Heritage Keepers Projects
We are incredibly proud and grateful of all our previous Heritage Keepers participants, who have shown an inspiring amount of pride in their place and proven themselves to be wonderful stewards of their commmunity. Here are some of the actions they have taken to promote or preserve their local built, cultural, or natural heritage.
Connemara West Heritage Group, Galway
Radio Programme
After researching a number of cillíní (children's burial grounds) with local archaeologist Michael Gibbons over 2 days, Connemara West Heritage Group photographed and recorded the cillín sites. From this, they made two 1 hour long programmes which were broadcast on Connemara Community Radio in May and June of 2024
Rathmullan Heritage Booklet
'Look Again! Heritage at the Doorstep' is a 40-page record of Rathmullan's built heritage.
The Rathmullan Heritage Keepers group spoke to many of the people involved with the local buildings and monuments, and recorded their accounts of the history of these and other local buildings of architectural interest.
Pupils from Rathmullan's local schools provided their own artistic representations for the front cover, and a community event to launch the booklet was held.
Clonmany Heritage Group, Donegal
Meet and Make Clonmany Heritage Day
Clonmany Heritage held a Meet and Make day to celebrate their rich heritage. The old Market House was the central venue for the children's workshops, bread and salt making demonstration, and the one day exhibition organised by the Clonmany Genealogy and Heritage group. A local historian hosted a well attended guided walk and talk tour. The willow artist was making willow toys with the kids. The weaving demonstration was enjoyed by the many people who attended the photo exhibitions.
Laragh Heritage Trail
The Heritage Keepers group from Laragh, Co. Wicklow have created this beautiful heritage trail and watercolour map of their area. The group, also created a website with information on each heritage site.
They are also organising a series of history evenings where local stories and knowledge will be collected and added to the website.
Women's Collective Ireland, Wexford
Flora, Fabric and Feminism
WCI Wexford created a tapestry to celebrate women's historical roles as healers using traditional wildflowers and plants native to Ireland, highlighting the medicinal properties of plants. The tapestry depicts the female form and the main focus is the dress she is wearing which is decorated with embroidered panels. Each woman embroidered at least one panel, illustrating a wild/native plant with healing properties in the area of the body it treats. The background outlines of the piece are embroidered in couch stitch to represent water, air, earth and sun. They also put some bees and butterflies to demonstrate the ecological importance of wild and native flowers for wildlife.
St Raphael's Day Centre Boat Upcycling
We were delighted to fund this Heritage Keepers project in St Raphaels day centre in Youghal. They upcycled an old boat and planted it with pollinator friendly plants and edibles using plants from their therapy garden.
An action like this is beneficial on many different levels, not least the recycling of a large derelict boat, the added pollinator plants for improved biodiversity, as well the symbolism of the structure and the increased awareness it will create.
Tubber NS, Clare
Bunakippaun Woods: History, Folklore and Biodiversity
The focus of the project was Bunakippaun woodland which Tubber N.S. uses many times throughout the year as an outdoor classroom. The class worked with David McGrath, a Heritage in Schools expert on a number of guided walks focused on the trees in the woodland, and conducted interviews with people in the locality on the woodland from which the children wrote up reports. The whole school worked with artist Ana Colmer, focusing on drawing/sketching aspects of Bunakippaun. All of this work was put together in a published book.
Wild About Navan Community Gathering
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The Heritage Keepers from Navan organised an event to bring people together who are interested in protecting nature, cultivating connections, sharing local knowledge and building capacity to empower their community to work together on local issues.
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The gathering included a morning of short talks, a shared lunch, and conversations to inspire our community.
Cape Clear Ponds
Our Heritage Keepers group from Cape Clear built two ponds in their local area. Building a well-thought-out pond is one of the best actions that can be done for improving biodiversity in an area.
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A number of other groups including schools have done similar projects. In schools, protective grids are usually added as a safety measure.
Newmarket NS Murals
The senior class pupils of Newmarket NS Kilkenny designed eight murals to celebrate heritage sites in their area. With the help of a local artist they created and showcased these beautiful and imaginative murals celebrating their built heritage.
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This wonderful project serves to increase pride of place for the children actively involved, as well as their community who enjoy and appreciate their local heritage in a new light.
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Bere Island Oral History Recording
With funding from the Heritage Keepers programme, the group were able to bring leading oral historian Dr Angela Maye-Banbury to Bere Island to facilitate a weekend of workshops in the recording of oral histories.
The community of Bere Island has been shaped by the natural heritage of the island, the productivity of the land and the sea, along with stories of previous generations and the island diaspora scattered throughout the world. Many of these histories are now available on the iCAN ( Irish Community Archive Network) website
Comeragh Upland Communities
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The Comeragh Upland Communities project farmers invited classes from six schools on the Comeragh Mountains to visit their farms.
Liam Beresford, one of the farmers, said “we wanted to tell the children about how we look after our mountain sheep flock and how we are trying to mind our mountain biodiversity to make it better for everyone to live and work”.
Holy Trinity NS, Westport
The senior class created a map of all the crows' feet / benchmarks in Westport. Using 21st century technology to view 19th century maps, the children navigated the streets of Westport, iPads in hand, painstakingly pinpointing where crows’ feet are still visible. Back in the classroom they created clever clues to lead others to these points.
They researched the history of crows’ feet and the buildings they found them on. They then wrote their own accounts of each, reminding us that our surroundings have a past, a present, and a future not yet carved in stone.
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