## **Trustees Report (1 April 2022 - 31 March 2023)** ## **Current / Ongoing Projects:** **1. The Rouskey Project - “Know Your Place” the town lands of Badoney Lower.** Thanks to all those MMH volunteers and others who have donated hundreds of hours of hard work to drive this project forwards, despite the challenges of Covid restrictions, and travelling requirements. **April 2022** both at home and in Rouskey Community Development Association (C.D.A), we continued interviewing, filming and ariel photography in the various town lands of Badoney Lower. Editing and transcribing of this material began in preparation for a film and book. **25, 26 & 27 May 2022** - 2 days filming at “Joe’s Cottage” in Rylands townland near Gortin. The local residents, a mixed community - attended a day of music, poetry and story-telling organised by Bridie McCullagh with help from the locals at Rylands. MMH filmed at the cottage all day on 26 May, and in the surrounding area on the other 2 days. It was a very special day - attended by 40 people. Musicians from the area played music, and the participants were delighted. They all took part and enjoyed the experience. **June 2022** transcribing and editing work continues. On the 22 June we recorded audio at a reminiscence day for women at the C.D.A. We also filmed at a women’s walking group, and interviewed the participants on film. **21 July** Filming Session No.6 at the C.D.A involving some of the older men and women in the community. **12 August** Filming Session No.7 in Gortin and Omagh **22 August** Filming Session No.8 at the Bothy - 8 local young musicians and dancers performed and were **8 September** - MMH Editorial Meeting regarding the developing film and book **9 September** - Meeting in Rouskey with CDA committee to show the first edit of the film - lots of amendments and corrections still to be done. **23 September** - Extra interview done for the film with Dr. Majella **29 September** - Additional filmed interviews (No.9) with Rouskey women at the C.D.A **10 October** - proofs for the book sent to Rouskey C.D.A for approval/correction. **17 October** MMH Chair Marie Griffin called a meeting of the MMH committee and advisory board members to view the Rouskey film final edit. **November 2022 -** work on audio editing for the Rouskey Audio book was worked on throughout the month using audacity. Film editing continued week on week. **January- March 2023 -** intensive background work on editing the Rouskey films, book and audio files continues. Various meetings with the MMH trustees took place re editorial decisions and liaison with all relevant parties. ## **2. Pádraic Fiacc, Poet.** MMH continues to support the Pádraic Fiacc archive with many hours of volunteer time donated to the archive. MMH also donated Folders, Files, Sundry stationary items. MMH Trustees work with Michael McKernon and others to plan a series of exciting events and outreach for the year 2024, the centenary of the poets birth in 1924. Several MMH volunteers will donate their time and expertise to ensure that Pádraic Fiacc’s legacy will be celebrated in a memorable year of events, visits, exhibitions and talks. The fundraising sub-committee plan to make several funding applications to resource different aspects of this ambitious project. Eg: The Arts Council, and Esme Mitchell Trust. ## **Other Activities/Future Project Plans:** **1. The Whitewell - a 20th century community on the slopes of Cave Hill.** **June 2022** - we had a meeting with Heritage Lottery NI with a view to getting a grant to carry out a project on the Whitewell a unique urban/rural community on the slopes of Cave Hill close to Bellevue zoo. The community was pattered and the houses demolished to make way for the M2 motorway. However they still have strong links and love reminiscing about this special place - although poor, the people had the Cave Hill as their playground. So their stories are well worth recording and we intend to create a film an a book to bring the older people together to reminisce and reflect on their experiences… McIlroy Court, The Belfast Hills Partnership and The Newtownabbey Community Forum at Barron Hall and Whitewell Development Association will be contacted to assist with the outreach for this project. **5 July** we met with Cathy Wolff at the Barron Hall. She is very supportive of the project and has photographs of the area, and heritage about the laundry and mills. ## **2. Belfast Stories Project** **27 October** 3 MMH volunteers attended the consultation about the “Belfast Stories” initiative at Belfast City Hall. The Bank of Ireland building on Royal Avenue is to be the venue for the project and we want to ensure that MMH offers its wealth of material filmed in Belfast and throughout the 6 counties for the exhibition and film parts of the project. ## **3. Meeting with contact from the Ireland Funds** **2 February** 2 MMH volunteers travelled to Dublin to meet a representative of the Ireland Funds. We will keep in touch and plan to apply in the future. **15 March** 2 MMH volunteers travelled to Downpatrick to attend Paddy Cullivan’s show about Wolfe Tone. They reported back to the next committee meeting about his unique blend of stagecraft, historical research and presentation. **4 April** 2 MMH volunteers attended the AE Festival at the Aonach Mhacha Centre in Armagh. They reported back to the committee about potential future work wit the AE Committee in regard to confluences between AE and Pádraic Fiacc’s creativity and philosophy. ## _**MMH Management & Governance**_ MMH has no dedicated premises. This is an advantage - run out of our volunteers’ houses, cafes, libraries and community venues. This works for our group - these are great hubs to network and meet diverse people. We can concentrate on what we do best - talking to people, recording their stories, preserving them and presenting them in films and at public screenings and events. The Trustees thank the MMH volunteers for allowing their premises to be used for meetings, the use of their own computer equipment, cameras and cars when needed to carry out events and activities. The feedback from those MMH engages with - both individuals and organisations - is overwhelmingly positive. Our procedures and practices are important to ensure that we work ethically and with a healthy regard to issues of consent, safeguarding and accountability. ## **MMH Resources** The issue of storage capacity for filmed material continues to be a priority, we must secure safe storage for original SD cards, Tapes and other material. ## **Social media** Vimeo Pro account allows 20GB of film to be uploaded per week. We continue to add material to the vimeo site. The website continues to be a challenge, and we have relied more on Facebook and vimeo to communicate. ## **Thanks** MMH has 10 core volunteers who consistently help with MMH projects and events, and 15 more who help with projects on an occasional basis. They are all over Northern Ireland and have been the driving force in identifying projects and liaising with participants. **R.I.P Maurice Reid** MMH volunteer Maurice Reid’s death in November 2022 is a great loss to our group. Maurice was involved with MMH since the start in 1998. His talent and expertise covered many areas - music, electronics, computers and cameras. Maurice provided so much professional advice and took part in film shoots with MMH up until his health problems prevented him from getting out and about in recent years. Despite his health problem he was always available by phone to provide guidance, ideas and know-how - always with kindness and a sense of humour. We miss him. Our sincere condolences to his family.