*/ ?>
fallback image

Time and history were strange to me in Australia. I found myself wedged between two, so different, cultures: one so, quite scarily, younger-than-trees new, only a few hundred years; the other deeply mysteriously, older-than-rivers ancient, tens of thousands of years. I, with my sense of between one and two millennia of continuity of culture, was […]

*/ ?>
fallback image

I invented the word ‘interpretelling’ to stress how important great storytelling is in engaging people with heritage sites.  People love stories (you ask the advertisers or indeed anyone in creative communication) and heritage unzipped is story (… after story, after story) Interpretelling is about really understanding what makes a good story. Interpretelling values and works […]

*/ ?>
fallback image

Well, that was a blast! I am now fully confident that my adrenal glands are still fully functional and have discovered that giving a keynote gives me the sort of terrors before and rush afterwards that I usually associate with roller coasters. Thank you to everyone who was so enthusiastic about my talk, especially those […]

Fremantle Prison

Attractions and visitorsInterpretation - tips and reflections
*/ ?>
fallback image

We went because this where we are running the site experience workshop on Wednesday but Fremantle Prison (part of the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage Site) is certainly worth a visit.  We had a great tour with the Head of Interpretation, Luke Donegan of this evocative, resonate site and were impressed by the thoughtfulness and […]

I love being a consultant when …

Wider thoughts */ ?>
fallback image

… we’ve worked with a client long enough to feel part of their team … when the client is ready, eager and willing to make changes … when our roles feel like being a catalyst (which just sets a whole new dynamic reaction in motion) … when we have the opportunity to stay around to […]

Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin

Attractions and visitorsInterpretation - tips and reflections */ ?>
fallback image

I am still moved by the fact that Kilmainham Gaol (a massive and imposing building) was rebuilt entirely by voluntary effort. The Gaol was intimately linked with British rule, in particular, the imprisonment and execution of leaders of successive rebellions. In the 1950s and 60s, after it had been disused for thirty odd years and […]

“If you don’t tell us your stories, how will we hear them?”

Attractions and visitorsInterpretation and tourismInterpretation, conflict, memorials */ ?>
fallback image

Visiting Ireland regularly has involved me, and some of my clients, in interesting discussions about Anglo-Irish history. This invariably involves the English/British behaving badly (to say the least) when overseas. Some of it has left me shocked to the core. In particular we have talked and thought long and hard about what to say to […]