Heritage Week 2023 launches with host of unique events celebrating our Living Heritage

National Heritage Week is shaping up to be one of the largest in recent years, and in the County of Cork, there are already over 125 events are set to take place. Heritage Week takes place from Saturday 12^th to Sunday 20^th August, and was launched recently by the Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform, Malcolm Noonan, TD.

This year’s Heritage Week will see a colourful range of events and projects celebrating all aspects of our heritage taking place across the country as communities, families, holiday makers and people of all ages and backgrounds are encouraged to get out and explore their heritage.

Over 1,000 free events and projects have already been registered nationally with that figure expected to reach close to 2,000 before the festivities kick off. Galleries, gardens, historic houses, barnyards and studios will play host to events covering everything from architecture to archaeology, film to foraging, philosophy to genealogy and music to storytelling.

The theme for National Heritage Week this year is ‘Living Heritage’, which is defined as the practices, knowledge and skills that have been passed from one generation to the next, and are still in use today. Anybody interested in hosting an event or a digital project can register it online at www.heritageweek.ie, up until Sunday August 20^th.

Speaking at the launch, Minister Noonan said: “With thousands of free events all over the country, Heritage Week is a wonderful opportunity to connect with the places, traditions, crafts and skills that have woven their way through the fabric of Irish society. I’d like to commend the hundreds of people, community groups and organisations across Ireland who, every year, give freely of their own time to host events and share their interest in heritage with the public and with the next generation of heritage lovers and tradition keepers. It is thanks to their efforts that the understanding and love of our heritage is kept alive, and passed on to the next generation.”

CEO of the Heritage Council, Virginia Teehan said: “Whether we are conscious of it or not, we are all torch holders of our heritage in one way or another and this year’s theme of Living Heritage provides an opportunity to explore this idea further. Anybody who has learned a skill from a family member, who has repeated a story told to them by an ancestor, or even anybody who has played GAA, has played a part in preserving our cultural heritage. Many of the events registered this year will highlight how valuable these traditions are and how richly they contribute to our understanding of who we are as a people.”

Coordinated by the Heritage Council since 2005, Heritage Week has become one of Ireland’s largest cultural events, celebrating Ireland's built, natural and cultural heritage and aiming to generate awareness, appreciation and preservation of our wonderful resources. At the national level, the National Lottery and Fáilte Ireland are joined by the Office of Public Works (OPW), the Irish Landmark Trust, and the Local Authority Water Programme as partners of National Heritage Week 2023. At county level, National Heritage Week is co-ordinated and supported by local authority heritage officers, their colleagues and with numerous local heritage groups and organisations.