The County Leitrim Heritage Forum was established by Leitrim County Council as a non-statutory advisory group. The remit of the group is to provide advice to the local authority on the preparation and implementation of a Heritage Plan for Leitrim.
The Heritage Forum held its first meeting in February 2019.
Heritage Officer Sarah Maloney hosted the inaugural meeting in the form of a workshop with Forum members working in groups to identify heritage priorities for the new Heritage Plan.
A public consultation process followed the meeting. Entitled ‘What’s Your Leitrim Heritage ?’ it was held over six weeks between March 27th and 10th April. A total of 124 individuals took part in the pre-plan public consultation.
Focus Groups
In the wake of the public consultation, three Heritage Focus Groups were established.
They covered
- built heritage
- natural heritage
- cultural heritage
The role of these groups was to assist the Heritage Forum.
Feedback and results from the Forum meetings, the public consultation process and the three Heritage Focus Groups informed the Heritage Plan priorities and the Actions included in the plan.
Draft Plan
The Draft Heritage Plan is now at an advanced stage. It will go to public consultation in January 2020.
Leitrim PPN representatives ,Patricia O’Loughlin, Sean Gill and Seán O’Suilleabhain attended meetings in February, May, June and September.
February: Issues/ concerns brought to the Heritage Forum by Leitrim PPN representatives included forestry, signage and access to sites.
The public consultation on-line survey of six weeks was also promoted.
May: The setting up of the three Focus Groups-natural, built and cultural environment discussed, as was the issue of the Heritage Plan priorities and Heritage Forum membership.
The three Focus Groups were debated with the PPN representatives asked to pick an area of interest and a working group.
June: Patricia O’Loughlin reported that at the June meeting, issues brought forward were a built heritage meeting, the natural, built and heritage groups as was access to sites and funding.
Items discussed included the areas representatives were interested in, insurance and working with farmers/ people in terms of access to sites.
September: At the September meeting, issues/ concerns brought to the Forum included
- awareness,
- access to sites
- the need to pinpoint areas of specific work.
Items discussed included the Heritage Plan 2020-2015, implementation of the plan, raising awareness and recording Leitrim’s heritage. Projects on which to work were also discussed as was rolling out the plan.
Actions required before the next meeting included picking the built heritage area to work in.
Other committee members raised the issues of oral heritage, cultural and natural heritage, while issues from the PPN representatives included working with heritage groups or other community groups.
It was certainly a busy year for the PPN representatives.
PPN Rep Seán O’Suilleabhain said: “Bhí sé spéisiúil bheith mar bhall den bhFóram.
Bhí seans ag gach duine a dtuairimí a nochtadh agus bhíomar go léir ar chómhintinn faoi na moltaí.
I felt being involved in the Forum gave one an opportunity to advance the prospects of support for, in my case. the Irish language and culture.
There was general unanimity in relation to the proposals, which was good.
No conflicting interests.”
If you have any questions about the work of the Heritage Forum or that you would like raised by our PPN representatives, please get in touch.
Leitrim PPN, Aras an Chontae, Carrick on Shannon, Co Leitrim N41 K2VA
Ph: 071 96 20005 ext 544/555 Mob: 087 183 1253
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