Don’t just sit there, you’re a part of it

As the photograph on this page, taken 43 years ago, shows, heritage, especially political heritage, takes many forms and at least as many positions.

This is especially true when viewed through the filter, the increasingly fuzzy filter, of passing decades. Time changes perceptions and though it cannot change the motives or commitment of the men remembered at Derrygallon in 1970 it probably has reduced the support for the idea so strongly advanced there by Commandant General Tom Barry that “the primary objective of this country is a 32-county Ireland”.

The force of that argument, or at least the force and persistence with which it was made, often made it difficult to see beyond it and appreciate achievements outside of what was known as the national question. That cultural dominance, and a triumphalist, powerful Catholic Church, narrowed — blinkered really — public discourse in an unhelpful way.

It is not hard to understand why this might have been so but thankfully the situation has changed and Heritage Week 2013, which begins today, is a perfect opportunity to celebrate and to look anew at all of our country, its culture and its environment, its built heritage and its rediscovered past.

Something around 1,700 events have been organised to remind us of the rich and colourful lives lived on this island. Everything from — and most of these events are free — dancing at the crossroads in Cork, prehistoric hunting games in Donegal, touring what were the tenements of Dublin City in 1913, learning about the Wicklow Gold Rush of 1795 or exploring the wildlife of Clara Bog in Offaly where the project to rejuvenate Ireland’s threatened grey partridge population is based.

The events may seem to be about looking and learning but they are much, much more. They are about the kind of positive inculcation at the foundation of every decent, functioning society. They are about trying to understand why we are the way we are and why we might be different to our forefathers. They are about trying to soak up the past and feel how its pulse reverberates across the centuries — and what it might mean for tomorrow.

Most all, and especially in these challenging days, they are about remembering what can be and was achieved in this small and too often brutalised country. They are about resilience and possibility, about values and cherishing ideas, achievement and environments that may need greater appreciation so they might be better protected.

This may seem an overly heavy burden to put on a riverside walk through Cork City to see how otters have adapted and moved into the city centre but Heritage Week is all about appreciating what we have and have done and strengthening a justifiable pride in the really important things all around us.

The week is a wonderful opportunity to see the country, and more especially, its people at their best. To borrow the title from Ken Griffith’s film marking another inescapable strand in our heritage — the life of Michael Collins — it is an opportunity for us all to hang out our brightest colours. Don’t just sit there, you’re a part of it.