UCC-led project celebrates ports in Ireland and Wales with stories, an app and more 

SCULPTURE, books, and an app are just some of the legacies being left by a UCC-led project celebrating ports of the Irish Sea.

Over the past five years, a collaborative team from Ireland and Wales have researched and explored, Dublin Port, Fishguard, Holyhead, Pembroke Dock and Rosslare Harbour as part of the project entitled, Ports, Past and Present.

Working with the local community in each port, they have written 250 compelling stories, created five films and developed an innovative app to help people discover these fascinating port places.

The team also commissioned 12 artists to devise creative responses to the ports, works of imagination that have taken the form of books, photographs, poems, paintings, plays and sculpture.

The project is a cross-border initiative between higher education institutions in Ireland and Wales, including UCC, Aberystwyth University, the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies/ University of Wales Trinity St David, alongside Wexford County Council.

It was funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Ireland Wales Co-operation Programme.

The rich treasure trove of resources created over the course of the project’s lifetime is available to tourists planning journeys to, or through, the ports and to tourism businesses who want to promote their areas as great places to spend time.

An Irish Sea tourism business network has been set up as part of the project to support collaboration and discover synergies at either side of the ferry crossing.

The project comes to an end in July and it is planned that the many resources and relationships created during the last five years will live on and support tourism development in the five ports for many years to come.

“The Ports, Past and Present Project has engaged with and learned from community stakeholders, heritage enthusiasts and tourism businesses across the Irish Sea,” Claire Connolly, professor of English at UCC, and project lead, said.

“We have made films, told stories and developed online resources including a Port Places app. Our legacy is bound up with the Irish Sea itself: an enduring presence that continues to shape our cultural, political and environmental histories.”

Mary-Ann Constantine, professor at the Centre for Advanced Celtic Studies (University of Wales St David), said Welsh-Irish connections “run deep” and that the project “testifies to the lasting power of cultural exchange across the space of the Irish Sea”.

“At a time of political and national repositioning, it has been a pleasure to work with Irish colleagues to affirm those deep connections,” she continued.

• View content at portspastpresent.eu.