A new social engagement project
An archive of memories from Co Tipperary has been collated into a booklet and radio show through the work of Tipperary artist, Annie Hogg and the participation of Tipperary-based community groups such as Fethard Guild ICA, Borrisokane Men’s Shed, Presentation Convent Clonmel and Thurles Men’s Shed.
The official launch of this social engagement project took place on Thursday, September 23, in Thurles Library. Copies of this booklet are now available in all county libraries, and within it are QR codes to all four of the project’s audio collections. These audio collections are also being aired on Tipp FM and Tipp Midwest Radio station. The project’s first radio segment aired on Wednesday, September 24, and the next three episodes of this project will be airing over the next few weeks on Wednesdays at 11.05am.
Snapshots in Time
Annie Hogg outlined the project which has been funded through Creative Ireland and Tipperary County Council: “I started meeting up with four groups of people throughout the whole county. I asked them if they could tell me their memories about how things were done, and on how life was when they were young and what they may have seen their parents of their grandparents doing. Things have changed so much within our communities very quickly. It’s important to get little snapshots of things before they are completely gone. I was using this as a method of getting that snapshot of normality before it is gone out of living memory.
“I recorded our conversations on the audio and asked participants to bring in artefacts of what they were talking about. For example, one lady brought in these beautiful tablecloths that her aunt had made from flour bags and had hand embroidered and stitched them. They are stunning. These kinds of artefacts were included in the booklet.
“There is a lot of laughter in the audios, we certainly had a good laugh when we all gathered together and were having those chats and those memories were coming back up. People would speak very lovingly about an aunt of a mother, or a father, and that kind of sharing of memories was nice,” expressed the artist, referring to how members of the group bonded over having similar memories of loved ones from their past.
“I hope younger generations will be [interested in this project]. I hope older generations will be as well as a way of reigniting memories that they would have just put aside because that was back then. I hope for it to be of cross community enjoyment.”
The launch was the first time that all the groups met each other.
Annie added: “People were delighted with [the booklet], they were absolutely thrilled. Nobody had seen the full collection of everybody else’s input until last night. There was great conversation of people sitting down and flipping through the booklet and pointing things out. That was really nice to see.”