Collaborate, Evaluate, Evolve CILIP Ireland/ Library Association of Ireland Annual Joint Conference, 8-10 April 2015, Titanic Belfast Niall Kerr: Creative Centenaries Deirdre MacBride: Community Relations Council Stella Byrne: Heritage Lottery Fund

2. Niall Kerr
Project Co-ordinator
Creative Centenaries Project

3. Creative Centenaries Background
• Takes a creative approach to remembrance
and commemoration
• Uses digital and creative methods to engage,
particularly with young people
• Adopted the principles as set out by
Community Relations Council and Heritage
Lottery Fund
• Endorsed as the hub for Decade of
Centenaries related information in NI

4. www.creativecentenaries.org
Interactive website with news, events, resources, and timeline sections

5. Educational Comic Books

6. Other educational resources
• Animations
• iBooks
• Interactive
educational resources
• Outreach and
engagement work

7. Partnership work
• Creative Centenaries Resources Fair,
in conjunction with Community
Relations Council and Heritage
Lottery Fund
• Interactive touch-table with National
Museums Northern Ireland
• Using PRONI content for further
resource development
• Heritage Lottery Fund application
for events, exhibition, outreach
programme

8. 2016 and beyond
• Content, information and events
- Continue to provide content, information and resources
around the Decade of Centenaries
•Partnership building
- CRC, HLF, NMNI, Libraries NI, PRONI, NIO, BBC and more
•Further outreach and knowledge sharing
- Continue to provide an avenue for people to engage with the
timeframe in a range of settings
•Events, exhibition, outreach programme
- Programme a large scale project with high impact across
Northern Ireland and Ireland, engaging with the public ahead of and
during 2016

9. Niall Kerr
Email: n.kerr@nervecentre.org
Tel: 028 7126 0562

11. Deirdre MacBride
Programme Director
Community Relations Council

12.  Start from the historical facts;
 Recognise the implications and consequences
of what happened;
 Understand that different perceptions and
interpretations exist; and
 Show how events and activities can deepen
understanding of the period.
All to be seen in the context of an ‘inclusive and
accepting society’

13.  Conference and pamphlet of reflections
 Developing principles and guidance
 Roundtable
 Engaging stakeholders
 Linking to agencies councils, and government
 Planning ahead – contested years
 Creating resources - web links, lectures on line
and in DVDs and CDs

14. Marking the Decade
◦ From the local (of people and places) ,
◦ to the international (Empire, war, migration),and
◦ To the modern (protecting minorities, why people migrate,
identity, war and solidarity)
 Promoting inclusive discussion, dialogue in
exploring history and identity
 Ethical-Forward looking – what shape society?
 Practicing how to mark anniversaries in public
space as we approach the 50th
anniversaries of
the recent conflict

15.  Lectures and DVDs /CDs
 Conference
 Good practice toolkit
 Digital resources
 Networking and Partnership event
 Signposting
 Promoting activities

16.  Local interpretations of people and places
 What was happening here, then – including not
excluding;
 Uncovering local history thus creating new resources;
 Drama, travelling exhibitions etc.
 Lectures and Discussions
 Shared and Ethical Remembering
 Who do we think we are?
 Art – stitching and unstitching the Troubles

17.  Partners
◦ Libraries - local heritage officers, local newspapers
◦ PRONI – Covenant records and census
◦ Local historians and history societies, arts, drama and
history teachers and societies
◦ Museums and arts centres, Ulster Historical Foundation
 Financial (own programmes)
◦ Councils: Good Relations/Festival funding,
◦ Peace III partnerships
◦ CRC small grants,
◦ HLF hlf.org.uk Your Heritage and Young Roots programmes
etc.
◦

19. Stella Byrne
Casework Manager
Heritage Lottery Fund

21. Funding for Decade
Related Projects
First World War: then
and now
Grants between £3,000 and £10,000
Our Heritage
Grants between £10,000 and
£100,000
Heritage Grants
Grants over £100,000
Young Roots
Grants between £10,000 and
£50,000

22. The importance of small grants
Community integration
Diamond War Memorial

23. Belfast Nationalists and WWI – Exhibition and
Slideshow Presentation
• Focal point for
nationalists with family
members who fought in
FWW to research their
family history
connections
• Encourage interest and
debate based on facts
not myths
• Successful launch
• £7,700

24. A Unique Experiment: The Resettlement of WWI
Soldiers on Cleenish Island in Lough Erne
• Homes Fit for Heroes
• Stories of the resettled
soldiers
• Impact on local area
• Legacy today
• £8,900

25. Impact of the First World War in the Newry Area in
the Context of a Changing Political Landscape
• The exhibition illustrates
how the First World War
affected the lives of
hundreds of ordinary
people in the area either
through recruitment,
experience of warfare
and bereavement and
loss.
• £39,200

26. On The Brink: The Politics of Conflict 1914-1916
• This project explores, through heritage
sites, artefacts of the period, and
engagement with local communities, the
impact and legacy of the outbreak of the
First World War, the Battle of the
Somme and the Easter Rising in the
Mid and East Antrim and Causeway
areas.
• £178,800

27. Connecting History
The project reshaped the
modern history galleries
at the Ulster Museum
(UM) to meet the
challenge of forthcoming
anniversaries and in so
doing, will contribute to
work on the Decade of
Anniversaries.
£454,800

28. Irish Unionism
1914- 1918
The project will reflect on
how the events of 100 years
ago have shaped the
Ireland of today with a
particular emphasis on the
Unionist perspective on the
events of 1914-1918 and
the development of the
ideological and cultural
differences found within
Northern Ireland today.
•£270,700

29. HMS Caroline
• The project will conserve,
repair, protect and interpret
HMS Caroline, Alexandra
Dock and the Pump-House
for the next generation
• £12,385,900