The Committee focuses on the continued promotion of Blue Shield to the public and the wider heritage audiences through public events and provision of specific training.
For further details and updates please check
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IrishBlueShield
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blue-shield-ireland-551525305/
If you would like to contact the committee please email irishblueshield@gmail.com
Activities of the Irish Blue Shield Committee
The activities of the Irish National Committee of the Blue Shield (INCBS) focused on supporting the following key objectives:
- Education, training, and capacity building
- Proactive protection and risk preparedness
- Emergency response in disaster, domestic emergencies, and armed conflict
- Co-ordination of Blue Shield and with other relevant organisations
Concentrating on promoting the work of Blue Shield and awareness of the importance of preserving heritage sites and their contents in peacetime and during conflict.
Recent Activities
UN Training School Ireland (UNTSI) CPP – Pre deployment Training
Members of the INCBS were actively involved in organising training in Cultural Property Protection at the United Nations Training School in Ireland (UNTSI), in partnership with the Defence Forces Training Centre (DFTC) located at the Curragh Camp, County Kildare.
An abridged version of this course was taught at Templemore Garda College for as part of pre-deployment training for officers manning the buffer zone in Cyprus as part of the UNIFCYP peacekeeping mission in 2025.
Climate Change Adaptation Sectoral Plan for Built and Archaeological Heritage Planning
INCBS participation in Working Group C – Cross Sectoral Engagement and Working Group F – Guidance and Research.
Protecting Heritage: Disaster and Risk Management in Conservation Webinar Series
INCBS participation in Session 2: Risk Management and Practical Applications in Conservation, IIC (27 November 2024)
Blue Shield General Assembly—Bucharest, Romania, 9-12 September 2024
INCBS participation and presentation on the committee’s activities.
70th Anniversary of the 1954 Hague Convention and the 25th Anniversary of its Second Protocol
The National Monuments Service hosted an event on 18 February 2025 to mark the 70th anniversary of the 1954 Hague Convention and the 25th anniversary of its Second Protocol, the National Advisory Committee recommendation to hold a conference with the theme of destruction of cultural property in Ireland in the period 1916 to 1923. The role of the National Advisory Committee is to advise generally on the implementation of the Convention and its Second Protocol. A particular focus over the last two years has been promotion of public awareness of the need to address the destruction of cultural property in armed conflict.
Previous INCBS events
May 2025 Lecture in Cultural Property Protection training delivered at Templemore Garda College for officers preparing for UNIFCYP deployment
January 2025 Five-day pre-deployment training in Cultural Property Protection for the Irish Defence Forces at the Curragh Camp in County Kildare in partnership with the UN Training School in Ireland (UNTSI) and Blue Shield International
December 2023 Five-day pre-deployment training in Cultural Property Protection for the Irish Defence Forces at the Curragh Camp in County Kildare in partnership with the UN Training School in Ireland (UNTSI) and Blue Shield International
May 2023 ‘Even on a Mountain, there is still a road’: Reflections on Conservation in post-Conflict Afghanistan’, Lecture by Dr Richard Mulholland at the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin in partnership with ICOM Ireland
November 2019 Three-day pre-deployment training in Cultural Property Protection, for the Irish Defence Forces (Military Archives/ Dublin Port/ Heritage Council)
January 2019 Special screening of the documentary Destruction of Memory (https://destructionofmemoryfilm.com/) (Dublin Port and Irish Film Institute)
February 2018 Three-day ICCROM course on First Aid for Cultural Heritage (FAC)
(National Museum of Ireland)
August 2017 Protecting our Cultural Heritage Lectures, Heritage Week (Royal Irish Academy)
October 2014 One-day Prepare to Protect Seminar (National Museum of Ireland)
Links
Daly, C. 2015. ‘Heritage in Conflict’ in Heritage Outlook, 20th Anniversary Edition, The Heritage Council of Ireland https://www.heritagecouncil.ie/content/files/heritage_outlook_anniversary_1995_2015_3mb.pdf