It was great to see so many friends at the launch of The People’s Archive – Fr Des Wilson in Conway Education Centre.
As well as an amazing exhibition of posters, photographs, and artifacts we were treated to a presentation by Springhills archivist Tiarnan O’Muilleoir who gave an outline of the archive project and examples of the archive material.
The archive project will catalogue Fr Des’ collection of correspondence, books, orals histories, videos, sound recordings and photographs. These will then be digitised and made accessible for historians and researchers as well as the general public.
In the long term, we will establish the Fr Des Wilson interpretive centre which will house the collection permanently and tell the story of The People’s Priest.
Tiarnan said “Collectively, this material tells a story. They are invaluable historical documents that give an insight into a community which was often rendered voiceless by the powers-that-be”
This project is funded by the Lottery Heritage fund.
