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Galway County Heritage Office
Awareness, Management, Protection
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You are here: Home>Topics>Féile na gCloch>Office of Public Works

Office of Public Works

Inspired by the Heritage Week 2020 theme ‘Heritage and Education: Learning from our Heritage’ this exhibition showcases the remarkable skills developed by our apprentices and how they bring that learning to life.

The mission of the OPW Heritage Service is to conserve and protect the built Heritage in the care of the State and to manage the natural and man-made collections, buildings, landscapes and artefacts entrusted to our care.  Through interpretation, education and engagement with visitors and the wider public, we aim to inspire a strong ethos of respect for our heritage and a desire for its protection.

The bulk of the conservation and restoration work undertaken at National Monuments in State care is carried out by the OPW’s direct labour force, operating from six regional depots at Athenry, Dromahair, Killarney, Kilkenny, Mallow and Trim.  The Works Manager in each of these locations is in charge of a highly-skilled team of craft, trade and general operatives.  These dedicated men and women are the front line in terms of preserving and protecting our National Monuments.  They are passionate about their work and the extraordinary places they care for. They are the people who get the chance to make their mark on our country’s most iconic and significant monuments.

While always open to new techniques, best conservation practice dictates that, for authenticity, the skills used to preserve a structure should reflect those used at the particular period in history when the structure was first erected. The OPW recognises the importance of handing on traditional skills and experience and our Apprenticeship Scheme for stonemasons, stonecutters and carpenters offers the opportunity to develop a unique set of skills to ensure that the expertise necessary to maintain our National Monuments into the future is retained and developed.

The National Monuments Apprenticeship Programme has been developed by SOLAS, the Further Education and Training Authority in Ireland who has statutory responsibility for its management. The programme follows a modular pattern, taking four years to complete. It is divided into two elements, on-the-job training where the Apprentices get an opportunity to work on-site perfecting their skills while off-the-job training, delivered by Institutes of Technology and Education and Training Boards Ireland, concentrates more on theory.

Apprentices are trained in a wide range of work activities.  Our stonemasons and stonecutters are trained in such areas as the finishing, engraving and restoration of stone.  Carpenters receive similar training in the setting out, production and assembly of joinery and receive specific training on the traditional aspects of conservation carpentry.

The National Monuments Apprentices learn the basics of their craft in a college-based environment which they then bring with them to their on-the-job training.

Meet some of our current and recently qualified apprentices and their mentors over the course of Heritage Week.

  • Lorg an Síséal – The Mark of the Chisel

    Lorg an Síséal – The Mark of the Chisel

    Showcasing the work and learning of Office of Public Works Apprentices
Féile na gCloch
  • Féile na gCloch Poster
  • Dry stone wall sketching event
  • Sketching Event
  • Miniature dry stone walling event
  • Miniature Walls Competition
  • Féile na gCloch:
  • A Conversation with Pat McAfee
  • The Old Well Wall
  • The Story of a Wall by Eddie Farrelly
  • Alexandra Morosco
  • Féile na gCloch Virtual 2020 - Mark Making and Drawing
  • Stein und Wein 2020
  • Fernhill Greenway Restoration.
  • How to build a mini arch by Nell (age 10)
  • Incant'iere on Lake Como, Italy:
  • Interview with Tracy Mahaffey,
  • Tracy Mahaffey’s Stone Carving Shop,
  • Karin Sprague Stone Carvers,
  • The John Stevens Shop,
  • Nick Aitken Drystone Walling
  • Féile na gCloch - Swiss Stone Wall
  • Connecting to the Stone Tribe
  • Stories from the Landscape - The Stone Hut
  • Mulranny Stone Wall Festival
  • Mourne Granite through the generations 0
  • The Stone and Wind masons of Jeju Island, Korea
  • OPW Athenry Apprentice
  • Guédelon, France
  • Invincible Spirit by Simon Carman
  • Ballyknockan Granite, Wicklow - A New Generation
  • Women Working with Stone Worldwide
  • Tír Chonaill Stone Festival:
  • Kilmeague Historic Footpath
  • DSWAI Mentoring
  • It's So Easy by MacDara
  • Stases
  • Walling Styles on the Royal Breffni County Bounds by Eddie Farrelly
  • Traditions in Stone - Tommy Lysaght
  • Stone Walls of the Burren with Rory O'Shaughnessy
  • SET IN STONE Bearlog
  • ‘An Chloch’, A Fisherman’s Memorial
  • School Film
  • Following the old stone road: Éire
  • A Scáth a Chéile
  • Stories of the Irish stonemason
  • Féile na gCloch: Captured on the Lens by Eddie Farrelly
  • Féile na gCloch Carvers Corner
  • Féile na gCloch (from an American standpoint) with you
  • Office of Public Works
  • DSWAI (Dry Stone Wall Association of Ireland)
  • Inisheer Zibaldone Project
  • Photo Gallery
Keywords

These are the most-used keywords on the site.

  • town (1)
  • Aughrim (5)
  • Ahascragh (4)
  • Annaghdown (6)
  • Athenry (37)
  • Abbeyknockmoy (5)
  • Ballinasloe (12)
  • Clontuskert (5)
  • GORT (2)
  • INNISBOFFIN (1)

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This website is a member of the Irish Community Archive Network and is a joint initiative of Galway County Council Heritage Office and the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life
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Galway County Council (opens in new window) Irish Community Archive Network (opens in new window) National Museum of Ireland - Country Life (opens in new window) Galway County Heritage Forum (opens in new window) The Heritage Council (opens in new window)