The BEO project - Connecting Rural Communities to their past.

I recently enjoyed the warm friendly atmosphere of an old style local rural community night in Coldwood National School near Craugwell county Galway.

There was lots of home-baked scones, cakes and teas served by volunteers as grandparents and parents of the present generation of pupils came back to the school of their childhood days to reminisce and tell stories of life long ago recorded on the night by children for a series of podcasts for the 150 year celebrations of this fine educational institution.

As part of Insight's BEO online local heritage project, I was there to help in the collection of photographs from times past brought in by the older attendees and the identification of those in these images.

To support this process I enlarged and colourised in advance a lot of old images associated with Coldwood as well as bringing along multiple familiar artifacts from Ireland in days gone by such as a wooden school desk complete with inkwell, blotting paper, erasure and 1960s/1970s school books; a milk churn; a transistor radio, a Sony Walkman cassette player, photo slides and vinyl record albums.

The effort was worth it as the photos on display helped reconnect families across the decades. Paddy Cahill(on the top left in photo montage), standing beside his son, points to his dad in a 1910 photo that he had never seen before, whilst Paddy Rooney (on the top right) points to himself in a 1950 photo.

By the end of the night, most of the people in the sample photographs on display were identified as great grandparents, grandparents, parents and themselves by the attendees present.

The interesting and often unique materials collected over the last few years under the BEO online digital local heritage project, supported throughout by the Galway County Heritage Office, will be unveiled at a big celebratory launch next March in the Galway Education Centre. 

Details to follow at the end of January.

Upstairs, Downstairs – the Inside Story of an Irish ‘Big House’

One of the most enjoyable nights that I have experienced for manys the long year took place recently when it seemed the whole community of Fohenagh and environs, complimented by heritage enthusiasts, politicians and dignitaries, came together to celebrate and to give due recognition to my good friend Frank Gavin for the launch of his excellent book entitled “The Dillons of Clonbrock, a History”.

The venue was Gullane’s Hotel in Ballinasloe and the large attendance and its makeup was a reflection of the high esteem and respect that Frank is held in across east Galway and beyond. Amongst the participants were Senator Aisling Dolan; Galway County Cathaoirleach Liam Carroll; Martin Mac Oirealla, a highly enthusiastic ‘heritage in schools’ educator; Joe Mannion, another local historian par excellence; and the 87 year old Michéal Keaney, owner of the historical Castle Ellen (birthplace of the mother of Edward Carson, the founder of Northern Ireland) and the finest engineer that Galway City Council ever has had.

Master of ceremonies for the event was the brilliant Christy Cunniffe, one of Ireland’s best known community archaeologists. Special guest speakers were Marie Mannion, the country’s hardest working and much admired local authority heritage officer; and Professor Terence Dooley the distinguished historical writer and Director of the Centre for the Study of Historic Irish Houses and Estates at the National University of Ireland Maynooth.

I myself was honoured to be asked by Frank to also be a guest speak at the launch, to write the foreword for the publication and to enhance and colourise an old black and white photo taken of Clonbrock House circa 1904 that formed the cover of the book.

I was especially and personally honoured as both sides of my family fought on the republican side during the Irish Civil War, whose forces were sadly responsible for the burning down of many of the gentry mansions across the country, seeing them as symbols of centuries of colonial oppression.

I have known and admired Frank since 2008 when we first collaborated in helping the children of Fohenagh National School, under the guidance of the much loved principal at the time, Anne Burke, to undertake research studies and field trips on the history of the Clonbrock estate. The extraordinary series of podcasts and videos made with the school and the local community during 2008 and 2009 will be relaunched on March 6th 2024 at a special event in the Galway Education Centre to commemorate the BEO online heritage archives project and the Fionn Primary School Science 2002-2005 initiative.

The best tribute that I can give Frank here on the importance of his work is to repeat the foreword that I wrote in the book:

“There have been multiple books written about the Anglo-Irish gentry and their great estates which dominated and shaped the Irish countryside for centuries. Many more will follow in the years ahead. But this book is different. For the author is able to give a personal perspective from within the walls of the demesne as he himself was part of this ‘Upstairs and Downstairs’ world in its twilight years.

