Whether their focus is our natural or built heritage, or more intangible elements such as skills, language or sport, the achievements of these six winners are a cause for celebration.
2020: celebrating a lifetime of achievement
With more than 30 years of involvement with heritage, Christy Cunniffe is 2020’s winner of the Heritage Hero award. Recently retired as the archaeological field monument advisor for Co Galway, during his time in the role Christy went above and beyond to work with local communities and assist heritage groups. One project involved conducting a heritage audit which resulted in identifying heritage sites in the village of Milltown.
Among his many achievements, Christy was involved with the Beara Breifne way, the Clonfert Conservation Plan and the forthcoming national heritage plan, Heritage Ireland 2030. His work in the Slieve Aughty uplands engaged local communities in Clare and Galway and promoted the heritage, archaeology and culture of this unique shared region.
“Christy has a proud record and decades-long commitment to sharing, listening and rediscovering local heritage, from local archaeology to stained glass,” says Virginia Teehan, CEO of the Heritage Council.
“Moreover, Christy is being recognised for his efforts to go above and beyond in engaging and including local communities and heritage groups, to spread his own knowledge and enthusiasm among those around him,” she says.
2019: Restoring a 200-year-old cottage to its former glory
The 2019 Heritage Hero award went to the Egan family from Birr, Co Offaly who are responsible for the survival of an extraordinarily rare, fully intact and furnished farmhouse, next door to their home.
They hold tours during Heritage Week – this year’s is online – to showcase the cottage with all its original fixtures and fittings, including an authentic bread baking session. “It’s a family project with an intergenerational element to it, which is why we were delighted to win,” says Anne Maria Egan, who undertook the project with three generations of her extended family to restore what had been her grandmother and great aunt’s home.
“Everything that is in the house was there 200 years ago, so it is exactly as it looked then. It’s not staged at all.” Though the family does not have the manpower to open it to the public permanently, “it is a family project we love to share,” she says.
2018: Putting a boggy beauty on the map
Eugene Dunbar from Co Westmeath was 2018’s winner, for his outstanding contribution to his home village of Tyrellspass.
The retired geography teacher is a founding member of Ethos (Everything Tyrellspass Has On Show), a group set up to promote and enhance its local heritage. He is also involved in the Community Wetlands Forum and is a dedicated guardian of Cloncrow Bog, a Special Area of Conservation minutes from the village.
“Receiving the Heritage Hero award in 2018 was a great honour for me personally, but more importantly it spurred on our Ethos community group to continue with our exploration of different aspects of our rich local environment,” says Eugene.
The group is working closely with a European-funded Interreg Care Peat Project on Cloncrow and developing a Boardwalk trail across the bog to attract tourism. Eugene has completed a butterfly survey and is currently out at night surveying moths, the photographs of which are spectacular. “Winning the award came completely out of the blue. It is great for the community, has given our Ethos group a bit of prestige and is very encouraging for us to forge on,” he says.
2017: Safeguarding lovely Limerick’s lore
Local historian Sharon Slater from Limerick won the award in 2017 for working tirelessly over many years. She established her website limerickslife.com in 2004, containing everything from an unparalleled treasure trove of Limerick history from rare images to long forgotten stories.
Sharon is the author of a number of books and has worked on a range of heritage projects, bringing the city’s history to life for residents and tourists alike. Winning the award was a terrific validation of her contribution. “I think the reason I have impostor syndrome is because I never got a degree so don’t feel as wordy as most historians. If I can’t pronounce a word I tend not to use it,” she explains. “Luckily, after I developed an interest in Limerick’s history and heritage I did have some wonderful mentors, like the late Frank Prendergast. It was through his encouragement that I gained a Master’s Degree in Local History from the University of Limerick in 2006. I kept muddling forward with researching and telling others the stories I was learning while working and raising two small children, so to be acknowledged on a national level was wonderful. It showed that my previous almost 20 years of research wasn’t in vain.”
2016: Promoting Maria
Edgeworth’s legacy The 2016 winner, Longford’s Matthew Farrell, established Edgeworthstown District Development Association and the Edgeworth Society in 1994. It went on to acquire an 1840 Schoolhouse and the local Fair Green from the Edgeworth Estate, and developed them into cultural and recreational facilities to serve the local community.
He is also the driving force behind the Edgeworth Heritage project which involved the establishment of the Edgeworth Heritage trail. It took years of hard work including gathering research, the conservation and preservation of the local graveyard, rectory and schoolhouse plus 10 years of fundraising selling raffle tickets every Saturday night.
“Of all the things I have done perhaps the one I am most proud of is of promoting the legacy of Maria Edgeworth in Edgeworthstown but also through building a network all over the world,” says Matthew, who saw the Maria Edgeworth centre open in November 2019. As well as liaising with academics in University College Cork and the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford, he has helped secure funding to digitise a number of Edgeworth’s letters and works. “Winning the Heritage Hero award was an honour. It’s also great encouragement to keep going,” he says.
2015: Bringing a little magic to Tarbert
Ursula Leslie won the inaugural Heritage Hero award for four decades of supporting local initiatives to preserve and promote the unique heritage around her home town of Tarbert, Co Kerry. As a founding member of the American-Ireland Fund, she has helped local heritage tourism projects including the Lartigue Railway Museum, the St John’s Arts Centre in Listowel, the Hunt Museum in Limerick, and the Tarbert Bridewell Heritage Centre.
25 years ago she and her late husband, John, opened up a woodland walk and fairy trail in the parklands around their home, an amenity enjoyed by locals and visitors alike – year round. “We had one little boy who said he could see the fairies and insisted on coming back down from Dublin with his parents to celebrate his birthday there, with cake, in freezing cold November,” she recalls.