Speech Reflecting on 20 Years of The Heritage Council
Áras na hOidhreachta, Kilkenny, 6th June 2015
A Dhaoine Uaisle,
A Chairde,
Tá áthas orm a bheith anseo inniu chun comóradh 20 bliain bunaithe an Chomhairle Oidhreachta a cheiliúradh. Is mian liom buíochas a ghabháil le Príomhoifigeach Feidhmiúcháin an Chomhairle, an tUasal Michael Starrett, leis an Cathaoirleach, an tUasal Conor Newman, agus leis an mBord as ucht a gcuireadh caoin dom bheith libh. Tá áthas orm daoine aonair agus ionadaithe ó ghrúpaí pobail, ó údaráis áitiúla agus ó gníomhaireachtaí éagsúla a raibh i gcomhpháirtaíocht leis an Comhairle Oidhrachta le fiche bliain anuas a fheiceáil anseo. Tá sé íontach go bhfuil iar-comhaltaí den Chomhairle, roinnt díobh a cheap mise ar an chéad bord agus mé i mo Aire Ealaíon, Cultúir agus Gaeltachta, i láthair chomh maith.
[I am delighted to be with you here today to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the establishment of The Heritage Council. I would like to thank the Council’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Michael Starrett, its Bhairman, Mr. Conor Newman, and the Board for their kind invitation to join you. I am also happy to see here today representatives of the various community groups, local authorities, individuals and agencies that have been partners with The Heritage Council over the last twenty years.
It is wonderful too to see here some former council members, a number of whom I appointed to the very first board when I served as Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht.]
I also remember being very pleased that Freda Rountree agreed to be the Heritage Council’s first Chairperson where she made such a wonderful contribution until her tragic death in the year 2000. She is still missed.
It was one of my privileges as then Minister to introduce the Bill that became the Heritage Act in 1995 which established the Heritage Council. Its predecessor, the non-statutory National Heritage Council, established in 1988 under the chairmanship of the late Lord Killanin, had laid the groundwork, but it was a matter of principle for me and many others at that time that the Council be placed on a statutory footing to strengthen its role in identifying, protecting, promoting, preserving and enhancing Ireland’s heritage; in facilitating its appreciation and enjoyment, and in informing our approach to managing this national resource.
The bringing into existence of a set of statutory heritage provisions and institutions was not without its controversies. I recall at that time that I felt it necessary to state that the word ‘heritage’ had become somewhat devalued in usage and by association with a clichéd image of what was assumed visitors to Ireland wanted to see.[1] Such a utilitarian reductionism was, I believed, and remain convinced, both blinkered and myopic and did not ascribe sufficient recognition or importance to much of our natural, built and cultural capital. I have always preferred the term “Oidhreacht” which more accurately captures the totality of our heritage, built and natural, that An Chomhairle Oidhreachta, The Heritage Council was established to help us appreciate and protect.
In introducing the Heritage Act, it was my hope that we, as a nation, would re-engage and re-think what heritage means, as a form of identity inherited but also in the process of continuous re-imagining, as a component of identity. Taking the word in its widest sense, “heritage” or “oidhreacht”, can be said to embrace all those elements of Irish life which we have inherited from the generations gone before us, and whose continuing survival into the future depends on the attitudes and actions of the present.[2]
Over the past two decades our concept of the word “heritage” has evolved somewhat and now the concept includes not only tangible heritage but also elements of our intangible living heritage such as songs, poems and language. When we speak of heritage today, we are talking about our interaction with the world around us, both real and abstract, our identity and our need to tell our own story in our own way. While remaining true to its original objectives set out in its founding year, The Heritage Council has been challenged to embrace a more inclusive agenda in difficult times.
For the dedicated and committed it has not been easy. All those years ago, I saw what we were planning as simply a commencement from a low base.
In the short time I have available to me today, I could not possibly deal adequately with the role the Heritage Council has played over the last two decades but I would like to mention some specific initiatives that are now embedded in our national awareness. The Council’s role in developing Heritage Week has been a remarkable success, bringing together communities in celebration of what they value and hold in common. Last year alone over 1,700 events took place across the country involving an exploration of wildlife, folklore, genealogy, historic buildings, gardens and local history. The challenge now, of course, is to build on this public support and graft it to policy and academic work.
The “Heritage in School Scheme” is another important initiative that has been instrumental in bringing heritage into the classroom. It reminds us that it is our children who are the future custodians of our heritage. Last year, I understand nearly 900 schools took part in this scheme, which augments the role of family and community in passing on to a new generation a sense of where we have come from and where we are.
