‘Dear Diary’ Covid-19 project launched

Social isolation, cancelled events, missed celebrations, home schooling, financial worries, working from home and travel restrictions are just some of the factors many of us are dealing with in the age of COVID-19.

This is a unique moment in history and Museum Services want to ensure that personal stories and experiences are recorded now to create a publicly accessible archive for future generations through its newly launched ‘Dear Diary’ project.

Encouraging individuals, families, and groups to get involved, the Mayor of Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council Councillor Sean Bateson said: “This pandemic has created a way of life which none of us have ever experienced before and Council’s Museum Services recognise the importance of preserving this through personal stories for future reference. The every-day experience can easily be overlooked in formal histories and we want to ensure this doesn’t happen. Please get involved with this very worthwhile initiative and recognise that your story, whatever it may be at this time, is worth telling.”

People are being asked to capture their experiences through photography, video, paintings, crafts, diaries, stories, poems, songs, audio recordings or create a digital diary and send their thoughts and observations to be archived for generations to come.

For further information or to send in your material please email [email protected] or contact Museums Service via their Ballycastle, Ballymoney, Coleraine or Limavady/Green Lane Museums Facebook page. Written or hardcopy entries can be scanned or photographed and submitted electronically. If anyone would like to record their story, but want it kept private for a fixed period of time, can do that too. Just let Museum Service officers know when submitting. All material will be archived by Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council Museum Services and made available as a project online through the NI Community Archive (www.niarchive.org).