About

About the Programme

Young Historian of the Year

The Young Historian award programme was launched in 2020 to encourage young people to engage with their personal and local history and to develop the skills of history. For now, the programme is run with Transition Year students in schools in Co Leitrim.


The programme is led by Professor Natalie Fryde and Fiona Slevin, and facilitated by Pauline Brennan and Mary Conefrey of Leitrim County Library.

Programme goals

The programme has two clear goals:

  1. Inspire students to learn about and value their personal and local history, and develop their sense of place;
  2. Help students develop the skills of history, including research, forming questions, distinguishing fact from fiction/opinion, critical reflection and storytelling.


The programme aims to create an encouraging, supportive environment in which students undertake history projects that have a specific interest for them, and through which they can connect with their history and sense of place. It sets out to demonstrate that the multiple skills and talents needed to research and record history are life skills, with broad application beyond history. 


In part, the programme is driven by the belief that the multiple skills and talents needed to research and record history are life skills, with broad application beyond history. Learning and practising those skills may help address the OECD finding that 85% of Irish 15-year-olds cannot distinguish fact from opinion in a reliable way. 


The OECD’s PISA study 2018[1] indicated that just

15% of Irish 15-year-olds can distinguish fact from opinion

in a reliable way*.


*Andreas Schleicher, head of education for the OECD, quoted in https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/irish-schools-need-to-modernise-20th-century-approach-to-learning-warns-oecd-1.4516222

Team

Fiona Slevin

Fiona embarked on a PhD in History in 2021, following a career as a life sciences and tech entrepreneur, international executive and business consultant.
Her PhD research at UCD is on the economic and social development of Mohill post-Famine, 1850-75.

Her book, By Hereditary Virtues: a history of Lough Rynn, describes the Famine and its impact on south Leitrim. She posts articles on history on her website www.loughrynn.net.

Fiona is also a Chartered Director and is on the board of Vhi Health & Wellbeing, Furthr, and other not-for-profit organisations.

Dr Natalie Fryde

Natalie is Emeritus Professor of Mediaeval History at the Technical University, Darmstadt, Germany.

Her research focused on mediaeval England and specialised in Angevin England, King Edward II, and Magna Carta.Amongst her nine books and more than forty publications are The Tyranny and Fall of Edward II, 1321-1326 and Walls, Ramparts, and Lines of Demarcation: selected studies from antiquity to modern times.

Natalie moved to County Leitrim in 2015. She is Chair of Carrick-on-Shannon & District Historical Society.


Local Studies at Leitrim County Library

The Local Studies Department is located at Ballinamore Library.

All material relating to the printed history of County Leitrim is collected, preserved and

made available for reference here at the Local Studies Department.

Material includes books, journals, maps, newspapers and archive material.

The website contains contact details – or visit the library at Main Street, Ballinamore.

Share by: