To understand the present, we must know the story of our past. History provides us with the opportunity to learn about what and who went before us and why we live in the world we live in today. It enables us to celebrate successes and learn from the failures of bygone days.
Primary schools are invited to celebrate Imbolc, the feast day of St Brigid, and the arrival of spring by bringing these themes to life in the classroom through a free Heritage in Schools visit on 2nd February 2026.
The Heritage Council is delighted to offer FREE Heritage in Schools visits to primary schools from 1–5 December as a festive thank-you to schools who regularly engage with the scheme and support heritage education throughout the year. This is our way of saying thank you for your ongoing commitment to bringing Ireland’s rich heritage to life for your students.
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The Heritage in Schools Scheme provides a panel of Heritage Specialists on Ireland’s natural, cultural and built heritage, who visit primary schools to help children and their teachers learn about and appreciate their local heritage. The scheme supports the stated aims and objectives of the Social, Scientific and Environmental Education (SESE) curriculum and provides an additional educational tool and resource for teachers. The six videos below were commissioned to mark the scheme’s 25th anniversary and they highlight various stories from the programme, featuring the voices of those who have benefited from it and those who have contributed to its nationwide success.
🎃Celebrate Samhain and the end of the harvest season with a free Heritage in Schools visit for your school! We’re delighted to offer 100 fully funded visits, available on a first-come, first-served basis. Each school may apply for one free visit, which must take place between 3rd and 7th November 2025. These visits are fully funded by the Heritage Council.
On Friday, 19th September, our Heritage in Schools Roadshow visited Sligo. In collaboration with Sligo Education Centre and the Heritage and Biodiversity Officers from Sligo County Council, we hosted a day of fun and interactive heritage workshops.
School's out so our hardworking Heritage in Schools Specialists had time to attend our annual networking days recently.
Over 600 children and 65 teachers and SNAs from local Kilkenny primary schools gathered at Áras na hOidhreachta on 13th June for our third annual Heritage in Schools Archaeology Day.
Heritage in Schools expert Anthony Galvin-Healy has just returned from trekking across the top of Europe. Anthony, who visits schools talking about polar heroes Tom Crean and Ernest Shackleton, has been a regular visitor to the Arctic over the past three decades. This time he was trekking across the extreme north of Finland, in temperatures of minus 23 degrees, to raise funds for the charity SightSavers, which provides medical care in the developing world.
On Thursday 23 January 2025 the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) welcomed members of the Heritage in Schools panel, both in person and online, to learn about RIA educational resources for primary schools from the RIA Library, Dictionary of Irish Biography, Irish Historic Towns Atlas, Grangegorman Histories and the Digital Repository of Ireland.
We are delighted to welcome 24 new heritage specialists to our Heritage in Schools programme and it was wonderful to host an induction day for them at Áras na hOidhreachta last month. We had an informal and enjoyable day which included presentations from Heritage Council staff and long term members of the Heritage in Schools panel, who provided lots of useful tips on delivering programmes and engaging with schools. We heard more about the work our new recruits will do with schools, as well as expanding our reach and offerings on history, archaeology and biodiversity they will bring some new topics to the programme too, including mosiac culture in Ireland, history of the use of archery in Ireland and Thornton Irish Lace and crochet. Further information will be available from website profiles which will be activated when we re-open in January.