The joy of passing on this knowledge to the young is that they gain an appreciation of what our generation and those that went before us held to be important. It also, perhaps, opens up the possibility of younger minds recognising value in our heritage where we failed to see it.
The Irish Walled Towns Network founded by the Council in 2005 is yet another scheme that has had important benefits in that it has ensured that Ireland’s unique walled and fortified towns and cities are protected and managed in a sustainable and appropriate manner in the long-term. Currently I understand twenty-one walled towns and villages throughout Ireland are members of this network.
Raising awareness is a key purpose of the Council. There is no doubt that initiatives such as the National Biodiversity Data Centre, the Irish National Strategic Archaeological Research Programme, the Discovery Programme, the High Nature Value Farming Programme and the Museum Standards Programme among many others have all promoted a deeper understanding of our heritage in all its different manifestations.
The support of the Council for a number of important innovative local organisations such as the Bere Island Projects Group, the Burrenbeo Trust, the Wicklow Uplands Council and the Woodlands of Ireland has been important in protecting and managing unique elements of our diverse landscape as well as contributing to job creation and sustainability.
The Irish landscape is clothed in a rich heritage of monuments, history, mythology, folklore, and placenames. Throughout Ireland, places of natural diversity and fragility such as mountains, bogs, plains, rivers, lakes and the coast have historical, religious, mythological and legendary associations.
These resonances of the past are a central part of our cultural heritage. They are also key components of the complex ecosystem of which we are part and on which we all depend. This has become more clearly understood and a new language has emerged of biodiversity, natural capital and ecosystem services, as we try to fathom the importance of natural systems to our own well-being and to understand the implications of losing the natural balance in our climate system and biosphere.
There are also countless historic buildings, traditional structures, places of worship, and other elements of our material heritage whose conservation and repair has been supported by the Heritage Council over the years. Many of these conservation projects have had community implications and connections, involving local groups and local heritage and preservation societies. Such projects have engendered enormous pride of place and have helped foster a vibrant community spirit.
The last two decades have seen immense changes in Irish society. Throughout that period An Chomhairle Oidhreachta - along with a wide range of partners – has sought to develop a comprehensive community-based heritage infrastructure and framework to support and promote heritage at the local level.
An integrated approach, which is based on that vital connection between people and place, offers rich benefits in terms of enabling and empowering local communities to use heritage to improve their sense of well-being and quality of life. In this regard, I would like to pay tribute to all the local Heritage Officers who have been fundamental in fostering this dynamic network. Then yet again, their role is defined within an institutional structure that merits review in terms of integrative capacity.
So there is much to celebrate after twenty years. But far more importantly, it is also a time to take stock and make a reflection on where the hopes and vision of 1995 might not have been fully realised. As I looked over the Dáil and Seanad debates from when I was steering the Heritage Council Bill through the Houses in 1994 and 1995, it was clear that the Heritage Council I had envisaged as the founding Minister was to be one part of a much larger design to protect, promote and realise the potential of various strands of our heritage. The National Monuments Acts, the National Cultural Institutions Act, changes to the Wildlife Acts and regulations to give effect to the Habitats Directive would form other key pillars of a comprehensive legislative framework for heritage protection.
It was envisaged that the Heritage Council would provide a central policy advisory and coordinating role across Government and that heritage protection would find its appropriate expression across laws and policies governing each of the relevant sectors, particularly in those areas that presented threats to our heritage. While there has been some notable success in having certain heritage protection functions delivered in sectoral legislation and policy making, other sectors remain in need of more work. For example, we should not forget that despite twenty years of effort, the status of many of our protected natural habitats and species continues to deteriorate. Of course it would be unfair to lay responsibility for this at the door of the Heritage Council, but it remains a shared challenge in which the Council has a role. I am well aware that many of the institutional pieces I put in place were reframed with Departmental changes in Government administration after I left office.
Ba mhaith liom cúpla focail a rá anois faoin Ghaeilge agus a h-áit inár gcuimhne maidir le chúrsaí oidhreachta. Dar liom féin is gné lárnach í an teanga inár n-oidhreacht, nach féidir linn and nár choir dúinn scaradh ó ghnéithe eile. Ar feadh na mílte bliain is í an Ghaeilge an méan trínar chuaigh Éireannaigh i ngleic lena dtimpeallacht, agus an ciste óna bhfuair said na focla agus nathanna chun cur síos a dhéanamh ar chursaí polataíochta, créidimh, nádurtha agus cultúrtha.
