Youth group examine their heritage through film

A GROUP of young people from South Galway are putting together a documentary on their local courthouse, which will be screened over the coming week.

The teenagers involved in the Kinvara Youth Project are making a short film on the group’s new home, the local courthouse.
“The project involves researching the history of the courthouse from when it was built, researching the ownership and looking at the legal and historical issues surrounding it,” explained Maria Hannigan, volunteer and project manager.
The Kinvara Youth Project was set up last September “as a space for the older teens in Kinvara to hang out”.
“The courthouse became available because the playschool, which had been based here, moved in January to the new children’s centre in the village,” recalled Maria.
Earlier this year, they began applying for grants to cover the cost of running the project.
One organisation they contacted was the Heritage Council, which agreed to fund this research programme.
Between six and 10 young people are working on the film and associated posterboards which provide even more information.
“The project involves researching and presenting the history of the building. We decided to present it in a teenager-friendly way, that is why we decided to make the film,” Maria outlined.
“The teenagers thought film was an attractive medium and they will present important information on the courthouse building but it is not all legal events. Francis Fahy presented his first play in the courthouse in the 1860s and a lot of other things happened in the courthouse,” she commented.
“The film is focusing on the Francis Fahy connection, the burning of the building in 1920 and interviews with people who had a particular involvement with the courthouse and older people about their memories of what happened in the courthouse during their lives,” she added.
Eighteen-year-old Shona Walsh is the cameraperson on the project.
“I am enjoying it and I am starting in the Galway Technical Institute in September doing camera work so it was good to learn how to use a camera first,” she told The Clare Champion.
Mairéad Connolly and Isobel Forde are the onscreen interviewers for the project.
“We did four or five interviews,” recalled Mairéad. “The people we talked to, the old people, remember loads of stuff about court cases and all that. A lot of them have said that Judge Garvin, who sat here, was very funny,” she added.
“At first, I was a bit nervous being filmed but it was grand. The people we interviewed were more nervous than us really,” Mairéad concluded.
Sixteen-year-old Sarah Flaherty is one of the researchers on the project.
“I decided to do this to find out more about the courthouse. I didn’t know a lot about it before the project but now we know a good bit about the history of it,” she commented.
The heritage project doesn’t have to be completed until November but as part of Heritage Week, the students’ work so far will be shown to the public every evening from this Saturday until Sunday, August 29 from 6pm to 8pm. Further findings will be displayed on the poster boards in the courthouse.
“We will be working on this right up until November so anyone with any additional information or suggestions or who would like to help can get in touch either by coming along to the screenings or by emailing kinvarayouthproject@gmail.com,” Maria concluded.
The Kinvara Youth Project meets on Friday nights from 7pm to 10pm.