INNOVATION MAY be the Government’s favoured job creation focus, but the “wild passion” associated with maintaining Ireland’s built history could also generate hundreds of jobs, the Heritage Council said.
There is a 440 per cent gain for every 100 per cent investment in maintaining heritage, council chairman Conor Newman said at a heritage and job creation workshop at NUI Galway (NUIG) at the weekend .
For every €1 spent by the Heritage Council, the tourism industry receives €4.40 in revenue, the council has found. It estimates its projects have the potential to attract 18,700 tourists.
The “speed dating” workshop in NUIG was the first of a series the council is running to nurture networks between craftspeople, businesses, community initiatives and State agencies holding a responsibility for heritage.
“We are encouraging people to recognise what they already have around them in terms of natural, cultural and built heritage resources and to explore how these assets can create direct and indirect employment,” Mr Newman said. Hence the workshop theme: “My Place, My Resource”.
The restoration of Claregalway castle in north Galway, by a team harnessed by surgeon Eamonn O’Donoghue, was one of five projects used to illustrate the potential.
Dr O’Donoghue spent 10 years restoring the 600-year-old former De Burgo fortification with his brother Nioclás, hiring specialist Mike Herwood, woodwright Paul Price, builder Martin Cunningham and French stonemasons, including Jean-Baptiste Mauduit and Sebastian Osuch.
Materials were sourced locally where possible, with limestone coming from Ballinasloe, east Galway, and the green oak for the extensive woodwork from Mountbellew.
There were also presentations on the experiences of Slieve Aughty Equestrian Centre, Turoe Pet Farm near Loughrea, Athenry Foods and Sven Habermann Conservation in Letterfrack, while Caroline McDonagh of West of Ireland Networking ran an “ideas” workshop.
The Heritage Council, which published its five-year plan last week, has suffered several cuts to its annual budget – down from €20 million in 2008 to €6 million this year. “Even in a recession, our €6.2 million grant programme last year still sustained 449 jobs,” its chief executive Michael Starrett said at the weekend.
“When we spend hundreds of millions of euro marketing Ireland, we also have to remember that the heritage which attracts people – as in built and natural landscape – also requires care and maintenance,” he said.
The council is one of a number of State bodies on the Government’s “critical review” list for June 2012.
Galway county manager Martina Moloney spoke at the workshop of the great diversity Galway has to offer – citing its landscape, seascapes, lakes, rivers, towns, iconic monuments and hidden gems, the Aran Islands and the Gaeltacht – “book-ended by Galway’s world-famous arts culture”.
The next Heritage Council workshop will be held in Listowel, Co Kerry, on April 21st, with further details due shortly on heritagecouncil.ie