Entry 45783
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. This pilot workshop aimed to showcase some RIA resources that are accessible and can be used in the class room.
Siobhán O’Sullivan, Executive Director of the Royal Irish Academy, welcomed everyone to the workshop ahead of Emma Rothwell, RIA Library, who detailed the variety of resources available from the Library ranging from medieval manuscripts to water colours.
From the Dictionary of Irish Biography (DIB), Turlough O’Riordan and Angela Byrne demonstrated how the DIB can be searched and how it can form part of a wider story of people and place.
Sarah Gearty and Jennifer Moore of the Irish Historic Towns Atlas (IHTA) showcased how maps can form an essential part of a sense of place while the IHTA text can forensically deal with a street, building and show continuity and change over time.
Katherine Martin from Grangegorman Histories gave insight into the public history project and the various elements from buildings to transportation can be used in the classroom. Finally, Beth Knazook from the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) demonstrated what sort of material can be accessed in the DRI, how to generate searches and download accessible material from the DRI.
The workshop was rounded out by a discussion with the panellists, both online and in the room, about how heritage resources can be used in the classroom and how RIA resources can explored.
The Heritage Council welcomed this opportunity and looks forward to further collaboration between Heritage in Schools and the RIA.