The Irish language is a constant thread running through almost all aspects of our heritage and cannot be disaggregated from how, for millennia, the Irish related to, interpreted and shaped their and our world. Placenames, folklore, literature, the natural world, culture, social customs, politics and religion were all contemplated and explored through the prism of Irish. The continuation of the spoken language is therefore a key component of our efforts to understand and protect our heritage. Yet, when we talk about heritage, the spoken language sometimes seems to be apart or somehow niche, rather than an integral part of our heritage, in all its aspects. I believe the Heritage Council is well-placed to bring this awareness and appreciation to a wider audience, and I would encourage it to redouble its efforts in this regard, particularly as we continue through the centenary of commemorations of the events that led to the foundation of the State.
Returning to our more recent past, it has also not been an easy journey for the Heritage Council, which has had to contend with both the impatient and heritage-threatening hubris of the Celtic Tiger years and the harsh realities of Ireland post 2008.
Neither of these contexts were particularly conducive to measured consideration of the value of heritage protection, particularly where the more narrow metrics of pounds, shillings and pence or jobs were offered as a counter argument – a false and dangerous dichotomy of choice at any time. Influencing public policy must, in my view, become a more central aim of the Heritage Council as it embarks on its third decade. This may require a newly crafted relationship, not only with those Departments and agencies directly involved with Heritage Policy, but also with those whose areas of responsibility have most impact on the future safeguarding of our heritage. It will require too a new definition at European and National level of shared responsibilities and opportunities. Seeing heritage as an important and equal element of infrastructural planning, for example, still remains as an ambition rather than as an achievement.
The Council has also had to adjust to more straightened times and the importance of the effective use of its limited resources in these new circumstances has been brought into sharp focus.
It must be creative and imaginative in crafting new uses of its funds, and must seek to draw on public, community, and, where appropriate and accountable, private resources to fulfil its mandate.
The Heritage Council involvement in Burranbeo is an excellent example of a collaboration which combines community, educational and commercial benefits and outcomes and in this way helps to underpin the importance of protecting the ecological, archaeological and cultural heritage of the area.
To maintain widespread support, it is vital that the funding assistance that it can offer is distributed by the Heritage Council in a transparent way, consistent with a strategic vision.
The Council has been successful in helping to build a community infrastructure to enhance awareness of our heritage and I am heartened and enthused by the Council’s ambition to both build upon these strong foundations and maximise the support of communities to bring heritage issues to the fore throughout Ireland. The Heritage Council’s experience in engaging and encouraging community involvement will ensure the success of this approach.
I know An Chomhairle Oidhreachta is also keen on exploring the future of towns and villages in rural Ireland and how heritage can act as an agent of social cohesion and as a catalyst for sustainable and creative living. The Council’s award-winning Community-led Village Design Statement Initiative has sought to give a voice to village communities and strengthen the overall concept of community-led planning, heritage management and sustainability.
In this context, I would urge the Council to reflect on the importance of “the public space” in our heritage and in our futures. By this I mean the importance of public spaces, such as parks and squares and walks; public buildings such as libraries, churches, halls and theatres and public events such as festivals, concerts and even markets as composing key elements of our heritage, of our present and of our futures. The concept of the shared space of the public world in general and the role of the local and national state in particular, has been under attack across Europe since the end of the 80s and with disastrous results, leaving us with gated communities on the one hand and ghettoes on the other, where fear has replaced a shared sense of joy in the public space.
Tá an t-uafás bainte amach ag an Chomhairle Oidhreachta chun an oidhreacht a thabhairt isteach sa phobal agus chun an pobal a áireamh sa chreat oidhreachta. Le linn na tréimhse dhúshlánach a raibh orainn aghaidh a thabhairt uirthi le déanaí sa tír seo, ba mhisniúil a fheiceáil gur fhás léirthuiscint na ndaoine ar na coincheapa idirghaolmhara seo. Is é mo ghuí é go gcinnteodh an Chomhairle, sna fiche bliain atá romhainn, go mbeidh ról níos ábhartha agus níos lárnaí ag an oidhreacht sa sochaí seo againne atá de shíor ag fás agus ag forbairt, agus go mbeidh rath mór oraibh agus sibh ag cur clár samhlaíoch, misniúil i bhfeidhm.
[The Heritage Council has achieved much in making heritage part of the community and the community part of our heritage framework. During the recent challenges that our country has faced, it is very encouraging to see that people have developed a deeper appreciation of these interrelated concepts. My sincerest wish is that the Council will, over the next twenty years, ensure that the role of heritage in the community becomes even more relevant and central to our ever changing and evolving society, that you will go on to have great successes in a bold an imaginative programme.]
To conclude, I congratulate the Council on this significant milestone and wish it every success going forward and thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak to you on this important and auspicious occasion.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir
[1] Introduction of the Heritage Council Bill, 1994: Second Stage, 7 July 1994 http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie
[2] Ibid.