Funding is secured for military heritage festival on Bere Island

BY HELEN RIDDELL 

BERE Island Projects Group and the Cork Ogham Project will benefit from €93,309 of funding announced under Cork county heritage and commemorations grant schemes. 

Bere Island Projects Group will hold a military heritage festival on the island later this year which will conclude their programme of events for the decade of centenaries and celebrate the island’s military heritage and its role during the War of Independence. 

The group plans for this festival to become a yearly event, celebrating all aspects of Bere Island’s military heritage, from the construction of Martello Towers in the late 1700s to the presence of the British Admiralty and US Navy during WW1 and the War of Independence.  

Nora White and Gary Dempsey of the Cork Ogham Project have been documenting and digitising ogham stones throughout Cork County. 

The funding will allow them to target the six ogham stones on the Beara peninsula. 

This project aims to achieve greater access to, awareness of, and engagement with, the ogham stones in the county through digitisation.

The grant schemes have been in operation for a number of years and have resulted in numerous projects focusing on a variety of natural, built and cultural, heritage, as well as initiatives that serve as a commemoration of the county’s historic role in the War of Independence and the Irish Civil War.  

Supported by the Heritage Council, this year’s heritage grant scheme will support 29 groups with a combined sum of €37,250 granted. 

The commemorations grant scheme, which is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport, and Media, will see an overall allocation of €56,059 awarded to thirteen groups throughout the county.

Congratulating the recipients, county mayor Cllr Danny Collins said the applications submitted were of a very high standard and covered a wide range of commemorative undertakings ranging from monuments and plays to video productions, publications, and festivals. 

Cork County Council chief executive Tim Lucey noted the role that community groups and heritage associations play in enhancing the county’s heritage.