Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern is due in the heart of Ian Paisley's North Antrim constituency tomorrow to endorse a special scholarship set up in memory of a Catholic teenager beaten to death by loyalists.
He will attend St Patrick's College, Ballymena where Michael McIlveen (15) was a pupil when he was attacked with a baseball bat in the town in May last year. A number of youths are awaiting trial for his murder.
Pupils from each of eight local Protestant and Catholic schools will be chosen each year to work on special reconciliation projects.
The Government has contributed nearly stg£60,000 towards the Michael McIlveen Scholarships which will run for the next five years.
Mr Ahern is also due to visit a youth club in Ballymena and later travel into the Glens of Antrim for the launch in Cushendall of a cross-border project which links groups in Antrim and Donegal.
Michael who was nicknamed 'Micky-Bo' died in hospital after he was attacked by a gang in Ballymena on May 7th, 2006.
At the time, police said it was sectarian.
PA