It’s Your County, Your Heritage, Have Your Say!
Kildare County Council and Kildare Heritage Forum are beginning the process of writing a new Heritage Plan for County Kildare and would like to hear your views on what actions should be contained in the new Plan. If you are a member of a community group, tidy towns group, historical society or wildlife group or an individual interested in the heritage of County Kildare you are invited to make a submission to the new Plan by the 12 April 2013.
If you make a submission you are ensuring that the specific views of the people of Kildare are considered in writing the plan. The submissions made will feed directly into the draft Heritage Plan.
Heritage can be considered to be our inherited traditions, monuments, objects, and culture. Heritage is both the tangible and intangible. It is how we identify ourselves and define a sense of place. Heritage includes natural heritage such as flora, fauna geology, wildlife areas, landscape waterways and biological diversity. It includes built or man –made heritage such as demesne houses, vernacular architecture, monuments, archaeology, heritage gardens and parks and cultural heritage can include local history, folklore, traditions, museums, archives, place names and genealogy.
A County Heritage Plan is a series of actions compiled from input from organisations and individual who have an interest in the heritage of County Kildare. It is a five year document, which details how heritage in the county shall be managed and protected on a partnership basis. It is an opportunity to identify heritage issues and heritage needs at a local level and to address them locally within a national framework. The writing of a heritage plan is overseen by the County Kildare Heritage Forum, which is made up of organisations or individual with in the county who work in the area of heritage or have an interest in heritage.
“We all have the responsibility of looking after Kildare’s heritage and helping to make sure it is around for the next generation” said Bridget Loughlin, Heritage Officer. “This is why we are encouraging everyone to get involved in the new plan by making a submission”
Submissions can be made by completing the submission form, available online below, in local libraries, or from the Heritage Officer by writing or email the heritage officer at heritageofficer@kildarecoco.ie or 045 980725.
So, if you have an opinion or an idea as to how Kildare’s heritage should be promoted, protected, managed, explained then let us know so we can include it in the new County Heritage Plan.