Civically Engaged Research

Digital exclusion remains a feature in the lives of a number of older people in Ireland, limiting access to public services as well as to social connection and hobbies. The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland (VRTI), which has already delivered a number of public engagements, sees the enthusiasm of older people for the VRTI tempered by a feeling of lack of digital skills.

'Mapping Memories' the winning Engaged Research project from Ciarán Wallace, is responding to this challenge in a participatory way. Rather than offering conventional digital training, the project invites older people to become co-creators of a local history resource: a richly annotated map of the neighbourhood as they remember it. Their stories, experiences and sense of place will be layered onto historical maps, creating a shared portrait of community life across decades.

The methods, materials and lessons learned will be shaped into a practical toolkit that community groups across Ireland can use to run their own memory-mapping projects. Grounded in both academic and community knowledge, the toolkit aims to build digital confidence by connecting technology with people’s lived experience—using curiosity, storytelling and collaboration as gateways into the digital world.

The project draws on the VRTI, a landmark partnership between the ADAPT Centre and Trinity’s Department of History. The VRTI digitally reconstructs the archives destroyed in 1922, giving the public free access to more than 350,000 replacement birth and death records and thousands of historical maps.

For the project, a Public History researcher will work with a group of older residents to explore maps of a particular area. Together, they will create a new digital layer of memory and this will lead to the creation of a toolkit so that similar projects can be rolled out anywhere in the country.