Commemorative Programme

Louth County Council Commemorative Programme 2025

The Ministerof Culture, Communications and Sport Patrick O'Donovan T.D. has approved funding allocation for every Local Authority in 2025 to commemorative initiatives to mark the centenaries of locally significant historical events in 1925, and other notable anniversaries of key events in the early years of the State, as well as other significant anniversaries and associated themes.

Louth County Council has been awarded €16,000 by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport to deliver its 2025 Commemorative Programme. 

Conservation of Local Archives

The purpose of this project is to support local research, scholarship and free public access to local archival sources. Louth County Archives will assess several local archive collections held in Louth County Archives containing items that currently cannot be accessed due to their poor condition. Those items relating to the period in poor condition will receive treatment by an external professional conservator.

Arts Office Mise Éire – Irelands Voice     

This project will develop a film poem that will encapsulate the origination of the Irish language college in Ireland which started with the establishment of Coláiste Bhríde in Omeath, Co Louth. Established in Sept 1912 with Sir Henry Bellingham as honorary president the Omeath Gaeltacht was one of the last Irish speaking enclaves on the east of the country.  Among the teaching staff was Peadar O’Dubhda, for many decades a local driving force behind Gaelic revivalism and Eoin MacNéill, who in 1913 became one of the founders of the Irish Volunteer Force. Other prominent visitors to the Omeath Gaeltacht were Douglas Hyde, Patrick Pearse and Alice Stopford-Green. The yearly influx of students failed to halt the decline of the Irish language in Omeath, and by 1926 the college, retaining its name, moved to Rannafast, Co Donegal, where it still thrives, and is still popular with students and teachers from Co Louth.  It is recorded that the last native Irish speaker in Co Louth was Anna Uí Annluain (Anna O’Hanlon) from Omeath who died in 1969 aged 96.

This film poem will feature Patrick Pearse's own poem ‘Mise Éire’ and will be spoken as gaeilge. The imagery will show scenes of Louth and the key sites from the Omeath Gaeltacht and local landscape. The poem will be narrated by local Irish speakers who are from Louth or who now work in Louth teaching Irish through schools and other programmes, showcasing that the language still beats through the county.

Maintenance and Cleaning of the Peace Park, Dundalk – A Commemorative Garden 

The Peace Park serves as a significant space for reflection and community gathering, honouring those affected by conflict and promoting a message of reconciliation. This project will help ensure the park remains a source of pride for the local community and a symbol of our collective commitment to peace, remembrance, and unity.