€3m grant for heritage and culture lovers

NATURE and culture lovers are being given the chance to invest €3 million in their favourite heritage projects — whether it involves the restoration of a local monument or the protection of bumblebees in Wicklow.

Communities and families alike are being encouraged to apply for the annual Heritage Council’s grants, €500,000 of which has been specially set aside for bio-diversity schemes.

This year’s recipients of wildlife heritage grants included projects to protect the mountain bumblebee in Wicklow, a survey of barn owls in Offaly as well the monitoring of Munster moths in Limerick. Other projects included studies of Donegal butterflies as well as research on spiders in Dublin.

The council want to fund a diverse range of projects including ones aimed at protecting animal life, archeology or the restoration of buildings. Chief executive of the Heritage Council Michael Starrett said it was up to people to make their choice.

“Heritage belongs to people and we are all custodians of our rich natural and cultural heritage. The aim of the grant programme is to encourage and enable people throughout Ireland to enjoy, record, conserve, restore and celebrate the distinctive qualities of their local heritage, their community and their environment,” he said.

He hoped the latest round of grants would build on the range of projects that have been carried out on a voluntary basis by many communities over the past number of years.

Hundreds of projects have been handed funds from the Heritage Council in recent years. Previous projects include restoring wildlife corridors and creating wildlife gardens; the conservation of historic buildings, railways and monuments; education and awareness raising projects; restoration of wetland and bogland; conserving Ireland’s oldest orchards and inner city projects .

Project-type applications for the 2007 grants are particularly welcome to engage young people and raise their awareness of heritage, the council said.

www.heritagecouncil.ie