Heritage Week: Celebrating Ireland's past and present

There are 31 Heritage Officers across the country, one in each local authority. From Donegal to Wexford, Kerry to Louth, they work year-round with local groups to preserve and promote built, natural, and cultural heritage – and Heritage Week is one of the high points of their calendar.

Heritage Week promotes a huge range of events

In every county, the week offers hundreds of events, almost all free, and often created and run by community groups themselves. Towns and villages showcase local sites, skills, and stories – sometimes in places visitors have never seen before.

Take County Clare, for example, where Heritage Officer Congella McGuire has been working with volunteers and venues for months to prepare over 100 events. Kilrush alone has around 20, many centred on its Heritage Quarter. Quin Abbey, Cragganowen, and Bunratty Castle are all hosting activities – including night-time talks and demonstrations.

This pattern is repeated across Ireland: communities putting their local heritage on show, and local authorities providing the support to make it happen. Whether it’s a blacksmith at the forge, a thatcher restoring a roof, or a guided walk through an ancient site, these events keep traditional skills alive and bring people together.

Bringing people together

Heritage Week isn’t just for history enthusiasts – it’s also an important social event. In every county, local heritage societies, tidy towns committees, and volunteer groups use the week to connect with neighbours and share what they’ve been working on. There’s a family-friendly strand called Wild Child, which offers outdoor activities for children – an ideal way to get young people interested in heritage while the summer holidays are still on.

Some communities also use the week to celebrate particular achievements. In Liscannor, for example, locals are marking their national award for heritage activities – just one of many examples nationwide where community effort has been recognised.

Projects that preserve and remember

Heritage Officers often use Heritage Week to launch projects that have been in the making for months or years. In Clare, Congella’s team has completed a county-wide survey of cillíní – burial grounds for unbaptised children, strangers, and others excluded from consecrated cemeteries, used up until the 1960s. They found and documented 144 sites, creating an online record to ensure they are remembered.

Projects like this happen all over Ireland, reflecting the wide scope of a Heritage Officer’s role. Some focus on archaeological surveys or restoring historic buildings. Others record oral histories, document traditional crafts, or map out important wildlife habitats. All of them share the same goal: keeping heritage alive, relevant, and accessible.

The role of the Heritage Officer

A Heritage Officer’s work goes far beyond event planning. They link communities with funding, expertise, and best practice, helping to preserve, promote, and interpret heritage sites and traditions.

In Clare, for example, that means supporting the Community Archaeology Scheme, which provides guidance and resources to protect everything from ringforts to medieval churches. Similar schemes operate in other counties, tailored to local needs.

It’s also a forward-looking role. Heritage Officers are increasingly involved in climate change adaptation – monitoring coastal erosion, biodiversity loss, and threats to heritage sites. In Clare’s Loop Head, remote-sensing technology is capturing a detailed “picture in time” of the coastline, so its condition can be tracked over decades. Other counties are running similar projects to safeguard vulnerable sites.

Paths into the role

Heritage Officers come from varied backgrounds – archaeology, architecture, ecology, and other heritage-related fields. Qualifications are important, but so is practical experience. Congella’s own career began in natural heritage, working with BirdWatch Ireland and the National Parks & Wildlife Service before moving into her local authority role. The mix of technical knowledge and people skills is essential, because the job is as much about collaboration as it is about conservation.

The importance of Heritage Week

Heritage Week is a national celebration, but it’s built on local effort. Across all 31 local authorities, Heritage Officers work with communities to bring events to life, from small village gatherings to county-wide festivals. Without their coordination – and without the energy of local groups – many skills, stories, and places could slip quietly into the past.

If you want to see what’s happening near you, visit heritageweek.ie for the full programme.