The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland is calling for the public to help create a real-time archive of how we live during the Covid-19 outbreak.
PRONI’s “Stay Home” Memories project will capture the individual experience of the pandemic through documents, photographs, art, videos and diaries to ensure the story of the pandemic is preserved for future generations.
Since lockdown came into effect on March 23rd, the public have been innovative in adapting to life behind doors including celebrating milestones, finding new ways to communicate, shop, exercise and entertain.
The archive centre is asking the public to share how they lived through the Covid-19 pandemic to capture the legacy of how our society adapted to the lockdown directive.
A new “Stay Home Memories” and census section will be created on the PRONI web archive, based on public recommendations. It will also feature online workshops and talks from guest speakers.
Stormont Communities Minister, Deirdre Hargey is promoting the project. She said: “The archives at PRONI constitute the official community memory of all citizens here. The Covid-19 pandemic is an unprecedented event that has affected every individual not just here but across the world.
“PRONI has recently marked the centenaries of anniversaries of other global crises including the First World War and the Spanish Flu. The reason we have such a good understanding of these events and their impact upon society is because of the records we kept.
“PRONI has a key role to ensure that the story of the pandemic is preserved and made accessible so we have an official collective memory of the impact of Covid-19.”
For more information visit https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni.
