Annals Workshops

  Groups learn calligraphy+illustration, paper+ink making & the history of the Irish Annals

Five different group activies all at one location cominng spring 2026

1: COPY ZONE 

How to cog

This zone takes inspiration from St. Columba, who purportedly, famously copied without permission the existing Annal in the 550s, the case of the To Every Cow its Calf – To every Book its Copy etc. (the Irish word used derives from ‘little book’ = leabhrãn). Here we make the facsimiles, some might say “forgeries.” We use tracing and projector-stencils or some freehand after some lessons to create small parchment copies of items from the extant annals courtesy of the Royal Irish Academy. Visitors can can take their work home much like brass rubbings. Takes place at 9 x scribe desks in the round hall.  The best of these items will enter a sort of a mighty "scrap" book  with an idea that if Time disintegrates all the existing Annals in all their perfect libraries that this could be back-up; latter would mirror the existing order in the existing ancient tome.

2: GAP ANNAL 

History written by losers & winners

GAP ANNAL between the last extant Annal to the Ongloing Annal 1590AD-2019AD. This zone nicknamed the "Incident Room,”  is dominated by a blank wall soon to become the investigation wall of clews, with strings linking facts, persons & parishes, theories......  Here the clews from the missing 430 years get teased out. Pertinent facts related to a sample year’s “case” will be proffered by the Guide.  A Group’s leader/ teacher will know in advance of their visit the year they are to delve e.g they have chosen 1616, 1753, 1847 etc. This exercise can actually help shape the actual information that enters the Gap Annal for a particular year, so has a clear goal to dent the vast blank pages of missing facts.

Opportunity for secondary school students/ 3^rd level and down the line clan/ diaspora groups to get into the nitty gritty parts of history. What facts should be sought ? Which ones should get parchment space for posterity. How to describe a given event / what tone to take. How much vision versus how much revisionism, weighing lies, cover-ups, break-thrus, etc. Who are the heroes or villains ? Where are the women ?  Where are minorities in the story?

3. NEWS ROOM 

What makes news

The upper room is the “Newsroom” of the Scriptorium where the On-going Chronicle is put together page after page. This eerie, cum lookout is a busy space where the sifting of info arriving is done; all the facts of national or tiny import are sifted here. The latest page of the Annal can be viewed, on its plinth, inspired, to some extent, by other groups who have visited.

Resident Guide details items not expounded in the initial short video + back ground Q&A re how the current Annal is being created, how well or badly it mirrors reality. Is it slanted/ biased, neutral, fake, obscure/obvious ? A challenge is posited; the visitors are indicated how to access an educational pdf on our website that allows the visitor to formulate an item of News from the current or past year, that they believe worthy of entry into the Annal from their locality, county. It may or may not get inked to parch-ment.......

4. INK & PIGMENT MAKING



A room where the visitors connect in with a “Master Inker,” Jessica Reid, to make their pigments and learn the background etc. In medieval times black ink was made from rare oak galls.

5. LEARN PARCHMENT MAKING

 Same paper that is being used in the Copy and On-going Annal zone, A1 sized. Show how it is made, from locally grown material. Flax, pulverised rushes mixed with old dissolved news-paper.