Fúinn - About Us
Craobh Chrua is a non-profit organisation, based in Dublin, established to spread awareness about the richness and vitality of our folklore, our pre-Christian heritage and its continuity into the present day. Over the last couple of years, we have been expanding and maturing our work to include projects aimed at encouraging a sense of individual and collective responsibility, among the general public, towards as many aspects of our cultural heritage and tradition as we can possibly manage with our limited manpower.
As a long term objective, we are aiming to build a sense of community around the core of heritage and tradition much in the same vein as can be found in an arts or music 'scene'. This will show that the notion of 'clan' or 'tribe' can and does still exist in a modern context and that those who are involved in such a community can act to uphold and preserve our cultural heritage as a whole, as did the original tribal institutions throughout the centuries prior to their destruction by the Elizabethan conquest. As a core principal of Craobh Chrua, we believe that the well-being and the continuity of our cultural heritage is the responsibility of the idividual, that culture and tradition belongs to the people and that the task of its maintenance and preservation should never be handed over entirely to a government or to the state.
With particular regard to the study and understanding of folklore, pre-Christian Ireland and the origins of our collective heritage, one of our main aims is to find ways to bridge the profound gap that exists between the spheres of the academic and the amateur. We attempt to do this by freely providing quality research material online and we hope, by making such material freely available, that we can point the enthusiastic amateur in the right direction. The goal then is to ensure that the individual who is looking to further understand and interpret the legends, mythology, folklore, symbolism and indeed the very character of our pre-Christian ancestors can easily bring themselves into the academic fold and stay abreast of current opinion and consensus.
We have also taken our first steps towards the organised promotion of the Irish language with the launch of our 'Gaeilge for Absolute Beginners' course which again is firmly based in the ideal of free education with all course materials, online support and resources supplied completely free of charge and without subscription to anyone on the island of Ireland.
We are also currently undertaking a redevelopment and expansion of our Bardacht project which will focus on local history, archaeology, natural and built heritage and the planning and coordination of this project is currently under way. Projects on many different aspects of our culture, heritage and tradition are planned for launch as Craobh Chrua expands and our capabilities increase.
Our constitution, which was formally adopted in September of 2006, has allowed us to evolve in what we believe is the right direction and we will be seeking to attain charitable status in late 2007. This will then allow us to undertake many of the projects that we currently have in the pipeline for 2008 and beyond. A copy of our constitution is available for download in pdf format here.
As it stands at the moment, we are a young organisation and all our work is a voluntary effort but we are maturing and growing at the right pace and we are determined that in the long term we will develop, expand and refine our focus and activities to encompass as many areas of our cultural heritage as possible.