Timeline to tell Kilfenora’s story

A LINEAR history of Kilfenora will be launched this weekend, in an effort to encourage tourists to stay in the area for longer and find out more about the village’s cultural, social and archaeological heritage.

The Kilfenora Timeline is a community project, which has been established, researched and undertaken through the voluntary work of local people, with assistance from the Hunt Museum and LIT.

It presents the history of the village and surrounding area in timeline format and the exhibition will be housed in the 12th century cathedral in the village from this Saturday until September.

The aim of the project is to work together to entice visitors to spend more time in Kilfenora, thereby enhancing tourism in the area, volunteer Edel Barry explained.

“Setting this up was James Kelly’s idea. He wanted to do something that would benefit the locality and that would come from within the community. His idea was to have something voluntary that would focus on the community.

“The point of this is to present the history of Kilfenora. The Burren Centre, which is great, focuses on the history and archeology and culture of the wider area but we wanted to focus more on the history of Kilfenora itself and the village.

“I am an archaeologist and Kilfenora is something of a Mecca for archaeologists, with the cathedral and the crosses and being in the Burren. This project was aimed at presenting the information about the area and encouraging tourists to stay a little bit longer here and to come and learn a bit more.

“It really was set up so that people wouldn’t just get off the bus at the Burren Centre and get back on again. We are giving them something else to see and go to in the area that might mean they will stay for tea or go to the shop or benefit business in the town in some way,” she said.

The timeline is “essentially the history of Kilfenora in bullet points. It details key events from the first monastic settlement in 650AD, when St Fachnan’s established his monastery in Kilfenora. Then the bullet points continue the key events from then on. The last thing on it is May 2013 and the establishment of the Kilfenora Timeline.

“There are plenty of things in between, including the carving of the crosses, the establishment of Kilfenora as a diocese, the fact the Pope is our bishop, the establishment of the Burren Centre, which was the first co-operative venture visitor centre set up in Ireland, and the Kilfenora Céilí Band.

“It includes social history, archaeology and everything. It encapsulates everything Kilfenora is known for and on the introductory panel, there is a QR code, which can be scanned and it will lead them to a website with the bullet points expanded,” outlined Edel.

More than 100 volunteers were involved in researching and curating the timeline. They are now offering their expertise to visitors to the Timeline.

“More than 100 people took part so far and they will all be attending the exhibition during the summer, so there will always be someone local there and if visitors come, they can get first hand information about the project,” Edel concluded.

The exhibition will be publicly launched in the Kilfenora Cathedral on Saturday at 8.30pm by Dr Peter Harbison, honorary academic editor for the Royal Irish Academy.

Admission to the exhibition, which will be open daily, is free. However, there is a suggested donation which will be put towards the costs of the exhibition and donated to local voluntary groups.