FREE : DFC EHOD Heritage Fair with HERoNI and PRONI

Join PRONI and HERoNI for this year's European Heritage Open Days looking at the theme of 'Heritage at Risk'. DFC Heritage Fair brought to you by HERoNI and PRONI. Join us at 2 Titanic Boulevard to celebrate European Heritage Open Days exploring our heritage and learning about our past, this years theme is “Heritage at Risk – Revive, Resist, Reimagine”

This theme invites organisers to explore the stories behind the places they care about, airing the physical site with the human voices, memory, craft and culture that bring it to life.

Featuring, information stands, including representatives from Ulster Archaeological Society, Libraries NI, National Museums, OSNI, National Churches Trust, PRONI, HED, HERoNI, National Lottery Heritage Fund, Belfast Buildings Trust, Heritage Network, NI Screen, Maps and Memories Project, Great Place North Belfast and Ulster Architectural Heritage Society/HARNI.

Visit a wide range of exhibitors, societies and archives, enjoy free talks throughout the day on the theme of Heritage at Risk – Revive, Resist, Reimagine and don’t miss your chance to ask the experts!

10.30-10.50 National Heritage lottery- Heritage Fund

Speakers: Speaker: Emma Hannah, Engagement Manager

Title: The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Heritage At Risk in NI

This talk will explore the Heritage Fund’s work over the last three decades in supporting communities across Northern Ireland to conserve and value their heritage. It will highlight how funding has helped save and revitalise places and landscapes while also preserving the traditions and stories that are important to people.

Emma Hannah is an Engagement Manager with The National Lottery Heritage Fund, where she supports people and places by helping communities to protect, value and conserve heritage. Emma has a background in academia and holds a PhD in Archaeology from Queen’s University Belfast.

10.50-11.10 HARNI

Speakers: Dr Kevin Miller and Kenneth Boston

Title: Top ten Heritage at risk, top five saves

The presentation introduces the Heritage at Risk Register compiled by Ulster Architectural Heritage working in partnership with the Historic Environment Division. It discusses ten significant buildings at risk, and five significant ‘saved’ buildings drawn from the Register.

Bios: Ken Boston, retired Chartered Building Surveyor, is a former Senior Lecturer and Course Director of the Building Surveying Programme at Ulster University. He has a keen interest in Building Conservation and has completed the RSUA Certificate and Diploma courses in Building Conservation. Currently a volunteer with Ulster Architectural Heritage

Dr Kevin Miller is currently the Heritage at Risk Officer at Ulster Architectural Heritage working in partnership with the Historic Environment Division. Kevin holds a PhD from Ulster University, with research interests that include vernacular places of worship, and community-based heritage methods.

11.30-11.50

HERoNI

Speaker: Naoimh Quinn-Senior Architect, DfC Historic Environment Division

Title: ‘In from the Cold: Delivering a new sustainable use for a cold war bunker as an archive store for HERoNI’

Belfast’s ‘Regional War Rooms’ was constructed in the 1950’s as part of a network of 13 control centres across the UK to co-ordinate civil defence in the event of a nuclear attack. Although never used for its original purpose, the former cold war bunker fulfilled various other civil defence functions and more recently was used as a file store for the Courts Service. In 2018 however, the building became vacant without an identified use. This presentation will provide a brief overview of the project lead by DfC Historic Environment Division, exploring the feasibility, detailed design and construction considerations to realise the conservation of this unique Grade B1 listed building as an archive store for the Historic Environment Record of Northern Ireland (HERoNI).

Bio: Naoimh Quinn is a qualified senior architect within DfC Historic Environment Division, with over 15 years’ experience advising on historic building projects and historic environment planning policy. She also played a key role in developing the 12 point ‘Protocol for the Care of the Government Historic Estate’, which supports keeping heritage assets in active use. Naoimh currently works within the team responsible for the management, augmentation, and promotion of the Historic Environment Record of Northern Ireland (HERoNI), a key resource underpinning evidence-based decision-making for the historic environment.

11.50-12.10

National Churches Trust

Speaker : Kerry Rooney

Title: Treasure Ireland Project

Treasure Ireland (2020-2026) aimed to support an improvement in the maintenance and sustainability of places of worship in Northern Ireland in partnership with the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Department for Communities and the Pilgrim Trust. At its core was a full-time support officer based in Northern Ireland, alongside a Community Grants programme which offered grants of between £500 - £10,000 for proactive repairs and maintenance to prevent fabric deterioration that often leads to larger problems.

The programme also included training and support to address skills gaps. Themes included supporting churches to take a conservation approach to the care of their building, managing a capital project, and developing ways to generate income through heritage promotion. It worked with churches to improve their wider community engagement, marketing and interpretation with the aim of increasing the number of people visiting Northern Ireland’s churches for days out or as part of a holiday

Bio: Kerry Rooney MBE - Support Officer, National Churches Trust. Kerry's background is in arts, culture and heritage, community engagement, and project management. Over the past ten years he has worked on a number of local heritage projects including Belfast City Cemetery, Templemore Baths and HMS Caroline all of which have given him a real passion for preserving historic spaces and making them vibrant and welcoming places for everyone to enjoy. Kerry believes every church has a story worth preserving.

