Today, Saturday, August 17th marks three weeks since the Castleisland Community Museum CLG was launched and its doors opened.
Since then finishing touches and gatherings have been all the go.
Opened officially by Fr. Mossie Brick and Cllr. Fionnán Fitzgerald on July 27th and visited on the day by Minister for Education Norma Foley and Cllr. Anne O’Sullivan who joined museum founder member Cllr. Charlie Farrelly on the occasion.
You wouldn’t think that a talking shop and politicians could or should be mentioned in the one breath but the little museum has already turned into an amazing and educational talking shop.
This is something the facilitators are fully encouraging as they’re finding out that there is so much material of interest at large it’s pouring forth with almost every chat and every local visit to the No. 42 Main Street centre.
Very Well Supported
The museum is a strictly voluntary project and it has been heartily well supported in various ways by the local business community.
Plans are afoot to recognise this very welcome development in a public way.
Heritage Week in the Door
With National Heritage Week in the door to us there are plans for a couple of events to mark it and the museum’s first month in existence.
In the course of this special week in the life of the country, we’re expecting visitors from Castleisland Day Care Centre from this and the neighbouring parishes on three different occasions during the coming week.
A Night of Music and Song
A night of music and local songs is being put together for Wednesday night next August 21st from 8pm with the help of local musicians.
PJ Teahan is in a familiar organisational role on this, free to enter, event.
Light refreshments will be served on the night with the possibility of reinforcements from nearby.
Growing Library of Local Video Footage
A growing library of local video footage of various events is proving very popular and providing many of the visitors with trips down their own memory lanes.
The conversations prompted by these film clips take off in unexpected tangents but are always steered back home when those featured have been placed.
Permission to Show the Hands Series
The organisers were delighted during to the week to be granted permission by David and Sally Shaw Smith to show programmes from their wonderfully maturing television series Hands.
The series of 37 films on 14 DVDs of over 20 hours viewing were filmed in the late 1970s and early 1980s in various parts of the country. This was at a time when the trades and the tradesmen featured were, in the main, the last of their kind and their trades were dying out with few exceptions.
Photographic Competition
And, staying in an artistic vein, the museum is organising the Timothy Murphy Memorial Photographic Competition in honour of a man who photographed everything that moved around here in the course of his life time. In fact he was a one-man operation in the collection and recording of the people and the changes in our streetscape here before the proliferation of cameras.
The competition will be open to all ages and methods of photography from vintage cameras to mobile phones.
The organisers are inviting photographers or occasional snappers to send their best shots to the email address below accompanied by full name and contact phone number.
Whatever Catches Your Eye
Photographs of whatever takes your fancy. Falling or fallen leaves, trees silhouetted or bathed in sunlight, nanas or grandas, moms and dads, neighbours and friends. Set your imagination loose and do add a caption / title to the entry and your age if you’re a student.
The competition adjudicators will not be aware of the identity of the photographers as they deliberate on the winners.
On advice we’re extending the ‘shooting time’ to the week after the return of schools in the locality and there will be a second level schools winner and runners up prizes. Photographs can be sent to: castleislandmuseum@gmail.com
United Nations Veterans Visit
Visitors to the museum on Friday evening included officers of the Irish United Nations Veterans Association Post 2, Con ‘Rocky’ Roche, Castleisland and John Wade, Listowel.
They dropped in to discuss a talk they will give in September about local involvement in the various United Nations missions overseas from those in the Congo in the 1960’s to the Lebanon in more recent times.
What’s it All About ?
National Heritage Week is an initiative by the Heritage Council to celebrate all things heritage.
It brings together communities, families, organisations, cultural institutions, academics and enthusiasts, to build awareness about the value of heritage and support its conservation.
Since the Heritage Council assumed responsibility for National Heritage Week in 2005, it has grown from a small 500 event to almost 2,000 events in 2023.
An Island Island Wide Event
The Heritage Council assumed the role of coordinator of National Heritage Week from the Department of the Environment, Heritage & Local Government.
The week has grown into a highly successful programme since becoming part of the Heritage Council.
Starting off small with a limited number of events, it has grown to be an island-wide event celebrating all aspects of Ireland’s built, natural and cultural heritage.
Wild Child Day
The nine day long event now includes Wild Child Day and Water Heritage Day as part of its event.
Did you know that the theme for National Heritage Week is also the theme for over 40 European countries?
As National Heritage Week is part of the European Heritage Days network, Ireland along with other countries collectively decide the theme for Heritage Week each year. Since 2010, National Heritage Week has had its own theme.
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