MY ADOPTED SOLDIER TRIP 2017 - Applications now closed
On Saturday February 4th the 15 students chosen for the June 2017 Messines trip met for the first time. The new students are from all parts of the island of Ireland and these are their names:
Shania Brown and Ruariri Browne from Northern Ireland
Jessica Hanratty, Luke O Gorman and Joshua Perraton from Ulster
Rosie Burke, Maria Henehan and Ciara Hamilton from Connaught
Aoife Flynn, Zoe Mangan and Mary Tiernan from Munster
Conor Kelly, Sophie Shine, Shane Macken and Sarah Mc Grath from Leinster
The venue was the beautiful Palatine Room in the National Museum Collin's Barracks. Many thanks to the curator of the museum Lar Joye for making the room available for us. All the key organisers of the trip were present to meet the students and these were Angela Hanratty, Mary Mc Loughlin, David Dunlop, Michael Naughton and David Grant from the Irish College in Leuven, Belgium. We explained to both the students and parents what was expected from them over the next few months. All the students were given the name of a soldier to research and once more we are hoping that the forgotten stories of the lives of WWI Irish soldiers will be brought to life. What is wonderful about the project is the fact that it is young people who are bringing these stories back to the public. But its also important that the stories are shared and this is why our website is so important. These stories are now a permanent record and will never be forgotten in the future. As Director of the project I am so excited to be working with another group of enthusiastic young historians not only in Ireland but also in Germany.
