Derry’s Walls receives funding boost
A PROJECT to bring the history of Derry’s Walls to life using augmented reality is to share in the latest round of Lottery funding worth £500,000.
Walls Alive 400 will allow visitors to experience the rich heritage of the city through images, audio and video on their smartphones and tablets.
Derry City and Strabane District Council is to receive £50,000 as part of a financial injection to celebrate and promote Northern Ireland’s diverse cultural heritage.
Nine projects are receiving funds as the result of a partnership between the Heritage Lottery Fund, Tourism NI and the Department for Communities’ Historic Environment Division to mark the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018.
The Irish Landmark Trust will receive £56,000 to share the maritime and industrial heritage associated with lighthouses at Blackhead, Rathlin Westlight, St John’s Point and the Great Light at Titanic Quarter.
Other projects receiving funding are:
• Linenopolis – the Linen Hall Library and PRONI.
• Sea Gods, Shipwrecks and Sidhe Folk, Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council.
• Shaped by Industry, Shared with Pride – Mid and East Antrim Borough Council.
• One For The Heart Pilot – Lagan Navigation Trust.
• Journeying Beyond Westeros: Warlords and Gallowglass – Adventures in Medieval Ulster – Queen’s University Belfast & Strangford and Lecale Partnership.
• Museum Lates – Northern Ireland Museums Council.
• Relating Histories – Fermanagh and Omagh District Council.
Paul Mullan of the Heritage Lottery Fund said: “The European Year of Cultural Heritage is more than an opportunity to showcase our cultural heritage; it presents a challenge to the sector to creatively explore ways to fully realise the potential of our cultural heritage as a lever to attract additional investment, boost tourism and aid regeneration.
“These projects show how we can make more of our individual sites, things, places and stories to create more joined up narratives and experiences for visitors from Northern Ireland and further afield.”
Rosemarie McHugh, director of product development at Tourism NI, said: “Many of these projects are piloting ideas that will provide new insights and have implications for the cultural heritage sector far beyond the European Year of Cultural Heritage itself.
“We see this as the beginning of a longer term journey to maximise our tourism offering by promoting a cross-sector, partnership approach.”
Director of the Historic Environment Division Iain Greenway added: “This work is one part of a wider engagement across the heritage sector to demonstrate that the historic environment has an important contribution to make to very many aspects of our society and community.
“Such projects help to show what is possible and we hope that they will prove to be inspirational.”
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