Frank Gavin worked as a gardener in the Clonbrock estate when Ethel Louisa Dillon, daughter of the fourth Baron Clonbrock who was one of the largest landowners in Ireland, was still alive. She was a debutante in Victorian London society at a time when it was said that the sun never set on a British Empire that covered almost a quarter of the world’s landmass. Frank provides some fascinating information on the Clonbrock estate during its heyday in the 19th century when the third and fourth barons, along with the latter’s extraordinary wife Lady Augusta Caroline Dillon, were exceptional in this era for being highly progressive pioneering residential Anglo-Irish landlords who practiced mixed farming; planted woods; constructed heated glasshouses (growing exotic fruits such as grapes and peaches), a forge, a sawmill, a butchery, a photographic house and a sophisticated piped water system for the estate; set up a poultry co-operative and established four schools in the locality for the children of their tenant farmers.

But Frank is at his best when he provides the names, photographs and the stories of the people who worked alongside him in Clonbrock and whose families had often done so for many generations before. He moves the spotlight along from the imperial landed class towards the farmhands and house servants that were the essence of these estates and whose descendants still live locally.

This is local history at its most authentic, when it is done by someone who has lived and experienced the subject matter at first hand.”

Creating an Online Archive of Life in Local Communities in 20th century Ireland

Lawrencetown National School, co. Galway, 1946

As part of my Outreach work at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics at NUI Galway in association with the Galway Education Centre and Galway County Council I am providing an online facility for schools and active retirement groups to digitally archive stories, films and photographs of life in their localities over the last one hundred years as part of their contribution to the Easter Rising commemorations.

 

Junior Infants class, Creggs National School, 1971

The BEO (Irish for ‘alive’) project is a wonderful opportunity to commemorate the struggle for Irish independence and its subsequent impact on the lives of of ordinary people. It provides a way to capture online the changing face of local communities throughout a century, that experienced phenomenal economic, social, cultural and political change, by collecting and digitizing the pictures and words of ordinary people that have been handed down through families over many decades. 

 

At Coxtown Bog, Kiltormer, co. Galway, 1940s

In spite of the massive transformations that Ireland has experienced in technologies, economics and population movements since 1916, the parish school in many parts of the country still serves as the heart of its locality and the people that reside there. It is probably the only vibrant communal institution left that can act as the gatherer of such heritage material. 

 

Donkey & Trap, McEvoy family, Roscommon, 1909

The BEO project has been in operation for a number of years at this stage and has provided a lovely way particularly for the Irish Diaspora to re-connect with history of their youth, or that of their parents or grandparents. 

Honeymooning in Killarney (Carmel Garvey), 1957

Participating schools as well as heritage and active retirement groups are encouraged to host social evening BEO local heritage events for members of the local community, where attendees bring along or enjoy viewing images and artifacts of their school and geographical area in times past that offer a unique insight into an older Ireland of communal harvesting, livestock markets, religious devotion, a belief in banshees and fairies, turf cutting, dance halls, the ‘Big House’ and the small family farm. Much of this priceless heritage material brought to the school or community hall is often kept in family photo albums stored in attics, wardrobes and drawers often forgotten about as the years pass. 

 

Harvesting, Eyreville, co. Galway 1940s

The digitised images are then placed on a shared website for the benefit of present and future generations. There will be an information session for schools interested in taking part in the BEO project at 5pm on Tuesday next February 2^nd in the Galway Education Centre.

Scanning old photos. BEO Local Community Heritage Night, Lawrencetown School 2015

The BEO Project: A School Reunion- 74 years after closure!

A School Reunion- 74 years after closure!

A unique historical community gathering took place last night (Saturday January 18^th) when former pupils of Carrowbrowne National School attended a reunion in Cloonacauneen Castle. Unusual for two reasons: the school closed down in 1940 and the year celebrated will be 1938!

The event was officiated by Mayor of Galway county, Councillor Liam Carroll with local councillors Frank Fahy and Tom Costello representing Galway City Council. There was a display of memorabilia of a 1930s/1940s classroom such as desks, blackboard, books, writing implements, bell, maps, Tilley lamps and an abacus which were supplied by the communications museum located at the Insight Centre in NUI Galway.

Margaret Mulgannon (née O’Brien) of Mervue organised the reunion supported by myself. For in my capacity as Outreach Officer at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics in NUI Galway I manage BEO (Irish for 'alive') , an exciting digital archive schools-based project that represents the largest heritage programme involving schools since the 1930s Folklore Commission. 

Participating schools in BEO host informal local community nights where local residents and former pupils enjoy a chat over a cup of tea and cake with former classmates as well as bringing along photos and films that the pupils digitise, clean up and post onto a unique heritage repository website (irishbeo.com). Podcast interviews are also recorded of the older people’s memories of times long ago. 

