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A World Heritage Site is a place (such as a building, city, complex, desert, forest, island, lake, monument, or mountain) that is listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as being of special cultural or physical significance.
Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations. Our cultural and natural heritage are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration – UNESCO
As part of the preparation for the application to UNESCO, the Valentia Island Development Company initially commissioned two research papers by an international UNESCO expert, Professor Alexander Gillespie from the University of Waikato in New Zealand in which he assessed the viability of the Valentia ensemble of related transatlantic cable sites to be considered for industrial world heritage status.
The significance of what happened on Valentia Island, as evidenced by its associated and remaining features, gives it a strong chance of becoming a World Heritage site due to its Outstanding Universal Value. As a UNESCO site, the island has the capacity to attract thousands of national and global visitors each year and its rich contributions to Industrial world heritage will be preserved and celebrated for future generations – Prof. Alexander Gillespie
Valentia Island hosted an event as part of ‘The Gathering, Ireland 2013’ to share the idea of the UNESCO World Heritage Site for the Transatlantic Cable sites on the island.
Funding is secured to complete the Valentia Island, Ireland UNESCO World Heritage Feasibility Report.
The Transatlantic Cable is included as a major project on Fáilte Ireland’s Skellig Coast Visitor Experience Development Plan, which will involve the creation of an interactive experience relating the Cable story in Valentia.
The inaugural Valentia Island Lecture is held in the Cable Station chaired by IDA CEO Martin Shanahan and keynote speaker Professor Jeffrey Garten from Yale (both pictured above) addressing a large audience on the topic of globalisation. The IDA and BT Ireland are premium sponsors.
“the notion to me that this wouldn’t be a UNESCO site is absurd” – Professor Garten
Videos and photos of the lecture series and gala can be found at https://valentiacable.com/events
Heart’s Content Cable Station, Newfoundland was formally recognised as a Canadian national treasure, and included with seven other locations in that country’s updated list of Tentative World Heritage sites. It proposes a transnational application with Valentia sites.
President Michael D. Higgins visited the Cable Station and spoke about the history of the building and the project to gain UNESCO recognition for the cable sites. You can watch his speech and the event at https://youtu.be/TTHnu08xypQ
Minister of State for Tourism, Brendan Griffin, on his visit to the Cable Station at Hearts Content in Newfoundland, Feb 20th 2018.
Minister Josepha Madigan TD presents “Investing in Our Culture, Language and Heritage 2018 – 2027” – a ten year plan setting out the Government’s commitment for capital investment of almost €1.2 billion in Ireland’s culture, language and heritage.
Valentia Island Cable Station is announced as a priority project of the €285 Heritage Programme to maintain and protect heritage assets.
A major milestone in the project was completed on July 13th, when the historic Cable Station building, was handed over by the current owner, Mrs Ranka Pollmeier, and was accepted on behalf of the people of Valentia by the new Mayor of Kerry, Ms Norma Foley. In welcoming the handover of the building, Mayor Foley “thank Mrs Pollmeier for her long standing commitment to the island and for this generous gift which will enable future opportunities for the people of Valentia and attract many more visitors to this very historic place”
July 13th 2018 saw the 3rd annual Valentia Lecture and Gala with speakers: Ms Irina Bokova former Director-General of UNESCO (2009-2017); Professor Genevieve Bell Vice President for Strategy at Intel and a distinguished Professor at the Australian National University; Dr Robert Mauro, Director of the Global Leadership Institute at Boston College; and Professor Chris Morash, Seamus Heaney Professor of Irish Writing and Vice Provost at TCD.
Celebrating the 1866 Newfoundland to Valentia inaugural Trans-Atlantic telegraph message with IET Ireland and Kerry Radio Club @ The Cable Station, Knightstown from 2pm – more details available at https://valentiacable.com/events/reconnecting-valentia-hearts-content-2018/
In October, the Minister for Sports and Tourism, Mr. Brendan Griffin announced a grant of €161K for the Cable Station from Fáilte Ireland under The Wild Atlantic Way 2018 Grants Scheme in the presence of the Kerry County Manager Moira Murrell, the Newfoundland Minister for Tourism, Culture and Industry, Mr Christopher Mitchelmore and John Griffin, Tourism Officer for Kerry.
Our colleagues in Kerry County Council made a major submission to the 2018 call of the Department of Rural and Community Development’s €1bn ‘Rural Regeneration and Development Plan’ , 2019-2027, which proposed a mixed use at the Cable station, combining a heritage centre on the ground floor and innovation hub on the upper floor. We were delighted to learn of our success in being selected as the one the only project in Kerry and have been allocated €1.37m for the Cable station.
We facilitated a first workshop in the Cable Station on Saturday April 13th 2019 to start the process of defining the theme and scope for the Hub element of the project. Speakers included representatives from the Dingle Hub, the Sneem Hub and the Ludgate Hub from Skibbereen along with local business owners and representatives from Academia at IT Tralee and Trinity College. Enterprise Ireland were also represented.
July 2019, Mr Paschal Donohoe, Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure delivers a key note at the annual Valentia Lecture
October 2021, The project was also endorsed in the National Development Plan published
Oct 2021, Ms. Mairead McGuinness, European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and the Capital Markets Union addresses the Valentia Lecture
October 2021, Mary Rose Stafford from the Foundation with Michael Lyne, chairperson of the Valentia Development Company launch the “8th Wonder” exhibit at the Cable Station.
On July 21st 2022, we warmly welcomed the announcement from the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien, TD of the inclusion of the Transatlantic Cable Project on the Irish UNESCO World Heritage tentative list. This was only one of three projects accepted onto the Irish list which is a pre-cursor to a formal submission to UNESCO in Paris.
July 22nd 2022, the 6th Valentia Lecture returned with a full audience to the historic Cable Station. We were joined by both the US Ambassador to Ireland, H.E. Claire Cronin and the Canadian Ambassador to Ireland, H.E. Nancy Smyth
September 2022, Minister Crocker from Newfoundland visited the Cable Station at Valentia where he signed an MOU with Kerry County Council to “ create a framework for cooperation and coordination between the two governments concerning the UNESCO World Heritage nomination for the Transatlantic Cable Ensemble
July 2023. The 7th Valentia Lecture addresses the theme ‘A vision for Ireland and its role in the digital world’ with contributions from Mr Leo Clancy, CEO of Enterprise Ireland, Dr Nicola Millard, Principal Innovation Partner at BT, Entrepreneur Mr Norman Crowley of CoolPlanet, and cable security expert, Dr Camino Kavanagh.
In August 2023 a delegation of the key stakeholders of the Valentia end of the Transnational UNESCO project visited Hearts Content in Newfoundland, home to the landing site of the Canadian end of the Transatlantic Cable. The delegation was led by the newly appointed Mayor of Kerry, Mr Jim Finucane, along with officials from Kerry County Council and the Department of Heritage. Also in the party was a representative group from Valentia and the Cable Foundation.
The delegation received a warm reception from their counterparts in Newfoundland including the Minister responsible for Heritage, his officials, representative from Parks Canada, and the local community at Hearts Content. Hopes for the future were shared, new friendships were forged and actions agreed to move forward on the joint UNESCO application.
Leonard Hobbs, chair of the Foundation, at the site of the 1866 cable on the shores of Hearts Content, Newfoundland
Knightstown, Valentia, Co. Kerry, V23 H685, Ireland
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