It has now been weeks since we premiered “Playing Irish” at the Newport Public Library. In that interim, the Heritage at Play team has been busy mailing out DVDs to our sponsors, friends, colleagues, and project participants. We have also been working on some formal conclusions to the project, with an eye to review what we did, how we did it, and why we did it the way we did.

For both of us, the Heritage at Play project was an absolute joy. It’s challenges and hundreds of hours of work were validated in a simple experiment. We showed the film to a public audience we did not know, and they enjoyed it. In fact, they wanted to know more about Gaelic Games. An Irishwoman in attendance told us we had captured “the entire ethos” of gaelic games and what they mean to the Irish. An American told us he was smitten with the beauty and uniqueness of the games. Both of these responses create great satisfaction for us, as appeasing these two populations with different agendas was our ultimate goal.

Read on for the full, formal conclusions: