Zibiah Loakthar, Cuimhne Coordinator writes
There are so many ways of thinking about this question, what springs to mind first? Or forget the question, perhaps memories are not really that important anyway?
“Memory… is the diary that we all carry about with us” (Oscar Wilde)
We often think at an individual level: why are my memories important for me, why are your memories important for you? What painful, embarrassing memories would we, personally, be glad to forget? What memories do we seek to clasp, capturing moments on camera, scribbling notes so that we might make stepping stones back to these memories long after these moments have passed?
Memories may be important to us as individuals, but also to us as social beings living in interconnected communities. Friends, families, the people around us may be interested in our memories of events in our lives and the social changes we have lived through, the people we have met and have influenced and been influenced by, the things we have experienced.
But also people who are not around us, people not even yet around, people we may not be able to imagine, people we may never know, people from different places, future generations of people not yet born, could also be interested in learning about how we have lived our lives, community activities we have got involved with, our take on things happening around us!
When we think of our own memories, we may recognise that some play a big role in forming and shaping our own sense of purpose and identity. But we are often too quick to dismiss the idea that our personal memories, our own take on life could be of any interest to other people. How often do we ourselves hear people saying, “my views are not special”, “my life is very ordinary”, there are hundreds of people like me”, “why would anyone want to hear it from me”, or even “why would anyone want to know about that at all!”, when actually we would jump up and down and disagree!
Bishopsgate Institute is a building that people often realise they have passed by without really noticing, on the walk between London Liverpool Street station and Spitalfields Market. It has a wonderful library and Aladdin’s cave archive collection, open to all and free of charge. Anyone is welcome to wander in, enjoy this Victorian library and handle its old and rare books; there is no need to apply for a library card.
Bishopsgate is home to the Great Diary Project, launched in 2007, rescuing, archiving and making publicly available a growing collection of more than 12,000 unpublished diaries. It provides a permanent home for personal diaries, ensuring they are preserved as unique historical resources and treasured into the future. Anyone interested in depositing personal or family diaries is welcome to contact the archivist Stef Dickers. Bishopsgate can offer the option for people to specify a period of closure: diaries can be deposited now with instructions that they are not to be opened and viewed by the public until years to come.
“When I was younger, I could remember anything whether it happened or not” (Mark Twain)
There is no need to worry about whether memories recorded in diaries offered to Bishopsgate need to be factually accurate or written completely coherently. Memory simply does not work like this and a range of agendas come into play when people write diaries. Those who work in the fields of Memory Studies and Oral History will tell you there is a great deal we might be able to learn from the way people perceive, or choose to present, the past. Social constructivists ask “well, what is a fact?” in any case!
Diaries come in many shapes and forms. Our Irish in Britain “My Story” books are also a kind of life story account that could find their way one day, with personal or family member permission, into Bishopsgate’s Diary collection.
This month, in connection with our Cuimhne (memory) work, Irish in Britain organised a special visit to explore the treasures at Bishopsgate and learn about its special collections which include collections on Cooperation, Protest and Campaigning, LGBT news media and London history.
Amongst these materials, you can find materials about the lives of Irish individuals and communities here in Britain. If you find yourself surprised at the treasures you can find here, you may also be surprised at the gaps. Why is it, for example, that you can find materials about the work of some Irish groups here but not others? In years to come who may remember the work, the campaigns, the struggles and the successes of Irish groups that do not preserve their records, their contribution to life here, the social impact they have?
“A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen.” (Edward de Bono)
Recording our work, depositing copies of our materials in archives like Bishopsgate can be a way of enabling people to remember and learn from our current struggles and achievements. Groups and charities are busy with frontline work, tail chasing delivering projects, running services, setting up community events, liaising with funders and supporters and influencing policy makers. Supporting people in the community is the real priority, it might feel like pure self–indulgence to take time out to think about how we share materials with others and into the future.
But if we do not find ways to record what we are doing, while our work may have had great tangible impact on individuals and communities, we may become holes in history. As community organisations we make so many important things happen, but we cannot take for granted that our organisations will be around forever. If we do not record our activities, where our organisations may one day disappear, people may look back as if they never happened.
Collectively, we have so much community and organisational learning to share. Newly forming groups in the future do not need to reinvent wheels we have been running with, but can rather look back at our wheels, work to making them roll even more smoothly or make transformational improvements so that they spin.
Bishopsgate is not the only archive collection that Irish in Britain groups might consider approaching to discuss depositing records. There are local archive collections all over the country, archives on different themes, as well as collections of Irish archives such as the collection at London Met’s Irish Studies Centre, and the Maclua Library, part of the Institute of Irish Studies at Liverpool University, with its collection of Irish studies sources and hardbound run of the Irish Post. As a mainstream organisation with a current policy of welcoming materials from groups involved in social cooperation and campaigning work, Bishopsgate could be somewhere member groups might consider approaching.
John and Colleen
John and Colleen at the Bishopsgate Institute: Cuimhne volunteers and members of East London Irish Pensioners, London Irish Centre and Decaf at Ashford Place joined our visit.
We so often already have leaflets, press cuttings, posters, postcards, pamphlets, booklets, event invitations, annual reports, badges, banners, oral history recordings, minutes of meetings, certificates and photographs collecting dust in boxes in our offices and homes.
Starting a conversation with a local or national archive about support they may be able to offer free of charge to help preserve these might help us declutter Marie Kondo–style our homes and working spaces while at the same time storing historical treasures for communities to access and learn from in the future.
For those of us supporting people living with memory loss, finding out about the past might help us better understand the nature of memories that people might be reliving. Handling objects in archives can help to bring the past to life and inspire ideas for reminiscence activities. Learning more about the past from archives might enable us to better understand and connect with people who have grown up somewhere outside of our own experiences or be from a different generation.
Our Cuimhne team is planning another group visit and special tour of Bishopsgate Library and Archives at 10.45am – 1pm on Wednesday 3 April. We are delighted that we will be guided around the collections again by archivist specialists Stef Dickers and Colleen Cox. This is a special tour not to be missed! If you would like to join in please do get in touch to book a free place: mailto:champions@irishinbritain.org
And with a bit of luck the date will catch you ahead of any spring cleaning and ruthless paper recycling!
Meanwhile, here are some of the comments made by group members from our recent visit to inspire you!
“it was a really wonderful experience”
“I have already encouraged others to visit! I would like to visit the lovely reference library again and would consider going in the future to research my family history.”
“I really enjoyed the tour and have been telling everyone about it!”
“loved the warm accessibility of the place. Very impressed by the extensive fascinating collection”
“very engaging tour which really brought the place to life. Absolutely privileged to wear a suffragette sash and touch the First International Minutes book.”
“I enjoyed the glimpse we were given of the staggering array and depth of material in the Institute’s collection. It’s great that the Institute encourages people to donate what we might consider uninteresting or day–to–day items like minute books and tea sets. This is the historical material of the future!”
”fascinating!”
“impressed with the material pieces held by the library, such as suffragette sashes and banners from recent political protests.”
”amazing to see how much care is taken to look after people’s memories, including ordinary people like you and me”
“I didn’t realise that our own group’s leaflets could be collected as important history”
“Very interested in the Big Diary Project & archiving of relevant materials.”
“I would like to encourage Irish in Britain members and community groups to engage with the Institute and consider donating their records.”
“I had no idea the library existed, nor of its history, accessibility and resources. I’ll be back!”
Irish in Britain regularly updates our Bibliography of research, scholarly work and evidence from community organisations about the Irish in Britain. Heritage organisations interested to advertise their opportunities for people from our member groups to deposit archive materials are very welcome to contact us.