Inchicore Lives

dublin | history and heritage | event notice Thursday June 15, 2006 17:26 by Fionnuala Waldron - Fianaise Oral History Project fjwaldron at gmail dot com

Inchicore and Kilmainham in Living Memory

As part of the Inchicore Village Festival, there will be an exhibition of oral history collected by the Fianaise Oral History Project. The exhibition 'Inchicore Lives' will be on view at the Inchicore College of Further Education from June 19th to July 3rd.

Fianaise is an oral history and folklore project which is centred on the Inchicore /Kilmainham area. The word fianaise means witness and this project hopes to be a witness to times past. The Inchicore / Kilmainham area is steeped in story and folklore. Many families have lived here for generations, making them rich repositories of social history. This project began as part of the millennium celebrations in autumn 1999 and over thirty interviews were recorded in the first year. These interviews have been preserved and will form an important part of the local history archive in the proposed heritage centre.

Fianaise also recognised the educational potential of story and folklore and a schools’ folklore project was an integral part of the original venture. Under the guidance of their teachers, fifth class children in Our Lady of Lourdes N.S., Scoil Mhuire gan Smál and Inchicore N.S. interviewed family and friends about their memories. Fianaise has also had the privilege of working with transition year students from Goldenbridge Secondary School. Before embarking on a series of interviews, schools took part in workshops on story and folklore with storyteller, Liz Weir, Barbara Ní Fhloinn from the Department of Folklore (UCD) and with Nuala Hayes, actor, storyteller and folklore collector. It was an enriching experience for all involved.

The oral history and folklore collected by Fianaise during this period was exhibited during the Inchicore Village Festival 2000 and, subsequently, in the ILAC library and in Kilmainham Gaol in the summer and autumn of 2000.

Fianaise is now ready to embark on a new phase of interviewing and collecting lifestories and traditions. This exhibition is designed to mark the beginning of this second phase. It brings together edited excerpts from the initial interviews and presents them in text and on audiotape. Some contributors used e-mail to send their memories and these are also exhibited here. Finally, a selection of the stories and oral history collected as part of the Schools’ Folklore Project 2000 is presented.

Fianaise will be continuing its work of recording the memories and stories of Inchicore / Kilmainham in the autumn. If you would like more information on this project please contact Fianaise at 01 4537296 or e-mail fjwaldron@gmail.com