Theo Pennell, Alisha Burke and Nessa Lat with Gizmo the little owl, Cupid the barn owl and broadcaster and TV presenter Miriam O'Callaghan at Dublin Castle for the launch of National Heritage Week. Photo by Marc O'Sullivan
The Heritage Council of Ireland has just launched a new interactive Facebook app to coincide with Heritage Week, which kicks off tomorrow. The new social-networking app will allow anyone on the island of Ireland to upload photos of themselves, and friends and family, at heritage sites.
Users of the app will be able to upload up to 10 photos and share them on Facebook, via the new app, which works on Android and Apple devices.
It’s the year of ‘The Gathering’, and with so many events happening around the island as families and friends come together to celebrate their ancestry and re-connect and network, The Heritage Council of Ireland is capitalising on all of the little mini-gatherings happening around Éire’s rich tapestry of heritage sites. Heritage Week 2013 will run from 17 to 25 August.
Via the new Facebook app, users may want to, for example, capture images of Glendalough, Waterford Castle, Newgrange in Co Meath, the Burren in Co Clare, Europe’s supposed smallest cathedral in Ferns, Co Wexford, a fairyfort, or a medieval monastic site, such as Clonmacnoise.
They might also like to head to a dolmen in Co Kerry, the GPO in Dublin City, Kilkenny Castle, the historical Titanic quarter in Belfast City, the site of the Famine Museum in Cobh, Co Cork, Galway Bay, Castle Leslie in Co Monaghan, or the famed St James’s Gate and Guinness Brewery. Get those cameras out!
‘Discover your roots, learn traditional skills, explore Ireland’s 27 medieval walled towns’ – Heritage Council
Castles have been rated Ireland’s favourite type of heritage site, according to the fourth annual National Heritage Survey that has been published ahead of National Heritage Week. Brother and sister Axel and Zahli Craven help celebrate the launch of Heritage Week at Malahide Castle, Dublin today. Photo by Conor McCabe Photography
This year’s Heritage Week will also comprise a series of events that will be swinging into action from tomorrow.
Katie Shackleton, coordinator of National Heritage Week, said there will be around 1,700 events happening at heritage sites dotted around the island of Ireland – and most of these events will be free.
She did say, however, that some events will have a small fee.
Ferns, Co Wexford, as you head into the town from the N11. In his photo you can see a sign to Boolavogue, a cottage where tapestry-crafting happens and Ferns Cathedral – it’s known in historical circles as being the smallest cathedral in Europe. U2 frontman Bono, aka Paul Hewson, has reportedly been known to sit in the cathedral’s pews from time to time. Photo via FernsVillage.ie
