Third Age “The Way We Were” Living History Digital project
Posted on 24th August 2022
The Way We Were is an intergenerational living history project involving older volunteers explaining the uses and significance of a collection of artefacts in Irish and social history. Gathered, mined, and collected over the past number of years the collection includes items from both home and working life, from times gone by. Items include manual and electronic type-writers, an early blow torch, welding equipment, tilly lamps, a spinning wheel, a dial telephone, bellows, various cooking utensils and equipment, ceramic jars, coins, milk bottles etc.
The arrival of COVID-19 forced us to rethink our approach to the delivery of this programme. In 2021 we ran a pilot initiative, involving some of our older volunteers talking about some items in the collection and some of the past times and crafts that they still practice - knitting, crocheting and patchwork quilting. Our project was nominated for a National Heritage Week award in 2021.
Spurred on by the success of this nomination, the interest in the video, and the issues that we are still experiencing due to COVID-19, we approached Sceal Heritage to help us to create a collection of short videos that can be used to tell the stories of both our volunteers and the items in our social history collection. In preparation for filming our volunteers participated in an interactive storytelling workshop.
The first of the videos will be launched during National Heritage Week. They will be available on our website and via our social media channels.
Third Age released a short video on our project "The Way We Were" in 2021. The project captures the stories and knowledge of our volunteers. Spurred on by the success of this piece and the interest in the project we decided to create a series of short videos on the various items in our collection. the first of which will be launched during heritage week and will be available on our website and social media platforms.
The Way We Were project is supported by Meath County Council Community Heritage Grant Scheme. The Way We Were Living History Video Project has been supported and funded by the Heritage Council’s Community Heritage Grant Fund 2022.
