I have been chairperson of the Heritage Council since 2021 and have enjoyed the role immensely, leading the organisation through some challenges but contributing also to some big successes.
I know this is something of a truism, but I dedicate time to this role for one simple reason – I believe deeply in the value of our heritage.
It’s a belief that took hold early on in life, for which I have the teachers of Knockanean National School near Ennis, Co Clare, to thank. There’s an embarrassment of nature right on our doorstep. I fondly remember being encouraged to appreciate flowers, trees, frogs and newts – and surprising myself years later when I would get defensive about protecting such creatures.
To this day, I love to stroll in Coillte Forest Park in Portumna, Co Galway – the scent of the forest, the fresh air and the amazing array of trees; it is a place which has often helped me come up with solutions to problems and has been the catalyst for some decent ideas too.
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It is also, surprisingly, a place of learning. Recently I found an extraordinary turkey mushroom which I had never before seen. Shaped like a turkey’s tail, I discovered afterwards that it has significant medicinal qualities.
Portumna also boasts the wonderful community-led Workhouse Project which interprets a very difficult part of our history, and the OPW-managed Portumna Castle and Gardens showcases the DeBurgo power base and its unique transitional architecture of the early 1600s.
One development of which we, in the Heritage Council, are particularly proud is the appointment over the past two years of dedicated biodiversity officers to local authorities around the State – a programme co-funded by the Heritage Council, in partnership with Government and local authorities. The officers will be crucial in the years ahead in raising biodiversity awareness at local level and addressing the many threats to our environment.
A recent Heritage Council survey revealed that the majority of people’s immediate associations with heritage are cultural. They consider it to be family history, traditions, music and how people lived in the past. But everybody will encounter multiple aspects of heritage throughout their lives. Sometimes, because heritage is ubiquitous, they may not even recognise it as heritage.
One of the things I love about National Heritage Week is that by browsing through the more than 2,000 events taking place you get a sense of the sheer variety and colour of our nation’s heritage – they cover nature, culture, music, traditions, folklore, writing, history, architecture, archaeology, archives and so much more. People are often surprised to learn about the extent of the Heritage Council’s reach.
Looking through the events also gives me a sense of the strength of the sector, the depth of knowledge people have and their generosity in sharing that knowledge. Many of the events are volunteer-led, organised by dedicated people who seek no recompense or adulation. We must never take these people for granted and I will continue unapologetically to mention them at every opportunity, such is their importance not only to National Heritage Week, but to the preservation of Irish heritage in general.
I often like to remind people about all the things they are doing well, because we spend enough time already being hard on ourselves for not doing enough. The aforementioned survey also revealed that 68 per cent of people believe strongly in the importance of protecting heritage. This figure is particularly interesting when we consider it was 46 per cent in 1999.
I have no doubt that this significant jump is due in part to the likes of our volunteers, but also to my Heritage Council colleagues and fellow council members, to our heritage officer network, to our local authority colleagues with whom we have worked so effectively over the last few years and to Ministers Darragh O’Brien and Malcolm Noonan who have been incredibly supportive.
The fact that so many more people are supportive of heritage protection today is an incredibly uplifting mandate for us.
I hope to visit my favourite place, the Burren, during National Heritage Week this year. What I love about it is how it brings together so many of the different elements of heritage I spoke about – its rich and diverse flora and fauna which are at their best in August, its ancient cultural landscape and ancient burial sites, and its castles and ecclesiastical buildings.
National Heritage Week is a fantastic opportunity to get involved, to attend and support events in your area, to learn about your place and to open your eyes to new things. Why was that castle built in this spot? Who lived in that big house? Why was that statute put in place? What can the answers to these questions tell me about myself?
And remember, if you let it, heritage can help you find solutions to problems and provoke potentially life-changing ideas.