RIP Laura Buckley Noonan
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07 Sept 2025
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07 Sept 2025
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Celebrating the first graduates of the All-Ireland Heritage Skills Programme, a cross border partnership between the Heritage Council, the King's Foundation and the Historic Environment Division in NI
The first six graduates of a course dedicated to the preservation of heritage building skills at risk of being lost were celebrated at an event at Rothe House in Kilkenny on Monday.
The All-Ireland Heritage Skills Programme, now in its second year, is a joint partnership between the Heritage Council, the King’s Foundation and the Historic Environment Division of Northern Ireland’s Department for Communities.
The first intake of craftspeople graduated in 2023 and included three blacksmiths, two joiners and a decorative finisher. Over the course of the year-long programme which takes place in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland, the students are introduced to a broad range of crafts and heritage skills complementary to their own. Placement opportunities alongside
heritage construction professionals make up the bulk of the programme.
The programme was initiated to address the shortage of expert heritage craftspeople, many of whom are reaching retirement age, by facilitating a transfer of knowledge and wisdom to a new generation of skilled craftspeople. The programme provides an opportunity to keep many of these traditional skills alive, and ensure they continue to play a role in conserving
our past, and importantly defining the role that they can continue to play in the 21st Century.
The event at Rothe House was attended by Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage Darragh O Brien TD, Minister of State for Nature, Heritage and Electoral Reform Malcolm Noonan TD, CEO of the Heritage Council Virginia Teehan, Chair of the Heritage Council Martina Moloney, as well as representatives from the other partners, the King’s
Foundation and the Historic Environment Division in Northern Ireland.
Kilkenny broadcaster Sue Nunn facilitated a roundtable discussion with the 2023 graduates, while Cork sean nós singer and Kilkenny resident Nell Ní Chróinín performed a song after the craft of tailoring.
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