It used to be the way! The social life of the Church of Ireland youth was conducted around ‘The Social’. Friday night dances, overseen by the parents of the parish, to which people would travel probably 40 miles. There are very few photographs or posters from these ‘coming of age’ occasions. Through this project, a visual record of those times will be developed to capture the atmosphere and the norms. Award winning artist, Hazel Greene will work with the south Offaly parishes, meeting each group to explore the subject and to collect materials and memories. The ‘youth’ who are the subject of this project are now 60+ and happy to reminisce. 

Hazel sees the end result as a collation of images, many will be created in response to the stories collected from the groups with the final collation presented in slideshow format at a gathering of the people involved in the project and stakeholders. The finished show will then be available for viewing on Birr Theatre website channel for future reference. 

Hazel was previously involved in collating and typesetting the book ‘200 Years : St. Mary’s Church of Ireland Shinrone’ published 2020 and the 2016 exhibition ‘A Woman of Strength’ recording the life of Kathleen Kingston.

Please note that the details of events listed above are provided by the relevant Local Authorities.