Month: November 2020

Categories
News Pilgrimage

Creative Camino Artist Pilgrims Selected

Creative Camino Artist Pilgrims Selected

Ancient Connections is delighted to have commissioned four performing artists to join the Creative Camino pilgrimage (dates tbc). These artists will make the journey from Ferns to St Davids over eight days, taking in some significant sites along the way. The artists will be responding creatively to the experience through performances in Ferns, Fishguard and in St Davids.

The artists from Pembrokeshire are Ailsa Richardson, a multi-disciplinary artist working in movement, song, poetry and music, and Suzi McGregor, a musician, actor and singer song-writer. On the Wexford side joining the group will be Bonnie Boux, a dancer specialising in burlesque and community dance and Kate Powell, a multi-instrumentalist musician and street performer. 

The artists will be joined by four community members who have yet to be selected and the whole group will be led by guides from Journeying and Wexford Trails. The trip promises to be a fun, creative and transformative experience and there will be opportunities for members of the public to join for a day or half day.

Categories
Opportunity

Volunteering as a Steward or Evaluator

Opportunity

Why volunteer for Ancient Connections?

The benefits of volunteering can be enormous. Volunteering for Ancient Connections could help your community to develop a greater sense of connectedness and increase knowledge and awareness about local history and its relevance today. But the benefits can be even greater for you, the volunteer. The right match can help you to find friends, connect with the community, learn new skills, and even advance your career. Volunteering can increase your self -confidence and sense of purpose. It doesn’t have to involve a long-term commitment or take a huge amount of time out of your day.

There are several ways that you can become involved with Ancient Connections as a volunteer:

  • Become one of our History Hunters and receive training on researching family or local history, creating stories from your findings and sharing them with others.
  • Join the team of Tourism Ambassadors, who will help to keep local stories, heritage and legends alive. Whether you have a passion for local stories and places, or work in the tourism industry, our training schemes offer different programmes to suit your interests.
  • Roll your sleeves up and get digging – volunteer on the archaeological digs at Whitesands with Dyfed Archaeological Trust and in Ferns with IAFS.
  • Find out what’s under the surface at significant sites in Pembrokeshire and Wexford and volunteer with Dig Ventures experts in geophysics.
  • Become a Steward for Ancient Connections events. From 2021 onwards Ancient Connections will be running a number of events in Wexford and Pembrokeshire. This is an opportunity to be in the thick of all the fun and support the project team to make the events run as smoothly and safely as possible.
  • Become an Evaluator – as part of the Ancient Connections project, the team will need to gather important information from visitors at key sites in Wexford and Pembrokeshire, including where they are from, why they are visiting, what they plan to do while they are visiting and whether they are aware of the cross-border connections between these two places. Evaluators do not have to have any special skills, just a friendly face and a willingness to engage with people from all walks of life.

To find out more about History Hunters, Tourism Ambassadors and volunteering on digs and geophysics click on the relevant links above. To sign up as a Steward or Evaluator, please fill in the form below and one of our team will be in touch.

Ancient Connections Volunteering Form
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Categories
Opportunity

History Hunters

Opportunity

History Hunters

Ever fancied delving into your family or local history? Can you imagine yourself as a historic super sleuth unearthing long lost nuggets of history from the dust of ancient archives? Might you enjoy researching, writing and publishing blogs and articles about your region’s archaeology or mythology or are you ready to unleash the slumbering storyteller within? If so, Ancient Connections’ History Hunters programme is for you.

Tell Local Stories

The aim is to support curious individuals and those with an interest in their local history and stories, to develop skills and be mentored to dig effectively into their community’s past, and share what they find. No previous experience is necessary and it’s a lot of fun. History Hunters will form local groups and networks to support each other and share information with support and mentoring from the Ancient Connections team.

A suite of four, free modules of training have been developed to equip participants with all they need to know about collecting, recording and sharing a treasure trove of history and stories from their square mile. Training includes how to collect and record oral history, how to search online and published archive sources for Wales and Ireland, how to share and publish research in the form of articles and blogs, and how to tell these stories.

 

Contractor Delivering Programme:

Become a History Hunter
Research and share stories.
To apply to become a History Hunter please complete the form below and a member of our team will be in contact with you.
Where are you based?
I agree with the Privacy policy
Thanks for the interest, a member of our team will be in touch as soon as possible.

Date: January 2020

Funded By: Ancient Connections

Project Outputs:
History Hunter’s Training Packs
History Hunter’s Training Programme
History Hunter’s Mentoring
Press Releases & Articles
Social Media

Learn More at:
www.ancientconnections.net/history-hunters

Categories
Opportunity

Ancient Connections – Tourism Ambassadors & Welcomers

Opportunity

Tourism Ambassadors
& Welcomers

It is vitally important that local stories, history and heritage remain alive within their communities and serve the local economy too.  Our Tourism Ambassadors are tasked with learning about their local history and developing skills to share their knowledge with their communities, with visitors and the tourism industry.

 

We’ll be offering Ambassador training in 2021 over 2-3 days for Ambassadors – those in the front line of our tourism industry as well as local volunteers with time to dedicate to sharing their passion for their place. In addition, we’ll be offering a shorter, half day training programme called Welcomers for those who play an important role in promoting their place, e.g. taxi drivers, shopkeepers, restaurateurs, leisure providers etc.

