Kenmare Chronicle

A KENMARE CHRONICLE

STORIES BEHIND THE PICTURES

Over the past years the Kenmare News has by reporting the monthly happenings in and around Kenmare and has in a way started a modern record of the area but it has been a long time since a publication has been brought out to record the history of Kenmare and the Kenmare News is considering publishing a ‘Kenmare Chronicle’ to go back further in times past using old photographs to record the stories behind the pictures. This yearly publication will reflect the changing faces of the town and the surrounding areas with new and old pictures and their associated stories. It will also act as a reference to the social history, the stories of every day happenings of the people . In order to make this project feasible we will require help and assistance from everyone in the community. Often photographs can lay hidden in the bottoms of draws or in old shoeboxes for years or generations with the pictures fading and the stories behind them become forgotten. What we are envisaging is the recording of these moments in time for future generations to be able to ponder.

You may have some interesting photographs of your family, friends and neighbours, the town, sporting events and special occasions with a story that you would like to share with us in this publication. Be it a few lines or a full story, we would like to know. If you have, please get in contact with us through the Kenmare News or call into Willowfield Garden Centre.

All photographs will be scanned for future reference and returned promptly to their owners. The scanned copies will then be stored with their stories on computer to form an archive on Kenmare with selections being used in each publication of the Chronicle. The data base archive will be made available for anyone wishing to carry out research on the social history of the area. A facebook page will also show pictures for visitors to comment on and identify with.

A picture may paint a thousand words but as the picture fades the characters lose their identities and the words may just become murmurs. This combination of a printed Chronicle and an archive will preserve these happenings in time for prosperity. So, please, have a hunt through your old photo albums, old boxes and draws for pictures that can still tell a story and get in touch with us. This recording of Kenmare past and present will always be of interest to future generations from the area and also to Kenmare families now living abroad. By taking steps now , we can preserve these moments in time so neither the picture or story will fade.

We are hoping to obtain the photographs and stories from individuals within the community as well as through the schools and various social groups in the area. This coupled with extracts from the monthly publications of the Kenmare News from the year itself will produce a collectable annual record of the happenings in Kenmare.

The publication will also help contribute to the support of Arts and Sports in the Kenmare Schools. This way the past will also help to support the future.