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Guidelines for Schools Heritage ProjectBelow are guidelines which we hope will make the whole process more efficient.
Section 1 - Questionnaire.Here is a chance for you to do a little investigation into the past. Very often our Grandparents, older relatives or neighbours have information about their younger days which they will only be too delighted to share with you. Try to find out a little more about their past and how life was for them as children by asking them these questions. Please ask the questions in the order that they are given and simply write down and number the answers as you get them. About a page per answer will do. Home Life1. When and where were you born? 2. How many brothers and sisters did you have? 3. What did your father and mother do for a living? 4. Describe your house. 5. What sort of food did you eat? 6. What is your earliest memory?
School Life7. Where did you attend school and what age did you start at? 8. How did you get to school? 9. What did you usually wear to school? 10. What do you remember most about your schooldays and your teachers? 11. What was the schoolroom/classroom like? 12. Can you remember any songs/poems that you learned at school? 13. What was your favourite subject? What was your least favourite subject? Why? 14. Did you like or dislike school? Why? 15. Did you have a nickname when you were growing up? If so, what was it and why did you get it? 16. What sports and games did you play? 17. What age did you leave school and why?
Working Life18. Did you work at home as a child? 19. What was your first job after leaving school? 20. Can you describe your working day? 21. What wages did you receive? 22. What was your employer like? 23. What other jobs have you worked in? 24. How would you compare the working life of a worker today with your own working life? 25. How old were you when you retired?
General26. What did people do for entertainment locally when you were young? 27. What do you remember about feast days like Christmas, Halloween, St. Bridget's Day etc.? 28. How important was the radio when you were young? 29. Do you remember when electricity was first introduced? 30. Did you go to dances? 31. Was there much storytelling? 32. Are there any famous events that you can remember, either locally or at a national level? 33. Describe this area when you were growing up - Postoffice, shops, forge, cobbler, tailor etc. 34. What would you consider to be the most important inventions made during your lifetime?
Section 2 - CompositionThis section offers you the chance to explore some of the things that you have been told about in a little more detail. There are four separate categories and we would ask you to choose one topic from each category. The length of the composition does not matter - a paragraph on each will be sufficient so long as the information is about the local area. The first three sections should be done with the help of the person that you interviewed using the questionnaire. The last section is all about you and your thoughts and opinions. A. The Place I live in….1. Buried treasures 2. Local happenings 3. Local placenames 4. Fairy Forts 5. Local poets/writers/musicians 6. Holy wells 7. Local forge 8. Clothes made locally 9. Local patron saint 10. Local landlord 11. Local monuments 12. Old houses 13. Local ruins 14. Local graveyards/churches 15. Local heroes
B. A story I heard…1. An old local story 2. Old Irish tales 3. A song/poem 4. Stories of giants and warriors 5. Stories about Religion 6. Stories of leprechauns, mermaids or the Banshee 7. A collection of prayers 8. Strange animals 9. A funny story 10. Riddles 11. Famine times 12. World War 2 13. Emmigration 14. Fairs and markets
C. The land and the home1. Local cures and home remedies 2. Herbs and weeds 3. Weather stories, e.g. red sky at night, shepherds delight… 4. Severe weather 5. The potato crop and other crops, tillage etc. 6. Care of farm animals 7. Churning and household tasks 8. Food and drink 9. Hurling and football 10. Radio and television 11. Electricity 12. Cars/ transport/ tractors etc. 13. Cinema 14. Entertainment at home
D. The world today. (Write this about yourself)1. Computers and technology 2. Recent international events 3. Drugs and alcohol 4. Ireland's place in the world today 5. Films and film stars 6. Games I play, pastimes and hobbies 7. How I dress 8. The Euro 9. Food today 10. The area I live in 11. What I would like to do when I grow up 12. What I would change if I was President of Ireland for a day
Thank you for taking the time to do this very important project for us. The information that you have gathered will form a very important source of study for historians both now and in the future. Today very quickly becomes yesterday and that is how history is made. |
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