Minister for the Diaspora and International Development Ciaran Cannon has called for the development of an initiative in Galway similar to the Dublin`s Talking Statues project which would enable tourists to receive a phone call from the characters depicted in the statues in the city and county.
Minister Cannon has said that such a project would have the potential to bring local heritage to greater life for visitors and enhance their enjoyment of local history.
I am delighted to see that as part of the Dublin`s Talking Statues project, visitors to our capital city can now get a call back from the likes of Molly Malone, James Joyce and Oscar Wilde’.
‘Each Talking Statue has a blue plaque with a QR code. Having scanned the code you then receive a “call” from the statue with a little piece of theatre being voiced by an actor. It’s a fascinating insight into the life and times of each subject.’
‘This is an initiative of Fáilte Ireland, supported by Dublin City Council and in conjunction with Arts Producers Sing London, with the assistance of The Abbey Theatre, the OPW, The National Gallery, the GPO & Trinity College’.
‘It is an ingeniously simple idea and I think that it can be done as easily in Galway as in Dublin’.
‘While there are obvious choices in, for instance, the statue of Padraic Ó Conaire in Eyre Square, I would like to see the idea migrate further inland throughout the entire region of Galway’.
‘Here we have the likes of Stoney Brennan and Patsy Touhey in Loughrea, and other memorial stones and plaques in other towns and villages of the region’.
Minister Cannon added that it would be wonderful if visitors could access a similar facility and have these personalities whose names are so bound up with the character of their districts engage with them through this format’.
‘To that end, I would encourage local heritage groups to further explore how to make this concept become a reality, bring local heritage to greater life for visitors and add a whole new dimension to the enjoyment of local history,” he said.