The images and recordings collected provide a fascinating insight into an Ireland that is no longer with us- a time of small family farms, communal harvests, strong community spirit, peat fuel, market towns, town factories based on locally source raw materials, Gaelic sports, emigration, deep religious observance and the power and decline of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy. 

The oldest person so far interviewed is 93 year old Maisie Sherlock, who was tracked down as a result of a 1928 photograph of Tiaquin national school. Maisie was one of the pupils in the photograph. She was born in 1921 the year before the Irish state was founded; attended Tiaquin school when it first opened on April 6^th 1926; spent most of World War Two as a nurse in London where she was officially commended for her bravery when her hospital was bombed, and witnessed the closure of the school in 1977. In fact her life is the history of modern Ireland. 

Over the last six months, circa 20 schools have organised such reunions with many more to follow over the next year. 2013 was a great opportunity to give impetus to the project as it was the Year of the Gathering providing a lot of goodwill and interest towards facilitating local heritage events involving schools. 

Already photographs from 120 Galway schools are on the BEO Photo gallery website, with thousands of images and dozens of films and podcasts on life in rural Ireland to be uploaded over the next year. The website has had nearly 600,000 hits already which will dramatically increase in the coming months.

The project’s aim is to have all schools of Galway city and county involved and to have all schools past and present identified on a shared website and associated digital map with images of the school and locality in days gone by.  At present, there are circa three hundred schools in Galway city and county, with an estimated two hundred more that have closed down over the last eighty years due to population decline, amalgamation and changes in government policy.

BEO is a partnership proje

ct involving the Insight Centre NUI Galway, Galway County Council, Galway Education Centre,  Galway Retired Teachers’ Association, the Galway Board of the GAA and Ballinasloe Active Retired Association.

At one reunion event held last summer in Castlegar National School as part of The Gathering 2013, Margaret arrived with a photograph of herself as a young girl with fellow pupils taken in front of Carrowbrowne school in 1938. No other known image existed of an establishment that closed two years later when it amalgamated into the new school in Castlegar.  By the end of the event, local people had helped identify the majority of the fifty five pupils and two teachers in the photograph. The interest generated by the image was so strong that Margaret decided to organise a reunion of former pupils and their families with the help of Brendan.

Call for Local Communities to Initiate Annual Green Calendar of Park Festivals, Picnics & Nature Tours in Galway City

A meeting of community groups organised by ‘Galway Friends of the Forest’ will take place at 7.30pm on Wednesday January 26th in the Menlo Park Hotel in a new initiative designed to encourage increased engagement by communities and schools with leisure parklands and wildlife habitats in their localities.

Green Calendar for Galway City

Members of resident associations, environmental groups and other community organisations are asked to attend to start the process of laying down the framework and events to fill up an annual ‘green’ calendar for Galway city that hopefully will benefit tourism, energise local communities involvement with their green spaces by tapping into local heritage knowledge and involve them (& schools) in protecting the wonderful but often threatened areas of natural physical beauty and biodiversity that exist within our urban boundaries.

Galway County's Golden Mile

In the process, consideration will be given to following the example of the neighbouring local authority who have pioneered the ‘Golden Mile’ programme across the villages and roadways of county Galway which successfully involves farmers and other locals in restoring the natural ecology and social heritage of the rural landscape. In so doing the scheme has helped engender a sense of collective pride amongst local inhabitants towards their historical inheritance.

City Hall officials and researchers from the School of Geography at NUI Galway and the School of Architecture University of Limerick will also be in attendance at next week’s meeting to outline some concepts that they have on increasing community engagement with green spaces such as the Terryland Forest Park.

A good presence is vital for this initiative as it represents a golden opportunity to unite with diverse communities across the city, tap into further NUIG expertise, reconnect with progressive elements in City Hall and come up with something innovative (Green Calendar) that can benefit all of the people (& tourists) of Galway.

Sunday Park Picnics, Heritage Cycle Tours, Nature Walks, Harvest Festivals....

It is envisaged that the proposed calendar could include a series of coordinated community tree plantings as well as nature walks along the seashores, rivers and/or woodlands in every locality during Springtime; Family Picnics in the city’s major parks, workshops on old traditional skills such as stonewalling and the ‘Off the Beaten Track’ heritage cycle tours that already take place in the rural landscapes of Menlo and Castlegar over the summer months; berry picking and bulb plantings by school children, arts fetes, ‘boreen’ and community garden harvest festivals in the autumn; local residents’ clean-ups of green spaces and hedgerow coppicing during the winter months.

