A Peace Park jointly opened in Messines, Belgium, last year by the President, Mrs McAleese, and Queen Elizabeth has fallen into a state of disrepair. The Island of Ireland Park, built by students from all over Ireland under the Wider Horizons Project at a cost of almost £500,000 sterling, needs a further £500,000 worth of repair work.
"We would like to re-lay the park with kerbs and we need about another half-million to do all the work", said Mr Glen Barr, the project's co-ordinator. "We have had soil-testing done on the site, and the soil is in an extremely bad condition. If we want to make it look like the British War Graves Commission's cemetery, the remedial work has to be carried out as soon as possible.
"The entire park has to be re-topped with topsoil. We are looking for financial assistance from anybody who believes it's all worthwhile", he said.
In Derry yesterday students involved in the Messines project laid a wreath in memory of Irish soldiers killed in the first World War. The students then travelled to Dublin and laid a wreath at the Islandbridge memorial before going to Messines.
Speaking at the ceremony in Derry, the city's SDLP Mayor, Cllr Pat Ramsey, praised the students. "It is good to see young people coming together to learn from the past. I am here representing the people of the city to acknowledge the awful loss of life in the first World War and to acknowledge the sacrifice of my grandfather, whose name is on this war memorial," he said.