THIS year National Heritage Week in Clare will focus on creating heritage projects. People are invited to develop and submit your heritage ideas and projects for Heritage Week 2020.
The new approach is designed to promote the sharing of experience and knowledge. Expressions of interest and project ideas should be submitted to HeritageWeek.ie before August 4, where they can be developed and completed in time for National Heritage Week, August 15 to 23, when they will be showcased online on HeritageWeek.ie
Contributors can showcase their project, research, knowledge, experience or learning using virtual media such as online talks or exhibitions, video, podcast, slideshow presentation or blog, media coverage, a dedicated website or moderated social media account, or by means of small, restricted social
gatherings, which comply with official public health advice. All projects submitted will be considered for a Heritage Week Award.
Mayor of Clare, Mary Howard, said she is delighted to support this year’s alternative version of National Heritage Week.
“The Heritage projects or ideas are really up to you but in order to support project organisers in arriving at an aspect of heritage that they might want to explore under this year’s theme of ‘Heritage and Education, three broad sub- themes can be considered for projects,” Councillor Howard said.
Heritage on your doorstep: Projects may involve local research or knowledge about a monument or landmark, a building or local wildlife or may explore the origins of local customs, stories or traditions for example.
Relearning skills from our heritage: Projects could explore forgotten or overlooked skills with a view to sharing them among younger generations; document crafts, skills or trades that one’s community was previously well known for; investigate traditional remedies unique to a locality which were used to treat common aches and pains, and record the stories of individuals who remember such remedies; research traditional food preparation or preservation methods throughout the ages.
The heritage of education: Projects might explore the history of an old school
which has served many generations; better understand the role of a local
hedge school; delve into the history of a monastic settlement; interrogate how
the experience of going to school has evolved over time.
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.