Historic building turned into gallery for Balto exhibition

THERE were queues out the door of the Hillfort room in Baltinglass library, such was the popularity of a recent photo exhibition that detailed what life looked like in the town many years ago.

Indeed, the  Baltinglass Long Ago exhibition had to be extended several times to accommodate the large crowds. The event was organised by members of the tourism and economic development subgroup of Baltinglass Town Team as part of heritage week.

One of the exhibition organisers, Terri Kenny, said the idea came about while Baltinglass Town Team was working to set up a heritage trail for the town.

“We basically were looking for some old photos that we might be able to use as part of the heritage trail and that is where the idea came from to run an exhibition of photos during heritage week,” Terri said.

Terri and her fellow organisers were sent photos from local people’s personal collections, while West Wicklow Historical Society also provided a large selection. As part of the event, the cells of the courthouse were opened to the public.

Terri and the rest of the Town Team members were pleasantly surprised by the size of the crowds who attended the exhibition.

“We thought maybe 20 or 30 people would come in on the Tuesday to have a look and I am going to say there were a couple of hundred there,” Terri said.

“We decided there were so many on the Tuesday 18 September that we would open it again on the Wednesday and the Friday before it finished on the Saturday,” she added.

Terri expressed her thanks to Wicklow County Council heritage officer Deirdre Burns, who provided assistance and advice, as well as local man Tommy Doyle who was able to caption the images and give context to visitors over the few days.

As is the case with many local community initiatives, it can be difficult to find people willing to volunteer to help organise and run events. Anyone interested in getting involved can visit the Baltinglass Town Team page on Facebook for more information.