If you survived the national school system, you will have come out with your head full of a kaleidoscope of images that collectively makes up an idea of Irish heritage. Everything from round towers to the Book of Kells fits the bill. But what exactly is "heritage" and in what way is it valuable?
It is precisely this question that is asked by a slick, new, six-part series beginning on RTE television on Tuesday. Irish Dreamtime, which was commissioned by the Heritage Council and made by Ocean films for RTE, draws on film footage from past and present, presenting images of the natural, archaeological, architectural and mythical heritage of Ireland from every conceivable angle and era. In a quick-edit, pacy and stylised format, the question of heritage is explored and expanded, in what is a feast of televisual imagery. Directed by Frank Stapleton (who previously co-wrote and directed the feature film The Fifth Province), Irish Dreamtime is worth a
look for the quality of the camerawork alone. The well-shot and edited images go a long way to compensating for a vague and pretentious script narrated by Joan O'Hara. The programme offers a diverse interpretation of what heritage is. It is portrayed as something both urban and rural, as a narrative that is edited for political slant, as something that belongs to the living world of people much more than to the cold halls of the museum.
This latter point is well illustrated by the voxpop format used in the series. In parts two and onward the haughty script gives way to the more eloquent utterances of ordinary people. Once we escape the experts we hear gems like the story of the Banshee's howl and how it was once heard on Dublin's O'Connell Street, and how Travellers now burn the clothes of the dead in their funeral rituals, instead of their caravans, as they once did.
Contributions from Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, John Hume, Cathal O Searcaigh and Gearoid O Tuathaigh also add much needed coherence to the programmes and, as usual, all perform impeccably. Vital questions are asked, such as how the new badly planned and sprawling housing estates are effecting the heritage of landscape, and because of these questions the series was certainly a worthwhile commission.
All the same, in some respects the most basic conception of the series seems blurry. The title sequence shows an image of Ayers Rock in Australia mutating into Croagh Patrick - the holy place of Ireland being compared to the sacred Australian site, suggesting the idea that the Aboriginal "Dreamtime" - the golden age when the first ancestors were created - is similar to some imagined Irish origin.
One of the ironies of the series is that it borrows the Dreamtime concept from black Aboriginal Australia while neglecting to offer any image of a multi-cultural Ireland. If, as the series argues, heritage is not just a thing of the past, but concerns an ever-evolving culture, then an image of cosmopolitan Ireland should surely have been reflected. The series doesn't deal with just
how hotly contested the issue of local heritage is in Ireland. Consider the conflicts over mining Croagh Patrick, the rod licence conflict or the debacle over Mullaghmore. It isn't an overstatement to say that heritage is a battleground in this country.
Irish Dreamtime begins on RTE 1 on Tuesday at 10.30 p.m.