All National Heritage Week organisers must support the stated objectives of National Heritage Week.

All events and projects must demonstrate the following:

• Heritage value: Events and projects must clearly promote at least one specific aspect of natural, cultural or built heritage.
• Awareness / educational value: Events and projects must have a clear awareness-raising or educational value, helping people to engage with, or find our more about our heritage.
• Interpretation capacity: Events and projects which are commemorative in nature should be based on fact and present a balanced view or both sides (and must not condone harm brought to others).
  

Events and projects undertaken as part of National Heritage Week 2024 should meet at least one of the following criteria:

• Promote Connections, Routes and Networks: We invite organisers to think about how we connect to each other. This can be through physical connections such as routeways, road, rail, water connections including new and old routes including pligrim ways, boreens, etc. There is also the intangiable connections we have whether through language, traditions and traditional practises and more. For ideas on this see our News section.

• Maximise community engagement: Reach out to the maximum number of people in your community and get them involved. Encourage them to share their memories and knowledge.

• Be inclusive: Bring the different generations in your community together – can an older person share a skill with a younger person; can a younger person record a story from an older person? Invite or involve new members of your community. Make your event or project accessible to all.

• Share your event or project with others: Have a clear plan for growing awareness of your activity, at a local, regional, or even national level.

• Build on or enhance an existing heritage event or project: If your event or project idea is based on existing work (e.g. a heritage project you have been engaged with over a longer period of time), consider how you can build on this work for this year's National Heritage Week. This could mean simply showcasing your event or project to new audiences.
  

• Build on existing resources / networks: Consider drawing on the resources or expertise of relevant organisations or networks to inform your project, for example the Oral History Network, Birdwatch Ireland, the Irish Peatland Conservation Council, or the Irish Traditional Music Archive.

National Heritage Week is a celebration of our heritage. Organisers should not use National Heritage Week projects or events to promote the commercial objectives of any organisation or company.

National Heritage Week promoted events should be distinguishable from events promoted year-round. Heritage Week events should ideally be free. In the exceptional cases where this is not possible, they should be donation-based, or provided at a reduced cost, or in some way provide special access to audiences that would not normally be involved.

The Heritage Council reserves the right not to list projects on the Heritage Week website that do not meet the objectives of National Heritage Week.

If you have any questions about this policy please contact heritageweek@heritagecouncil.ie.