Are you involved in an Offaly Community Group that would like to explore an aspect of your heritage through an art form?

If so, see the attached Creative Ireland Community Grant application form and contact the Heritage Office if you have an idea you would like to discuss 057 9346839.

This is the third year of this programme where the focus is on exploring aspects of Offaly’s heritage through a wide range of art forms.

If you have an idea for this scheme, please do feel free to contact the office and discuss how it might work. In some cases, communities may have ideas but not have a link with an artist and we may be able to provide a contact for artists – or visa versa.

Some of the projects that received funding in 2018 were;

• Vintage Luminaries – See https://vimeo.com/286030077 A series of projections onto key buildings in Birr during Vintage Week exploring their site specific history.
• Poet Egan in Geashill - Poet John Cummins worked with the school to develop poems inspired by Poet Egan from the Meelaghans which were then published in a broadsheet. A verse of Poet Egan’s poem about Geashill was carved in limestone in the Green by stonemason Ciaran Byrne which was then set into the pavement in the Green. Poet Egan’s poems were collated for reprinting. See Geashill Tidy Town’s facebook page for videos.
• The Joey Telescope – Birr Stage Guild’s production of the play written by Michael Donegan focusing on the history and role of the workhouse in Birr through the eyes of Joey.
• Mary Ward – the continuation of the Mary Wards Amazing World of Wonder see http://www.marywardsamazingworld.com/ and the reproduction of the original 1857 Sketches From a Microscope published in Birr.

This is a great opportunity to bring art forms to explore our heritage and we look forward to hearing from you.

Contact:-

Amanda Pedlow

Offaly Heritage Officer

Offaly County Council

057 9346839

www.offaly.ie/heritage