Credits

This project is a collaboration. It is a work in progress. The website has been designed and built by Eachtra Archaeological Projects. The original design, by John Tierney, was intended to accommodate a small graveyard survey in West Waterford but as Maurizio Toscano, Eachtra GIS manager, built and developed the system we quickly realised we could deal with a much bigger survey area. Since the early design stage various people have had an input into the development of the project and the associated website, including Finn Delaney and Robin Turk, both of Eachtra, Bernie Goldbach, Senior Lecturer in Creative Multimedia, Limerick Institute of Technology, and Caimin O’Brien, Department of Environment archaeologist. A number of local development partnership companies teased out the community development potential of the project with us. Added to this we had discussions with a number of county archaeologists and heritage officers who also helped clarify issues such as data sharing, copyright and archiving.

Quite soon after we built the system Waterford County Council and the Heritage Council published the Care and Conservation of Historic Graveyards guidelines, written by Caimin O’Brien (http://bit.ly/graveguide). We incorporated the database from this book into our system and subsequently updated the database when dealing with a trial dataset loaned to us by the Heritage Council, Conservation Officer, Ian Doyle. This dataset consisted of a high quality survey of St Marys, Kilkenny, carried out by Cóilín Ó Drisceoil and a team from Kilkenny Archaeology. At an early meeting with Caimin O’Brien he encouraged us to develop the multimedia elements of the graveyard surveys and this dovetailed perfectly with the hyperlocal heritage teachings of Bernie Goldbach. Currently, the project is being funded from a number of sources. A pilot approach is being taken by a number of rural development partnerships – with these groups we are investigating the best methodology for developing meaningful community engagement with their historic graveyards.

The Historic Graves Project has been funded and supported to date by Leader companies, Local Authorities, Dept of Environment Fund via Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and the Heritage Council. The breadth of the list below demonstartes the collaborative nature of the whole project. The majority funding bodies so far are the Leader organisationsincluded in the listing of partners below: 

  • Ballyhoura Development Ltd
  • Cavan County Council
  • Cavan-Monaghan LEADER
  • Cork City Council
  • Cork County Council
  • Dublin City Council
  • Fingal County Council
  • Fingal LEADER Partnership
  • Kilkenny Borough Council
  • Kilkenny LEADER Partnership
  • Kilkenny County Council
  • Laois County Council
  • Laois Partnership
  • Meath Partnership
  • Monaghan County Council
  • North Tipperary LEADER Partnership
  • South & East Cork Area Development Ltd
  • Waterford County Council
  • Waterford Leader Partnership
  • Waterford County Museum
  • West Cork Development Partnership

The local community groups with whom we have worked so far, and for whom we provided training, engaged wholeheartedly in the collaborative approach which is a key part of the overall project. A selection of these groups is listed below:

  • Clontibert Community Group
  • Tydavnet Community
  • Errigal Truagh Community Group
  • Aghada Graveyard Recorders
  • Imokilly Community Group
  • Ballineen Enniskeane Heritage Group
  • Kinsale History Society
  • Mitchelstown Heritage Society
  • Bunscoil na Toirbhirte, Mitchelstown
  • Aghaboe Preservation Society
  • St Fergal's College, Rathdowney
  • Clonaslee Vocational School
  • Ennisnag Graveyard Recorders
  • Lisdowney Community Group
  • Gattabawn Community Group
  • Ardmore/Grange Heritage Group
  • Ardmore Pattern Festival
  • Drumlane History & Heritage Group