Europeana Sport – Ireland’s Stories

Europeana Sport – Ireland’s Stories demonstrates the richness and diversity of sporting history in Ireland by collecting stories and memorabilia from fans, players, enthusiasts, past sporting heroes and heroines.

Throughout 2020, eight coordinating partners from across Ireland – Digital Repository of Ireland, EPIC the Irish Emigration Museum, European Expo2020, Hunt Museum, University of Limerick Conference & Sports Campus, Fethard Horse Country Experience (FHCE) and Black and Irish in partnership with Europeana, are asking people to dig out their sporting memorabilia and contribute to a European project on the culture and history of sport. People can share their material online or work with a volunteer using Facetime, WhatsApp, Hangouts, Skype or by telephone to record their stories and send in their photos of past medals, triumphs, programmes, hurley sticks, rugby boots, trophies, diaries, and all sorts of sporting memorabilia.

The coordinating partners are undertaking a range of campaigns focused on different sports, which they will launch under the common banner of Europeana Sport – Ireland’s Stories. Campaigns are planned for sports such as camogie, Gaelic football, horse-racing, fishing, martial arts, tag rugby and rowing. The stories will be published on the Europeana platform.

We are looking for more partners to increase the speed, breadth of sports represented, and number of contributions to the project. If you represent a gallery, library, archive, museum or relevant institution, or you are part of a sporting organisation interested in joining in, please fill out this form to express your interest. Benefits of participating include engaging with your local communities, enhancing your own archives and helping improve the mental health of all involved.

In addition to capturing Ireland’s sporting history, we hope that there will be a community benefit in relieving the current social isolation through virtual contact and in occupying a little bit of spare time in diging out that old sporting memorabilia!

If you have a story to contribute you can reach out to your sports organisation to see if they are participating, or contribute directly via the Europeana website.

You can download full instructions on how to join the campaign here: Europeana_Sport_Irelands_Stories

Get Involved

We’ve created an information leaflet to help you to join in, you can download it here.

I have an Irish Sport Story, how do I contribute?

• Read the section on Photography Tips for Submitting Your Object then submit it and your story on https://contribute.europeana.eu/sport

Or

• Contact your NGB, Sports Organisation or participating Cultural Heritage Institute to see if they have volunteers who can help you capture your story

I represent an NGB / Sports Organisation / Cultural Heritage Institute, how do I contribute?

We are looking for volunteers from organisations around the country with a link to sports to reach out to people to help them digitise their sports memorabilia and capture their stories. Our information leaflet provides helpful hints and tips on how to go about this. This is the perfect chance to connect with our cocooning older community members and help them submit their sports stories!

If you want to get involved, contact us using this form https://tinyurl.com/IrelandSportingStories