The Daoine agus Áit Heritage Postcard Collection

The bi-lingual project title encapsulates our objective of drawing on a shared history and heritage to connect people with their place, as well as connecting people within each community to each other and with their diaspora. We also wanted to strengthen the connections between the community groups within the iCAN network, while promoting our members’ well-being through participating in creative activities.

Over May & June, 46 participants from 19 community groups based in counties Clare, Galway, Mayo and Wicklow, attended a series of photography and creative writing workshops with  Aoife Herriot and Alice Kinsella.

Workshop participants were encouraged to experiment with different ways of capturing and documenting aspects of their local heritage, and to use newly learned writing techniques to compose poems and prose inspired by their surroundings.

At the end of the process, each group decided on the final image/s and text for their postcard and worked with graphic designer, Damien Goodfellow to improve and finalise their designs.

Each card in the collection is unique, and on the reverse details the group’s website, email and social media to encourage engagement with their community archive websites. The postcards will be made available in each participating community during Heritage Week to be used to connect with friends and family at home and abroad.  We hope that these postcards will raise awareness of our heritage assets and the role of community volunteers in preserving, protecting, and promoting our local history and heritage.  

The Daoine agus Áit logo

A small working group consisting of three community members and the iCAN Development Officer fed their ideas to graphic designer Damien Goodfellow. Damien then created a variety of logo designs. Some of the designs were developed further and a shortlist of two was selected to present to the network. Members voted via an online poll and the gold Celtic knot work design received the most votes, making it the official project logo. 

The Postcards

You can view the nineteen postcards in the collection here.

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With thanks to our project management team: Lorna Elms, National Museum of Ireland, Marie Mannion, County Galway Heritage Officer, Deirdre Burns, County Wicklow Heritage Officer & Congella McGuire, County Clare Heritage Officer.

Daoine agus Áit: Connecting our Communities is an iCAN project co-funded by the National Museum of Ireland and the Heritage Officers for counties Clare, Galway and Wicklow, with grants from the Healthy Ireland Keep Well Campaign & Creative Ireland.