ULSTER MARITIME HERITAGE

ULster maritime heritage - strategy

Ulster Maritime Heritage (UMH) is an umbrella group of individuals and organisations that are involved in preserving and promoting Ulster’s diverse Maritime Heritage. UMH evolved in 2018 to meet the shared needs and hopes of those involved and/or interested in Maritime History. It started by holding events, whose popularity encouraged groups to come together and seek funding to establish a strategy and formally incorporate themselves. The group has secured funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to facilitate this; and an audit of maritime heritage within Ulster. They have commissioned McGarry Consulting to meet with the group and develop a strategy.

MARITIME HERITAGE & UMH DEFINITIONs

“maritime heritage covers human involvement with the sea, loughs, rivers and canals; that people place a value on. It includes commerce, industry, war, exploration and migration; along with the people, skills, stories and associated way of life”

At a facilitation workshop with UMH in April, groups came up with a draft working definition of what Maritime Heritage means to them (above); and how they perceived the UMH (below):

“an Ulster-wide network to identify, support & promote our rich maritime heritage”

SETTING SAIL…

After meeting with senior UMH founders (Gerry Brennan, Robin Masefield and Fred Ternan), McGarry Consulting facilitated a short initial strategy session at the next UMH meeting in April 2019. This involved volunteers, charities, foundations, funders, public bodies, museums, heritage sector bodies, representative organisations and community groups among others reflecting the diversity of maritime heritage interests.

A key feature, emanating from the discussion, was the need for better communication and co-ordination between UMH ‘members’; and the need for UMH to act as a conduit between ‘members’ and the many large national/international organisations involved in maritime heritage (e.g. Maritime Heritage Trust UK, Royal Yachting Association, Irish Coastguard etc). An agreed first step was the creation of a form that would allow the collation of member group contact and event details. A draft version of this form is below:

MARITIME HERITAGE GROUP CONTACT & EVENT DETAILS - FORM

If you are a group involved in Maritime Heritage within or related to the nine counties of Ulster, please complete the form below.

GENERAL MARITIME & HERITAGE SECTOR CONSULTATIONS

This short survey is aimed at public bodies, national or representative organisations, trusts and other non-volunteer led organisations who are not already involved with the Ulster Maritime Heritage group. It takes a few minutes to complete and your input is very much appreciated.

NEXT STEPS & DRAFT DOCUMENT FOR DISCUSSION

The UMH strategy is due by the end of 2019, with interim-findings provided in September and a draft report for November 2019. In September there will be a follow-on workshop to discuss vision, strategic aims, actions and priorities in more detail. In the meantime, McGarry Consulting will be consulting with maritime heritage organisations and undertaking background research. Some outline slides following our initial facilitation session with UMH are outlined below to aid discussion. This will be updated throughout 2019.

GET INVOLVED & FEEDBACK

If you have any thoughts on the draft strategy document or would like to know more about UMH please fill in the form below:

Thanks to the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Titanic Foundation for facilitating this piece of work. The Titanic Foundation is a charitable organisation whose remit is to protect and promote the maritime and industrial heritage of Belfast. They are responsible for numerous successful heritage projects, and a key partner in the forthcoming Belfast Maritime Festival.