A message from the Chair
As Chair of the National Heritage Council, I welcome the opportunity to celebrate and acknowledge the contribution of so many people to National Heritage Week. We had the pleasure this year of experiencing the very welcome return of in-person events allowing families, friends and communities create and attend events together. It gave us a renewed appreciation of how National Heritage Week facilitates the coming together of communities, whether to examine an aspect of their past, to conserve a historic feature in their area or look at how a traditional skill they have can be passed down and used into the future.
While coming together again meant so much to people, it is important to underline the continued support of the Heritage Council and National Heritage Week for digital projects, which have come to play such an important role in our celebration of heritage. As a result, so many new people have the possibility of engaging with heritage, creating the opportunity for our diaspora to become part of what is happening at home, bringing a new sense of connectivity and expanding the audience of National Heritage Week.
Many challenges confront the heritage sector: strengthening biodiversity in the face of climate change, helping our young people to remain educated and informed about all aspects of our national heritage and supporting local communities to protect and conserve their heritage in towns and villages across the country. National Heritage Week plays an important role in facilitating community involvement in heritage, but it is the enthusiasm and passion of event and project organisers that really make it happen. It is a celebration of our built, natural and cultural heritage, and of people, particularly those whose work in heritage, very often as volunteers, has made such a difference to their communities.
The events and projects covered in this supplement are a sample representation of the over 1,800 entries to National Heritage Week. Like so many others, I visited events throughout the week, witnessing first-hand the vast range of activities taking place. From an exhibition examining Ireland’s first female vet, Aleen Cust in Mountbellew Agricultural College, to a celebration of traveller culture - ‘Still here still proud’ - in Donegal County Museum and a tour of the Irish Workhouse Centre in Portumna, there was something for everyone. There was also huge choice in digital projects. I particularly enjoyed the Burrenbeo Trust online talk on the excavation of a hut site at Lismoher and the compelling ‘An Bhean Ghlúine’ interviews compiled by Skehana Galway Heritage, honouring the local midwives who helped birth generations of Galway people over the past 100 years.
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National Heritage Week has gone from strength to strength and we in the Heritage Council look forward today to continuing our work to ensure we have an Ireland where heritage is respected and enjoyed in all its forms.
Dr Martina Moloney
Chair, National Heritage Council
A message from the CEO
National Heritage Week aims to build awareness and education about our heritage. This year it looked to the past to create a better future. We chose themes that have particular resonance for us all as we grapple with climate change and the impact we have on the world around us. The themes of sustainability and biodiversity encouraged organisers to examine the intersection of the environment with preserving our tangible, intangible and natural heritage to create a more resilient world. Our themes motivated us to reflect on how our history and heritage can play a part in protecting our planet now and into the future and people responded with passion and creativity.
There is a growing awareness of how heritage impacts on so many aspects of our lives. It was inspiring to see how the themes of sustainability and biodiversity were interpreted and how people with knowledge of traditional skills shared that knowledge with others, how people explored nature and looked at what they can do as individuals or communities to strengthen biodiversity in their own localities. This will continue with the rollout of the Local Authority Biodiversity Officer programme in conjunction with the County and City Managers Association with the support of the National Parks and Wildlife Service in the coming year. We will focus on the implementation of the National Biodiversity Action Plan, working with communities on projects to improve the biodiversity in their area.
I want to acknowledge the continued support the Heritage Council receives from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the increase of 18 per cent in the recent Budget. In addition to strengthening our own staffing resources and recruiting further biodiversity officers, this funding will allow us to provide additional funding next year to the valuable schemes and programmes that help protect, preserve and enhance our national heritage.
The Heritage Council truly appreciates the support of the public for National Heritage Week. It is citizen-focused, driven by organisers and supported on the ground by the Local Authority Heritage Officer Programme. We thank them, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and our partners, Fáilte Ireland, the Local Authority Waters Programme, the Irish Landmark Trust, the Office of Public Works, RTÉ Supporting the Arts and The Irish Times as well as our award sponsors, the Local Authority Waters Programme and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.
We are the custodians of our heritage and all of us need to play our part in preserving, sustaining and sharing our unique heritage so that it can be enjoyed not just by us but by those coming after us. As one of Ireland’s largest cultural events, National Heritage Week facilitates the coming together of communities across the country to not only protect and conserve but also to celebrate and enjoy our built, natural and cultural heritage. We look forward to its success and to growing public participation in the years ahead.
Virginia Teehan
Chief Executive, National Heritage Council
Cover Image: Eric O’Neill at Limerick and Clare ETB’s College of Further Education and Training Cappamore campus. Photograph: Marc O’Sullivan.
The views represented in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the Heritage Council and its personnel.
