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Martellotrails

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION MANAGEMENT

The Irish Military Heritage Foundation CLG is a registered charity in the Republic of Ireland.

Company Registration No: (CRN) 624838

Charity No: (RCN) 20203159

CHY No: (CHY) 22594

Our Why

– to preserve, record, and tell the story of those who served throughout history from the island of Ireland and its diaspora, by generating programmes and projects to achieve that purpose. Shared-history, education, remembrance, and reconciliation are at the core of all our work.

Mission Statement

The Irish Military Heritage Foundation fosters the heritage and traditions of the Irish diaspora within armed forces around the world; educates, records, promotes, and preserves the accomplishments of the Irish diaspora within that tradition; unites, collects, and records the personal accounts of Irish men and women and those of Irish descent who have served and continue to serve worldwide. The information gathered is then made available in multimedia format on a free public access website.

Goals

The Irish Military Heritage Foundation has five core goals:

  • To preserve the contribution made by the Irish at home and abroad
  • To explore Ireland’s historical narrative in a non-biased manner
  • To develop a better understanding of Irish identity
  • To record and tell personal and family stories at local, national, and international levels
  • To generate appropriate dialogue and engagement on these and related issues on the Island of Ireland and within the wider diaspora

Activity Pillars:

The Irish Military Heritage Foundation operates within four activity pillars:

Identity

Defining Irish identity has never been straightforward due to the island’s long and turbulent history. Promoting a better understanding of culture, diversity, belonging, and competing historical narratives can facilitate a better understanding of what it is to be Irish in the 21st century.

Engagement

Engagement with archives, communities, educators, government, historical groups, media, museums, people, and state agencies is a core activity of the Foundation. The work employs a wide variety of mediums including conversation, conferences, multimedia productions, research programmes and symposiums.

By employing multimedia formats – articles, digital media, live broadcasts, podcasts, and video -the story of Ireland’s past and present is communicated and brought to life on various platforms.

Our multimedia approach affords easy access for decision-makers, educators, students, tourists, and members of the public of all ages and demographics thereby enabling informed discussion and debate in a wider context.

Diaspora

In excess of 70 million people around the world identify as being Irish or of Irish lineage. Connecting with the diaspora and exploring their experience, recording their stories, and understanding their perspectives is a driver in modern Irish society. For posterity it is a priority activity. Their story is our story and impacts significantly on the evolution of our nation.

History

Recording the personal accounts and stories of individual people is at the heart of the Foundation. Personal accounts give individuals and communities a voice from the past and a window to the future. Given the competition between at least three macro historical narratives (Nationalist, Unionist and Republican) with corresponding definitions of Irishness, affording individuals the opportunity to state their case in order to correct the narrative has never been more important.

The Foundation therefore endeavours to introduce balance into historical debate and discussion in order to provide a more holistic understanding of our shared experience, shared history, and mutual inter-dependency going forward.

Programmes

The Foundation conducts its activities through several programmes, which in turn carry out projects. The current programmes operating or in development are:

  • Ireland’s Military Story – The Foundation’s primary multimedia platform exploring Ireland’s global military tradition. It brings together Ireland’s rich military heritage and tradition in all its manifestations across the island and the Diaspora and help gain a better understanding of Ireland’s culture, heritage, and identity. Such exploration can help facilitate reconciliation.
  • The Speaker William Conolly Summer School – exploring Irish identity, diversity, and reconciliation
  • An Seanchaí/The Storyteller – the Foundation’s oral history programme
  • Ireland’s Great War – a joint programme with the Somme Association/Museum, exploring the shared history of the Great War 1914 – 1918 for a better future
  • Ireland’s Martello Trails – This programme aims to develop a heritage trail following the network of these Napoleonic sentinels around Ireland. The programme will take a 360° view of each tower, developing a trail(s) that takes in the local diverse story of art, commerce, culture, environment, history, people, sport, and wildlife.

Key Statement

Ireland’s history is complex and multi-dimensional. Understanding competing identities and traditions is central to building a better future for everyone on our island. The Irish Military Heritage Foundation, through its four activity pillars, seeks to explore these issues and promote a better understanding of where we came from in order that decision-makers and educators are informed and enabled to face the future.