are encouraged to share their stories and lessons of experience with young people from around the world.
Tim Parry died along with three-year-old Johnathan Ball when an IRA bomb exploded in Bridge Street on March 20 1993, when more than 50 shoppers were also injured.
The tragedy was seen by many as a major turning point in the Anglo-Irish troubles, eventually leading to the Good Friday Agreement and ultimately the decommissioning of weapons by many
paramilitary organisations.
Pictures show Warrington participants Amy Skentelbery (centre) from Bridgewater High School with Righi Bhalla and Sarah Short from Barrowhall College, Great Sankey and Tim Parry and Johnathan Ball.
