Facing History and Ourselves' involvement in Northern Ireland began in 2003 when several scholars from Northern Ireland took part in Facing History professional development events. Alan McCully from the University of Ulster, Michael Arlow from Queen's University Belfast, and two board members from Healing Through Remembering, Sean Coll and Alan McBride, attended seminars in Boston.

As a result, in October of 2003, Facing History conducted a series of workshops in Northern Ireland with Queen's University Belfast, the Council for the Curriculum Examinations and Assessment, as well as at the University of Ulster and the non-governmental organization (NGO) Healing Through Remembering. In the spring of 2004, Tony Gallagher from Queen's University Belfast consulted on the Northern Irish case study for Facing History's online conference, "Educating for a Civil Society After Collective Violence."

Also during the spring of 2004, Grainne McKenna of NICE and Alan McBride taught a Facing History course to a group of 18-20 year old students through the WAVE Trauma Centre. The course used the scope and sequence and case study of the Holocaust and made connections to Northern Ireland and the Troubles. Several of the students spoke about the importance of learning about bystander behavior and having a chance to discuss the role of bystanders and apathy in Northern Ireland where the violence has lessened but the politics and separation have become more polarized and extreme. Alan (about whom there is a resource on the transitional justice website) plans to teach the course again.

During the summer of 2004, Marie Smith from Healing Through Remembering and Cheryl Stafford, a South Eastern Education and Library Board officer, attended Facing History's London Seminar. Cheryl has since piloted Facing History in year 10 at some schools in Northern Ireland. Five teachers participated in the 2005 London Seminar and we will be holding a training in Belfast in June of 2006 in order to prepare several more schools to begin piloting next Autumn.

Tony Gallagher also continues to collaborate with Facing History on a regular basis. In November, he spoke at the Facing History/Harvard Law School conference, Pursuing Human Dignity: The Legacies of Nuremberg for International Law, Human Rights, and Education. He also was a participant with Karen Murphy and several other Facing History international partners at the USIP conference on the role of education in social reconstruction.