National Heritage Week
16th – 24th August 2025
Cashel library was a hive of activity during Heritage Week with walking tours, art workshops for adults and children, a talk on the town’s “Rock Solid Foundations”, a song writing “Playshop” and a return of our “Céilí sa Leabharlann”. Our featured image above shows a group enjoying well-earned refreshments in the library after their “Walking Tour of Historic Cashel”, led by tour guide Maggie O’Malley-Brown.
Community artist Cher Gleeson gave two engaging, hands-on art workshops exploring the Early Medieval alphabet Ogham, which was used to write the early Irish language. Participants translated their own names into the ancient Ogham script, connecting personally to Irish heritage through language and symbolism. They created an “Ancient Name Scroll”—a parchment-style artwork aged with natural techniques, featuring their name in Ogham and then shaped a personal Ogham Stone from clay.
Archaeologist and local resident Joanne Hughes, who was directly involved in the archaeological excavations carried out before the construction of the M8 Cashel, gave an insightful talk discussing the prehistoric evidence for the earliest settlement of the Cashel area. She also highlighted how the archaeological data generated over the past two decades will add to the development of the Royal Sites of Ireland World Heritage nomination bid.
Folk duo “Purple Roses” – Marie Walsh & Jane McLoughlin – led the “HeArt of Songwriting Playshop” which explored the foundations of songs and songwriting. Participants were invited to think about where songs come from, heard about what it is really like to write a song and learned how easy it is to create one themselves.
We ended the week with the “Céilí sa leabharlann” led by Michael Cooney – great fun and a fantastic workout!
Sincere thanks to everyone who took part, to our wonderful facilitators and to the Tipperary Heritage Office for their support.
Art Workshop
