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Home News Heritage Week, 17 – 25 August 2024: Connections, Routes and Networks

Heritage Week, 17 – 25 August 2024: Connections, Routes and Networks

National Heritage Week celebrates Ireland’s cultural, built and natural heritage. The 2024 theme invites you to explore the ways we are connected to each other through physical or cultural connections.

National Heritage Week, an initiative by the Heritage Council, celebrates all things heritage. It brings together communities, families, organisations, cultural institutions, academics and enthusiasts, to build awareness about the value of heritage and support its conservation.

National Heritage Week has grown since becoming part of the Heritage Council. Starting off small with a limited number of events, it has grown to be an island-wide event celebrating all aspects of our built, natural and cultural heritage. The nine day long event now includes Wild Child Day and Water Heritage Day as part of its event.

There are events on all over the country for Heritage Week 2024. You can find details of these events on the Heritage Week website: www.heritageweek.ie/event-listings

Water Heritage Day – Sunday 25 August

Water Heritage Day is held in partnership with the Local Authority Waters Programme. As an island nation, our history and our heritage have been shaped by the sea and the great Irish rivers, lakes and wetlands. Water Heritage Day celebrates water throughout Ireland, its history and heritage and our connections with it.

Water Heritage Day is an opportunity for all of us to celebrate water as an integral part of our natural heritage as well as a vital part of our future. It also gives us the opportunity to reflect on the importance of water and water quality to our daily lives and consider what more we can do to conserve this valuable resource.

If you’re interested in a heritage project that focuses on a lake, river, seashore or other waterway, you may want to check-in with your Community Water Officer – see www.lawaters.ie/team/communities-team/#filter=*

About author

EPA Catchments Unit

Administrator

The EPA Catchments Unit is based in Dublin, and the team is involved with catchment science, chemistry, ecology, hydromorphology, modelling, Geographic Information Systems and planning. We work with the wider EPA, all of our local authorities, the Local Authority Waters and Communities Office, the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, and other public bodies and Departments to ensure we have the best available data and information about our catchments.

Who is involved?
Quite simply, everyone in Ireland has a role to play. This can be from something as simple as making sure you don’t pollute your local stream, or a local community working together to establish a Rivers Trust to enhance the rivers and lakes in their area, to a Government Department or Agency helping a Minister implement a new policy to help protect and enhance all our water bodies.

This website has been developed and is maintained by the Environmental Protection Agency, and is a collaboration between the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Local Authority Waters Programme.

Local Authority Waters Programme

The Local Authority Waters Programme coordinates the efforts of local authorities and other public bodies in the implementation of the River Basin Management Plan, and supports local community and stakeholder involvement in managing our natural waters, for everyone’s benefit.

Environmental Protection Agency

The EPA is responsible for coordinating the monitoring, assessment and reporting on the status of our 4,842 water bodies, looking at trends and changes, determining which waterbodies are at risk and what could be causing this, and drafting environmental objectives for each.

Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage

The Department is responsible for making sure that the right policies, regulations and resources are in place to implement the Water Framework Directive, and developing a River Basin Management Plan and Programme of Measures to protect and restore our waters.