Deaf Heritage Project at Deaf Assocation of Northern Ireland

Friday 30th January 2009

Deaf Heritage Group Reunion at Sentry Hill House

After 2 years of hard work, research, filming and much more, we  are now proud to have finished the DVD ‘Signs of Our Times.’ Really it would have been impossible to complete this without the Deaf Community. Their commitment has been wonderful and we are so pleased they were involved and shared their life stories about school, sport, what life was like, romance, work and much more.

Unfortunately the funding for the project is coming to an end this March so the project will end. Hopefully we can have more projects like this in the future. So, as a thank you to all the Deaf people who gave up their time and energy to be involved, we had a reunion at Sentry Hill House and enjoyed refreshments, a short presentation about the project and many stories and memories were shared once more. We had a good turnout and we realised what an impact and how important school days have been to the Deaf Community, as most people have known each other for many years through school and have many memories from their school days. We were surprised to see our old head mistress Deirdre Byrne from Jordanstown School now working in Sentry Hill! It seems there are links to the Deaf Community everywhere! Deaf people attended the Old Lisburn Rd School, Jordanstown School, St Joseph’s and St Mary’s in Dublin and Claremont School in Dublin.

Many people are disappointed to hear that the project is ending but recently Evelyn and I met Liam Ryan from Dublin who runs a Deaf Heritage Centre based in St Joseph’s School Cabra in Dublin. Liam has worked voluntarily for 24 years collecting information and the Catholic Association for the Deaf (CAD) offered him some space in the boarding house at St Joseph’s.  Already he has 3 rooms filled with books, DVDs, photos, art work and lots more about by Deaf people and related from Deaf people themselves. The BDA are also going to organise a trip to see the Deaf Centre in Dublin soon. It will be a fantastic opportunity to see some of their work. The Deaf Community in Dublin have set up a Heritage Group and I feel this would be great if we could have the same here. Liam said he would be very keen to work with us in the future as a North and South partnership and it might be possible to apply for some funding to acquire some of the much needed resources that we require to help our research.

If you would like any information about Deaf Heritage please feel free to contact Liam Ryan. Also if you are interested in the history of St Joseph’s School, there are books being sold celebrating 150years of St Joseph’s. You can contact Liam for these also. I bought one last week and the information is brilliant and the design of the book is lovely.

Liam Breen, Deaf Heritage Centre
St.Joseph’s School for the Deaf Boys
Navan Road, Cabra,
Dublin 7
Email:    deafheritagecentre@eircom.net
Just to inform you, I just have left my  post as the Heritage Project Officer so if you have any questions or if you want to make contact about anything please email Evelyn McFarland who will be working until the end of March.

Many thanks to everyone for your support and help over the last 2 years. Thanks to the Deaf Community, all staff members here at DANI and of course to Evelyn for all her support. I will remain involved in Deaf Heritage on a voluntary basis and look forward to seeing the Deaf Heritage Group being set up.

Also if you have not seen the DVD ‘Signs of Our Times’ or if you would like a copy please contact the DANI Office on – 02890 437486
Or email:
evelynm@bda.co.uk
lynnee@bda.co.uk

Paula Clarke
Former DANI (Deaf Heritage Project Officer)