As it is, there are already in existence a lot of excellent ‘green’ initiatives involving neighbourhoods and particularly schools happening across the city supported by a diverse range of agencies and institutions including Galway City Council, An Taisce, Galway Education centre, RAPID, Inland Fisheries Ireland, Birdwatch, Galway Civic Trust, Galway Bat Group, NUIG and Atlantaquaria.

There are also plans by City Hall to finally put in place a city-wide pedestrian and cycle ‘greenways’ infrastructure.

Time to Unite!

Hence it is a good time to coordinate the different eco-programmes under a shared calendar and exploit the potential of parks and woodlands to develop a network of outdoor classrooms for our schools and of outdoor scientific laboratories for our third level research institutes of such parks as is the case to a small degree with the multi-habitat Terryland Forest.

Destruction of Galway's Natural Heritage

But it has too be admitted that too much of our natural heritage areas are increasingly threatened by illegal dumping, encroachment by built development, pollution, and anti-social behaviour.

Hence many people feel threatened by our forests and parks.

Way Forward: Involving Local Communities

Encouraging local communities to hold events in green spaces and involving them in the management of these areas, as was the case years ago through the Terryland Forest Steering Committee and could be again through similar schemes and the introduction of a conservation volunteer movement, would engender a sense of local pride and decrease opportunities for anti-social activity such as bush drinking.

The local authority also has responsibilities under local, national and international legislation to preserve, protect and manage our natural habitats, hedgerows, the traditional drystone walls network, overcome habitat fragmentation by creating ecological corridors or green highways for wildlife.

Sadly in spite of the best efforts of many people within the parks and enviroment sections of City Hall, this is not happening to the extent that it should. Galway city is the least forested city in the least forested country in the European Union.

So we earnestly hope that interested parties would now come together to develop a new multi-sectoral partnership involving City Hall, residents associations, active retirement groups, organic garden committees, schools, third level institutions, community campaigners, environmentalists and state agencies that could produce a coordinated annual city-wide eco-programme for all ages that would make us the envy of the rest of Ireland.

Preserving Ireland's Heritage in the 'Global Village'

Not since the Great Famine of the 1840’s has Ireland experienced such massive social, economic, demographic and cultural change as it had over the last 10 years. The unprecedented economic boom and the coming of the ‘global village’ enhanced by the lowering of barriers between European countries means that Irish society has lost or is losing many of the features that once defined it as a country, namely poverty, emigration, nationalism, Catholicism and an agricultural-based economy.

'More Irish than the Irish'

A largely monolithic society is now experiencing the Celtic Tiger, increased urbanisation and waves of immigrants from Poland, Lithuania, Nigeria, Brazil and China who have no cultural connection with its Celtic or Anglo-Irish inhabitants. Yet this change could and should be an opportunity to absorb and to enrich mainstream Irish culture by absorbing new influences. For Ireland, though it has been invaded many times before by foreigners, nevertheless managed to maintain its ‘Celtic’ ethos and survive centuries of oppression relatively intact. Our millennia-old love of poetry, music, spirituality, freedom and nature still burns deep in our souls and many invaders have become bewitched and found themselves becoming ‘more Irish than the Irish themselves’. Being Irish is really more a state of mind than an element of race.
But it is important that we recognise and preserve our nation’s human, built and natural heritage so that it is does not disappear and that its positive characteristics can be developed to give meaning to the population of 21st century Ireland.Likewise it is vital that the newcomers respect the values and traditions of the country that they now live in.

Intergenerational Digital Project to Record Irish Heritage

I am involved in a fascinating project with DERI and Galway County Council that involves coordinating schools and older peoples' groups working together to digitally record and preserve the stories, photographs and films of olden times. It is known as BEO (Irish for 'Alive') Lucky me!

Up until recently, I was afraid that much of our beautiful countryside and its people could be subsumed by a greedy developer-driven urban sprawl. Now however, I believe that the recent world-wide recession and its proceeding energy crisis could be an opportunity to re-establish and renew our agriculture and give a sustainable future to our farms and villages.
Homegrown and locally produced organic produce will I believe make a significant comeback not just in Ireland but worldwide.With the drive to a 'green' society being spearheaded by Obama's USA, there could well be a curtailment of private cars, an emphasis on public transport, increased protection of wildlife and their habitats, increased forestry, development of renewable energies such as solar and bio waste, a movement towards vegetarianism, lower birthrates and the redesign of houses to embrace natural local building products and insulation.
So the future will hopefully be Green and Happy!