In accordance with article 10 of the Cultural Agreement between the Italian and Irish Republics, signed on 9 September 1984, the programme aims at promoting a series of common initiatives in the fields of education, culture and science.
Such initiatives are included in the net of the several programmes supported by the European Union (Socrates, Leonardo…) that facilitate the exchange of educational and scientific information between the two countries.
The two interdependent fields established in this programme are “Education” and “Culture and Art”.    

1. Education  

1.a   Second and third-level education

Ireland and Italy  strove to attain a series of agreements and conventions, exchanges of teachers, data and information and to implement common research projects, seminars and congresses.
One particular agreement provides that the two countries exchange at least three university professors or researchers per year.
The two school education authorities have also agreed about exchanging some experts that study the education system of the other country, in order to improve the mutual knowledge of  didactic regulations, programs and methods. The two countries will also promote the exchange of teachers and students, aiming at the direct contact between the school institutions.  

1.b  The teaching of the language

The teaching of the Italian language is one of the major tools for the spreading of culture. This teaching is carried out in the courses organised within the Italian Cultural Institute, the Italian Departments of Trinity College and Dublin University College, and finally within the University Colleges at Cork and Galway.
Also the two programmes supported by the European Union, SOCRATES and LEONARDO, help spreading the Italian language. Some contributions are also given by Italy to those universities where Italian is taught (in 1994 and 1995 some funds were granted to the universities of Cork and Galway). In Ireland there are also some schools where Italian courses are held, but the percentage is quite low (about 2%) as well as the number of students (in 2001 only 0.3% of  the students had Italian in their Leaving Certificate programme).
In 1998 the Irish Department of Education and Science implemented the Pilot Project for the Teaching of Modern Languages in Primary Schools which is financed by the European Social Fund.
Such project involves a high number of schools and gives the students of primary schools the opportunity of learning some modern languages, including Italian. Another important initiative, which started in 2000, promotes the learning of the least taught languages in high schools. Such Languages Initiative aims in particular at the teaching of Italian, Spanish and Japanese. 5.7 million euros have been appropriated for a 5-year period, in order to promote this initiative, to create the didactic materials, to assign more hours of teaching and to organise courses for the teachers.
The number of  students attending the Italian Cultural Institute courses has increased noticeably during the last three years. Besides, there is a number of exchanges and collaborations between the Italian Departments of the universities of both countries as well as some guide lines (in accordance with the EU Directive 77/486 and with the European Parliament resolution of 16 April 1985) for Ireland to implement some initiatives that promote Italian language and culture for the Italian community that lives within the country.    

2. Culture and Art  

The agreement also promotes the collaboration between some Italian and Irish cultural institutions (i. e. Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana, Fondazione Giorgio Cini di Venezia, Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli di Torino in Italy and Irish Museum, National Gallery and others in Ireland) in order to organise seminars, conferences, presentations of books, exhibitions, concerts, theatre and cinema and to make publications of common interest.
Both parts are striving to foster the exchange of at least one high level exhibition per year. They also encourage: the projects about performances and tours of theathrical companies of the two countries and their accomplishment; the mutual participation in performances and high level events in the field of dance; the contacts, co-operation and exchanges between music corporations and institutes, bands and single artists of both countries; the exchange of  film reviews and the mutual participation in film festivals that take place in both Ireland and Italy; the exchange of information and experiences in the field of  protection, conservation and restoration of cultural heritage; the co-operation aimed at preventing, through the convenient measures, the illegal importation, exportation and transfer of cultural heritage and to protect the cultural environment through news exchanges, exhibitions and pilot projects; the regular exchanges between museums, providing discounts and free entrances to some categories of citizens (i. e. under 18 or over 65 years of age).

Link correlato

legals | credits | F.A.Q.