CETRA Celebrates Ireland National Heritage Week
This week CETRA and Ireland are celebrating National Heritage Week. Taking place this year from August 16-24th, it celebrates Ireland’s cultural, built, and natural heritage. This year’s theme is “Exploring Our Foundations”. The theme focuses on delving into the building blocks of Ireland’s heritage; not just the structures, but the landscapes and cultural activities that shaped it.
This week long event takes place towards the end of August each year. Many national and hundreds of local community organizations participate by organizing events throughout the country. It is one of the country’s largest cultural celebrations with over 2,400 events taking place nationwide. Many of these events are free and highlight the abundance of great work that is carried out in all communities in Ireland to preserve and promote the natural, built, and cultural heritage.
Ireland’s National Heritage Week is part of European Heritage Days. This is a joint initiative of the Council of Europe and the European Union in which over forty countries participate each year. The main goal of European Heritage Days is to promote awareness and promote Europe’s common cultural heritage.
According to the Heritage Council, “We’re encouraging everyone young and old to get outdoors more often and value what our natural world has to offer. Protecting our natural heritage is so important to every aspect of our lives; jobs, tourism, water, food, health and well-being.”
