Changing Ireland, Changing Stories at the National Museum of Ireland

Changing Ireland, Changing Stories Participants

Changing Ireland, Changing Stories

In partnership with the National Museum of Ireland, Fighting Words collaborated with community groups on a creative writing project based on personal responses to artefacts in the new Changing Ireland Galleries.

This included young people supported by the Irish Refugee Council who worked with poet Hazel Hogan to create poems that explore themes of emotion, belonging and home.

Local Dubliners from Fatima Groups United Community Centre collaborated with author John Grogan to write memoirs reflecting on life in Ireland in the 1970s and 1980s.

A group of Ukrainian women from the Liberties Community Project (formerly South Inner City Community Development Association) imagined new worlds through their storytelling with guidance from writer and artist Hugh McElveen.

Their work is featured in a video installation in the Changing Ireland Galleries with participants reading extracts from their writing. Visitors can also hear the full pieces, told in the participants’ own voices, through the 'Changing Ireland, Changing Stories' audio tour.

Changing Ireland, Changing Stories on The Fighting Words Podcast

In this special podcast episode, participants share their personal journeys through the project, reflecting on how their perspectives on both writing and museums were transformed. What began as an exploration of words and objects became a deeply cathartic process, revealing new ways of seeing, interpreting, and connecting with museum collections.

Through honest and thoughtful conversations, the episode captures how writing opened doors to fresh interpretations and emotional resonance with the past.

The Changing Ireland, Changing Stories project was by Léargas, the Irish National Agency for Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps.