Limerick TD calls for us to 'care and protect our heritage sites'

PROTECTING the country’s heritage sites is at the heart of a new campaign which is reminding people to take extra care as they visit and explore this summer.

The campaign also hopes to counter recent incidents of graffiti and anti-social behaviours at several sites.

Minister of State Patrick O’Donovan, who has responsibility for the Office of Public Works, launched the campaign along with colleague, Malcolm Noonan TD who is Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform.

“Our heritage defines our sense of identity,” Minister O’Donovan said. “It tells us about who we are and where we came from and is a critical resource for education and learning. It includes evidence of the environment in which those societies lived – from the everyday to the very special. Heritage also plays a vital role in contributing to our tourism sector, especially in rural areas, so we need to come together to ensure we protect it.”

There are over 145,000 recorded archaeological monuments around the country in private and public ownership and these include megalithic tombs, stone circles, standing stones, rock art, ecclesiastical enclosures, churches, graveyards, ringforts, souterrains, crannógs and castles.

Minister O’Donovan said the two departments were encouraging people to visit the sites but, when doing so, to be especially mindful of how fragile, vulnerable and irreplaceable they are.

Some of the protected monuments date back over 10,000 years.

“This campaign aims to increase understanding and appreciation of these monuments so we can all play our part in protecting them for the next generation,” Minister O’Donovan said.