Uisneach: The Hearth of Ireland to show at The Big Dig
As National Heritage Week approaches, Westmeath is set to host almost 70 events that aim to display the heritage of areas all over the county.
One event in particular, The Big Dig at the Hill of Uisneach will feature a special screening. Uisneach: The Hearth of Ireland, an animated short which tells the story of the first excavation of Uisneach, in 1925.
Peter Symonds and business partner Anna Dottle have been working on producing the piece, Peter as writer and director, and Anna as animator.
The animation premiered in Drogheda on Saturday August 8, and will be shown at the visitor centre at Uisneach as part of an archaeology day for Heritage week on Sunday, August 16.
Both Peter and Anna are qualified archaeologists.
“We answered the call from Westmeath, the Department of Culture and Heritage at Westmeath County Council following their announcement of a Centenary Award last year,” recalled Peter.
“It had to be something that happened 100 years ago in Westmeath and they had some suggestions themselves.”
The excavation of Uisneach was featured on the list of suggestions.
“We are both archaeologists, I’m a screenwriter and she’s an animator, so we saw that there was an archaeological dig at Uisneach.
“We thought, 'oh this is amazing we should definitely pitch for this' because it’s part funded by the National Talent Academy of Animation as well.”
Ahead of submitting their project, Peter and Anna did their research on Uisneach and its history, they then applied to produce an animation.
Their project was chosen and then the work began.
They kicked off the project by meeting Melanie McQuaid, heritage officer for Westmeath County Council, and Laura McCormack, acting arts officer, and Ruth Illingworth, historian, for a tour of the Hill.
Following that, the two got to work on research, and the animation itself, and developing the short that would tell the story of the first archaeological excavation of the Free State.
“Two eminent academics were involved, RA McAllister, who was an archaeologist who’d been working in Palestine, and was back in Ireland, and Robert Lloyd Praeger, who was a naturalist, and was the first official Librarian of the Free State.
“Those began their work on the Hill of Uisneach in 1925.
“That was the place they were interested in because of its wealth of myth and history.”
The dig continued for many years, “as many archaeological digs do”, said Peter.
“We tried to condense what happened into one meaningful five-minute animation, along with an idea of how what they found there could have tied in with the local folklore and well known written myth.
“Half of the animation is the guys doing digging, half of the animation is an imagination of theirs of how things that they discovered could have been deposited there 1500 years ago.”
During their research, they discovered that the two archaeologists had proven a myth to be true. “There was a large layer of charcoal they found.
“The reason it was so interesting is that it supported the myth of a fire burning there for seven years.
“It was said that the fire was passed around the chieftains of Ireland , it’s mentioned in the myths.”
The film will have its Westmeath debut during Heritage Week but for those who can’t make it, the two are hoping to show the film on Culture Night in September.
It will be a busy year for the two filmmakers, who are to the Clare Island Film Festival, where their movie has been accepted.
Tickets for The Big Dig are available now. While it requires booking, it is a free event.
As well as promoting the history of Uisneach, Peter also hopes that the film will encourage more like it, more artists and more filmmakers across the country seek the support of their local authorities.
“We hope that this will just be the first of many potential opportunities, not just for us, but for other writers and animators across the country to get their foot in the door with a small amount of funding to be able to produce something about their local area.”