Belfast-based initiative to explore living legacy of WW1

A new initiative is underway to explore the contemporary resonances of WW1.

Based in Belfast, where the conflict had such a long lasting and complex effect, The Living Legacies 1914–1918 Engagement Centre will be a focal point for academics and community researchers looking at how WW1 lives on in the modern world, and aims to work with community-led research projects across the UK to help achieve greater levels of outreach and engagement beyond their immediate localities.

The Centre will be able to support such projects with research, developing networks, access to resources and training, information about relevant events and other related projects, such as:

• telling and sharing local storie
  
• rediscovering the forgotten First World War heritage in our landscapes
  
• finding out why and where people moved as a result of the war
  
• expressing stories about the conflict through drama and theatre.

The Living Legacies Engagement Centre is based at Queen's University Belfast and will be publicly launched at 6pm on Monday 19 May at the Conor Lecture Theatre, University of Ulster Belfast campus, York Street, which is in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter. The launch will include a lecture by Professor Richard Grayson, author of Belfast Boys, as well as a short performance from Brenda Winter’s new play The Medal in in the Drawer.