Celebrating this week in the Cultúrlann with an end-of-course lunch are Forbairt Feirste’s first 13 trainee Presbyterian tour guides.
The group trained by tour guru Tom Hartley, will, during the August Féile, deliver a brand new Presbyterian Heritage trail from College Square North to Broadway through the heart of the Gaeltacht Quarter.
Tom Hartley, former Sinn Féin Mayor, former political prisoner and tour-guiding expert, said: “I want to pay a warm tribute to Forbairt Feirste who, with generous support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, have delivered a second year-long Heritage Programme which is both reinviting Presbyterian and wider engagement with the Gaeltacht Quarter and also highlighting West Belfast’s fascinating and largely lost Presbyterian heritage.”
The class of 2024 who will be offering the Prebyterian Heritage Tours for the first time on August 6 were warmly congratulated by Rev David Moore of An Tionólann, the Presbyterian Mission to the Gaeltacht Quarter, who put his money where his mouth was and joined in the training himself.
Taking a well-earned break at the Cultúrlann
Forbairt Feirste director, Jake MacSiacais said: “Forbairt Feirste have successfully delivered training for our highly successful Slí na Gaeltachta tour which has been running now for over ten years with a two miles trail marked by roadside plaques. This latest tour is one element of our efforts at reintegrating Presbyterians into the life of the Falls and opening opportunities for local people and visitors alike to sample some of the very diverse history and the complexities which make West Belfast a must-see destination. The history and heritage which surround us, and which often go completely unnoticed, are multi-layered, complex, often contrary to what we’ve come to believe. Things on this tour will take many by surprise.
Checking out the bell at the Cultúrlann which once adorned the building when it was a Presbyterian Church
“Our group of six women and seven men tour guides are also a very eclectic bunch ranging from a brace of Presbyterian Ministers, a Methodist Minister, a senior GAA official, a Portadown bookbinder and historian, an atheist, two agnostics and three other energetic souls from across the Falls and the Shankill.”
