iWALK COMPETITION/CAPTURING GALWAY'S HERITAGE:Bare-knuckle boxing in the 19th century is part of the excitement as two TY projects bring history and heritage to life
HISTORY DOESN’T have to be a boring relic. Two different projects are helping Transition Year students in Dublin and Galway to learn about the living heritage around them.
In Dublin, students from around Ireland have travelled to one of five visitor attractions – Malahide Castle, the Dublin Writers Museum in Parnell Square, the James Joyce Museum in Sandycove, the George Bernard Shaw birthplace in Synge Street and the Fry Model Railway in Malahide Castle – to produce a podcast for the iWalk Visitor Attraction Competition. As well as exploring the tourist attraction, the groups are also learning about the cutting-edge technology involved in podcasts.
In Galway, the Capturing Galway’s Heritage competition requires students to submit a project on an aspect of heritage in Galway. Chosen topics range from a study of local churches to local maritime heritage and the life and times of 19th-century bare-knuckle boxer Tom Molineaux.
Aoife Higgins, a 16-year-old student at St David’s Secondary School in Greystones, Co Wicklow, travelled to Malahide Castle with her TY classmates for the iWalk competition, which is supported by Apple Regional Training Centres, Songschool and Eurocreator.
“Podcasts are an accessible way to inform people, especially young people, about tourism and heritage,” she says. “The castle began as a Norman tower in 1174; and was then granted to the Talbot family, who came over from France and added to it over the centuries. It’s filled with history and ghost stories, the most famous of which is about Puck, who is said to haunt the castle. It is said that he appears when he doesn’t like what’s going on, including when the castle was auctioned off in the 1970s. There’s also a lady in white said to walk the grounds.”
After visiting the castle, the students wrote, recorded, and edited the five-minute script before adding sound effects and posting it on the website.
Participating students learn how different media such as video, audio, pictures and PDF files can be presented as a podcast and distributed for use to an international audience.
The Galway competition, run by Galway Civic Trust, also helps students to understand local heritage. In Galway Community College, TY students took part in a project exploring the life and times of freed slave Tom Molineaux, who died in Galway after a career as an international boxing champion.
BORN IN 1784, Molineaux was put into fights to win money for his slave owner, and managed to win his freedom. After winning a few fights in New York, he went to England to become a champion. “We took a trip to Renmore army barracks and the Mervue graveyard where he is believed to be buried after dying aged 36,” says TY student Shoena Joyce. “Sadly we couldn’t find his grave, so we left flowers by the gate.”
To fully understand the period, the students also made costumes from late 18th- and early 19th-century America, using the internet and guidance from their art teacher. “The purpose of making the costumes was to get a visual effect of what it was like to live in those days and to understand the way of life for the rich and the poor,” says TY student Elizabeth Walsh. “We’ve put the costumes, made for both men and women, on display in a local library. We’ve learned a lot about local heritage, and it’s proven really interesting to find out about the unique stories and dramas of your own local area.”
The winning podcast in the iWalk Visitor Attraction Competition in Dublin will be announced on Friday 7th May and will feature on visitdublin.com. For an enrolment form, e-mail info@createschool.ie
For information on the Capturing Galway’s Heritage competition, call 091 564946, e-mail info@galwaycivictrust.ie or visit galwaycivictrust.ie
