Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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621. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the work in which she is involved with regard to research of culture memory or mnemohistory concerning the roll-out of the commemorations in the next few years. [2221/15]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Decade of Centenaries has presented challenges and opportunities for individuals, organisations, academic institutions and communities to reflect on their approach to remembering lives, activities and events which occurred in the past 100 years. These approaches can include objective historical descriptions, as well as the broader, collective memory of community.

Depending on their level of interest, such remembrances are dealt with in different ways and levels. Through the limited resources available, efforts are being made to provide as wide a range of memory retrieval and preservation as possible,

In this context, I refer to the advice of the Expert Advisory Group on Commemorations which proposed that the historical approach to the Decade of Commemorations should be marked by a return to primary sources, and that resources be primarily targeted towards making these sources as widely available as possible. To that end, the Military Service Pensions Archive project has been funded as one of the major capital projects associated with the Commemorative programme.

My Department has also supported developments at the National Archives of Ireland and at academic institutions, including the Royal Irish Academy ‘Judging’ biography series, with its focus on primary sources, and the Maynooth University ‘Letters of 1916’ project. This latter is involved in digitising hundreds of contemporary letters related to the 1916 Rising and using these as a tool to stimulate discussion, particularly with groups not hitherto engaged in history.

Similarly, the National Library of Ireland’s participation in World War One Europeana collection days have presented an opportunity for individuals and families to share both historical artefacts and associated lore publicly for the first time.

In January 2014, the Abbey Theatre held a major symposium on ‘The Theatre of Memory’ at which President Michael D Higgins addressed the topic of ‘Myth Making and Ethical Remembering’. In this address, available online, President Higgins addressed how historical events are approached in different ways according to the prevailing attitudes of the time. This year’s symposium addresses ‘Theatre of War’ in the same vein. Events of this nature, originated by the National Cultural Institutions under the aegis of my Department, are an important contribution to the commemoration programme

Notwithstanding the agreed focus on primary sources, I am aware of the importance of cultural memory and lore in relation to the commemorative period and my Department has supported several projects, including the ‘1916 Oral History Project’ wherein over one hundred of the closest surviving relatives of 1916 veterans were interviewed and their family accounts of the events of that period were collected and catalogued. My Department is currently supporting the preparation of a book “To Speak of Easter Week” based on this research.