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1.30-1.50

Maps and Memories/OSNI

Speaker: Kathryn Weir

Title: “Old Marks, New Methods: Using Modern Surveying to Protect the Past”

This presentation explores how surveying by Ordnance Survey Northern Ireland has evolved from traditional methods—such as baselines, benchmarks, and trig pillars, which left visible and lasting marks on the landscape—to modern, technology-driven approaches that leave little physical trace. It highlights how advances in tools like GNSS, drones and laser scanning have transformed the way geographic data is collected, making surveys faster, more precise, and less intrusive on the environment.

While these newer methods create fewer physical features to preserve as heritage, they play an increasingly important role in protecting it. The presentation will show how modern surveying technologies are now used to capture high-quality data that helps monitor, manage, and safeguard historic sites and landscapes. Ultimately, it reflects on the shift from marking the land to digitally recording it—demonstrating how surveying continues to support both innovation and heritage preservation in a changing world.

Maps and Memories is a two-year community heritage initiative marking 200 years since the first Ordnance Survey mapping began on Divis Mountain. The project is led by the Northern Ireland Science Festival and supported by the Department for Communities, the National Trust, and Queen’s University Belfast.

Bio: Kathryn is a Senior Mapping and Charting Officer at Ordnance Survey Northern Ireland (OSNI), with a particular interest in how mapping and digital technologies continue to evolve and improve how we understand the world around us. In her current role, she manages the Geospatial Survey Service team who deliver bespoke surveys to public sector customers using drones, mobile mapping, and terrestrial laser scanning. She also supports the Geodetic Survey team who provide services for customers working with mapping coordinate systems across Ireland. In addition to this, she represents OSNI on the Maps and Memories project

1.50-2.10

Great Place North Belfast

Speakers: Paula Reynolds and Malachai O'Hara

Title: Great Place North Belfast

Paula Reynolds - Chief Executive of Belfast Charitable Society

Since taking up the role in 2015, Paula has led the organisation through a period of transformation — from overseeing the transition of Clifton House's dementia residential home to driving a new phase of philanthropic work focused on tackling disadvantage. Under her leadership, the charity has delivered and has plans to deliver millions of pounds of investment in North Belfast. These vital initiatives include activity to address; education and disadvantage; to help new communities; to support community infrastructure in North Belfast; to help older people make connections to essential services and to help those experiencing homelessness.

Paula also oversees the organisation’s subsidiaries, Clifton House and the Mary Ann McCracken Foundation, and is Chair of the North Belfast Heritage Cluster which helps to drive regeneration in one of Northern Ireland’s most deprived areas by utilising the areas unique built heritage.

With a career spanning leadership role at NICVA and Making Belfast Work, Paula's commitment to North Belfast is across all that she does.

Malachai O'Hara - Development Officer at North Belfast Heritage Cluster

Mal joined Belfast Charitable Society last year as the Development Officer. The North Belfast Heritage Cluster (NBHC) has been running since 2017 and is a collaboration of heritage organisations across inner North Belfast and the northern portion of the city centre. The NBHC is recognised as the go to for heritage in North Belfast and was instrumental in the development of Look North festival which is now heading into its fifth year. His role is to support the 14 members of the Cluster and their associated buildings in improving governance, becoming more economically sustainable, generating income, better utilising their assets, and enhancing their environmental sustainability.

Mal's varied background is over two decades in the community and voluntary sector working primarily on community development in areas of deprivation. He was an Irish Senator, Belfast City Councillor and Harbour Commissioner.

2.30-2.50

Belfast Buildings Trust

Speaker: Cara Jones

Title: Carlisle Memorial: Belfast Buildings Trust’s work on The Gateway to North Belfast

While many people recognise Carlisle Memorial, few know its history. Cara Jones, Audiences and Engagement Manager at Belfast Buildings Trust, will explore 150 years of stories connected to Carlisle Memorial.

Built between 1872 and 1875 by wealthy linen manufacturer James Carlisle in memory of his children and grandchild, Carlisle Memorial Church was created as both a personal act of grief and a lasting gift to the city. The presentation will trace the building’s remarkable story, from Belfast’s industrial boom and the rise of Methodism, through the devastation of the Second World War and the social upheaval of the Troubles, to its closure in 1980 and years of abandonment.

It will explore how Carlisle Memorial survived against the odds.

Audiences will hear about the work of Belfast Buildings Trust, the heritage regeneration charity that first raised concerns about the building in the 1990s and has since led efforts to safeguard and reactivate the space for public use. Through exhibitions, filming, and creative events, the building has found new life as a cultural venue while retaining its extraordinary historic character.

Alongside the story of Carlisle Memorial, Cara will also introduce the wider work of Belfast Buildings Trust and Creative Belfast, a partnership programme supporting young people aged 18–25 through paid creative internships connected to Belfast’s historic spaces, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

This presentation offers an opportunity to reflect on how a single building reveals the wider story of a city, its people, and its future aspirations.

2.50-3.10

Holding Back Time: Conservation and managing risks to the deterioration of documentary heritage.

Speaker Sarah Graham, PRONI

The condition of materials contained within archives are constantly responding to the environment around them. Before arriving at PRONI, collections have often suffered mould or water damage. Hear from PRONI conservators about ways that they intervene to repair damaged documents and mitigate the risks of future damage through preventive measures and emergency planning.