Your Tenement Memories event, Ballyfermot. Credit: : Dan Butler
planning to provide sufficient explanation about the project, to make it as easy as possible for people to contribute through accessible language and to use appropriate question formats. Open-
through conversations and by handing out flyers.
ended questions invited the sharing of reflections
The non-corporate nature of these invitations,
on the connections between lives in the past
where staff were physically going out to people in
and in the present, so enabling participants to
their own places and spaces, underlined the team
contextualise memories while also ensuring that
members’ personal commitment to the values of
they were in control of the process.
the project and in doing so helped to fulfil its aims. People attending the events were invited to share
The new phase of Your Tenement Memories, which
their memories over a cup of tea, both in groups
began in June 2019 and which, based on the
and in one-to-one conversations with social
connections that are continuously being made, will
historians and experienced citizen engagement
proceed indefinitely, has two components. The
professionals. In this way, the conversations were
first is to return to suburban locations to meet and
both comfortable and private where privacy was
connect with former tenement residents who were
required.
missed during Phase One. The second is to meet again with participants who have self-identified
Detailed preparation and planning, which was
as willing to tell their stories in more detail. Over
essential to the success of the events, included
time, these stories will be developed as exhibitions
desk research on best oral history practice,
and through guided tours at 14 Henrietta Street.
together with consulting oral historians and other experts. Attention was paid to ensuring
Audience-Centred Thinking is at the heart of
that all paperwork was ethically sound and GDPR
everything that the Company does at 14 Henrietta
compliant and that the informed consent of
Street, and is being delivered through several
interviewees was secured and formally recorded.
activities in addition to the Your Tenement
Interview design, which was founded on the
Memories programme. These include, for example,
principles of respect and empowerment, included
reminiscence sessions with groups who cannot
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