AN INITIATIVE that focuses on empowering communities to ensure the survival of a vital part of their heritage and culture has started for a second year.
The Fingal Fieldnames Project, which began in 2018, aims to help participants record, log and understand fieldnames in their area.
Every field across the country has had a name at one time or other. This name may have described the topography of the land, the owners, buildings that may have once stood in or close to the field, the purpose of the field, size of the field or some event that took place in the field in a bygone time. This provides a valuable link to the past and is also part of the living cultural heritage of the very varied and diverse Fingal landscape.
Fingal County has seen rapid change and development in recent decades, and in many locations houses, factories and roads have replaced farmland.
Fingal’s Community Archaeologist, Christine Baker, said the project is creating a framework where the field names can be recorded, understood, logged and saved for future generations.
“It is an organic project which involves community, heritage groups and historical society members working with memory in their localities to save a rapidly diminishing element of our cultural heritage,” explained Ms Baker.
If you would like to get involved in the project, email christine.baker@fingal.ie