Messines Peace Village
The completion of the Peace Park ultimately led to the development and construction of the Messines Peace Village, an international rural hostel equipped for seminars and meetings, ideal for associations, companies, youth and school groups.
The first stone was placed on 7 June 2005 by Taoiseach na hÉireann (Prime Minister of Ireland) Bertie Ahern in the presence of the Mayor of Messines, Sandy Evrard and the Flemish Minister of Administrative Affairs, Foreign Policy, Media and Tourism, Geert Bourgeois.
Only one year later, the Peace Village was officially opened. The inauguration took place on 7 June 2006 by the Irish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern, the British Minister for Northern Ireland, David Hanson, the Flemish Minister of Administrative Affairs, Foreign Policy, Media and Tourism, Geert Bourgeois and Sandy Evrard, the Mayor of Messines.
Read more about this topic: Island Of Ireland Peace Park
Famous quotes containing the words peace and/or village:
“Today we seek a moral basis for peace.... It cannot be a lasting peace if the fruit of it is oppression, or starvation, cruelty, or human life dominated by armed camps. It cannot be a sound peace if small nations must live in fear of powerful neighbors. It cannot be a moral peace if freedom from invasion is sold for tribute.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“While yet it is cold January, and snow and ice are thick and solid, the prudent landlord comes from the village to get ice to cool his summer drink; impressively, even pathetically, wise, to foresee the heat and thirst of July now in January,—wearing a thick coat and mittens! when so many things are not provided for. It may be that he lays up no treasures in this world which will cool his summer drink in the next.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)