It’s all about an informed, warm welcome that supports visitors and the local tourism economy. Importantly it helps keep knowledge, history and stories alive too.

Contractor Delivering Programme:
Become a Tourism Ambassador
Share local knowledge with visitors.
To apply to become a Tourism Ambassador & Welcomer please complete the form below and a member of our team will be in contact with you.
Where are you based?
I agree with the Privacy policy
Thanks for the interest, a member of our team will be in touch as soon as possible.

Date: May 2021

Funded by: Ancient Connections

In Partnership with: Ancient Connections

Project Outputs:
Ambassador Packs
Ambassador Training Modules
Welcomer Training Modules
Ambassador / Welcomer Recognition Collateral e.g. Badges, High-vis Jackets Certificates
Press releases and articles
Social media

Learn More at: www.ancientconnections.net/ambassadors

Categories
Stories

The Schooner Elizabeth

Folklore

The Schooner Elizabeth

In October 1827, the schooner Elizabeth sank off Duffcarrick Head, north of Courtown with the loss of all twenty-nine hands. The ship was out of Milford in Pembrokeshire and its captain William Griffiths was a native of Fishguard. His body was interred in Wexford soil in Prospect cemetery near Ballymoney. It is not known if the bodies of the other crew members were recovered.

A fine headstone can still be seen to this day with the inscription below.

“Here lie the remains of William Griffiths of Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, S. Wales late master of the skooner Elizabeth of Milford, who closed his earthly voyage with all the crew on the 28th Oct. 1827 Aged 35 years.

From many storms and dangers the Lord delivered me
Through Neptune’s waves and Boreas from all he set me free.
But at a rock nigh here I lost my tender breath
In high rough waves and breaking seas I suffered pangs of Death.”

Sources:
The Schools Collection, Vol. 0888, pp.120-1

Available Online at:
www.duchas.ie
Accessed November 21st 2019

North Wexford Historical Society: Headstone Recordings 

Available Online At:
www.northwexfordhistoricalsociety.com
Accessed November 21st 201

Categories
Stories

The Tinnaberna Fishermen

Folklore

The Tinnaberna Fishermen

The tragedy of the Tinnaberna Fishermen took place in the 1810s. Tinnaberna was a small fishing village on the north Wexford coast near Kilmuckridge. Two fishing cots set out to sea on the feast of St. Martin’s, November 11th. Both were blown out far into the Irish Sea by a storm. One was lost, but the second made land on the coast of Wales. The crew were given food and shelter by a farmer, but could not communicate with him as he only spoke Welsh. The men eventually made their way to Ballycotton, County Cork and walked back to Wexford to be greeted by relatives who thought they had been lost forever. The story of the tragedy became the subject of a ballad which is still sung locally.

Sources:
The Schools Collection, Vol. 0886, pp.24-5 

Available Online at: 
www.duchas.ie
Accessed November 21st 2019
Gaul, L. “Songs, Ships and High Seas” in The Past, No. 31, 2011-’12, pp.95-102

Categories
Stories

Saint Aidan in Wales

St. Mogue's (St. Aidan's) holy well in Ferns, Co. Wexford
Folklore

Saint Aidan in Wales

Aidan’s power and influence amongst the Britons of Wales appears to have been considerable. In one story, Aidan was encouraged by David and others to use his miraculous powers to cure the son of the King of the Britons, who was blind, deaf and lame. The boy was sent to Aidan, who prayed earnestly for his recovery and in due course the boy was miraculously cured. Following this miracle, we are told that Aidan’s name became known throughout the kingdom. 

Stories like these illustrate that holy men such as Aidan were relied upon by the most powerful family in the kingdom. The ecclesiastics who wrote these stories, who would have been the successors of Aidan, undoubtedly wanted to impress this point on their own rulers.

St. Mogue's (St. Aidan's) holy well in Ferns, Co. Wexford

Another story from Aidan’s period in Wales shows how events of the eleventh and twelfth centuries had an impact upon how Aidan’s story was communicated. It tells how the native Britons of Wales were confronted by the prospect of an invasion by a large Saxon army. Aidan was sent by David to the battlefield and prayed for the Britons, who were outnumbered by their Saxon foes. Following Aidan’s intercession, the Saxons turned and fled and were pursued and slaughtered by the Britons over the following seven days. 

“Not one man of the Britons fell by the hands of the Saxons all that time through the favour of God and the miracles of Maedoc. And no Saxon invaded Britain while Maedoc was there after the manifestation of these miracles”. It is possible that this story was composed at a time when Wales was under threat of invasion by the Normans and can be interpreted as an attempt by the Welsh to warn off potential invaders.

Other Stories

Many other stories are told of Aidan’s time in Wales. He healed a man who had a facial deformity, “whose face was all as flat as a board, without eyes or nose”. Once when carrying ale back to the monastery, the container was damaged and the ale was spilt. But Aidan made the sign of the cross, repaired the damage and carried the ale back to his fellow monks.

Source:
“Life of Máedóc of Ferns” in C. Plummer (ed). Bethada Náem nÉrenn: Lives of the Irish Saints, Edited from the Original MSS. with Introduction, Translations, Notes, Glossary and Indexes, Vol. 2, The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1922.