South Dublin County Council video wins a National Heritage Week Award

A heritage video produced by South Dublin County Council has been awarded ‘Best Project’ in the Individual County category in the Heritage Council’s award programme for Heritage Week 2020. 

The project was also a runner up in another national category, ‘Re-learning Skills from our Heritage’.

On Tuesday October 20th 2020, the Heritage Council hosted an on-line awards ceremony to celebrate the individuals, families and community groups across Ireland who work to ensure the preservation, protection, and promotion of Ireland’s built, natural and cultural heritage.  The event was presented by RTÉ broadcaster, Anne Cassin.

The theme for this year’s Heritage Week event in August was ‘Heritage and Education: Learning from our Heritage’.   This year, due to Covid-19 restrictions, communities were encouraged to ‘go digital’ for Heritage Week.  As a result, more than 850 projects were submitted to the Heritage Council’s ‘Heritage Week 2020’ website: https://www.heritageweek.ie/.  These projects comprised online talks and exhibitions, videos, podcasts, slideshow presentations, blogs, websites, social media accounts, as well as small, restricted Covid-compliant gatherings. 

Each submitted project was considered for a National Heritage Week Award.

The Council’s winning video was produced by the Council’s Heritage Officer, Rosaleen Dwyer and by Larry McEvoy, Chief Technician in the Council’s Planning Section, together with photographer and videographer Aidan O’Neill. 

The video ‘Traditional Sheep Farming and Sheep Dog Training in the Dublin Mountains‘ highlights the work of  local Glenasmole farmer, Donie Anderson.  It follows Donie at work in the hills above Tallaght with his three skilful sheepdogs Jess, Bob, and Toss. 

Donie’s family have been farming in the picturesque Glenasmole Valley for generations and he has retained many of the old traditional farming practices, preserving an old way of life so close to the edge of the city.

The video won the top award in South Dublin County for the ‘Individual County’ category, competing against 11 other county projects.   It was also listed as a runner-up in the ‘Re-learning Skills from our Heritage’, where it competed against 2 other national projects. The winning video can be viewed at https://www.heritageweek.ie/projects/traditional-sheep-farming-and-sheepdog-training