JACKIE’ S‘ HIDDEN TREASURE’ FEATURES IN NEW BOOK

AN ENNISKERRY woman’s rare poster is among the interesing objects featured in ‘National Treasures’, a book based on the RTE programme of the same name which airied earlier this year.

The programme featured people from all over the country who brought along items to a series of roadshows that spoke to Ireland’s history and heritage. The aim was to gather objects, passed down through generations or relatively recently acquired, which revealed an aspect of Ireland’s history, culture and experience.

Among those featured in the book is Jackie Cronin from Enniskerry, who brought a U2 poster from the late 1970s along to a National Treasures Roadshow in Dublin. Jackie got the poster from Bono before he was famous. She worked in a local shop in Grafton Court and he used to come in and stick up posters for his gigs. She even gave him the sellotape to stick the poster up and she has held onto this item for nearly 40 years now.

‘It’s been a real treat to spend the past year meeting the people of Ireland and dis- covering so many amazing objects and the stories behind them,’ said Ciarán Deeney and David Clarke, the men behind both the project and the book.

‘We’re forever grateful to all the people that participated and we feel that this book illustrates perfectly how the National Treasures project was a powerful insight into the fabric of a nation.’

With a foreword by RTÉ’s John Creedon, the book reveals a selection of 200 diverse and fascinating objects that were unearthed by the project and presents them alongside the personal stories attached. From a pair of Sonia O’Sullivan’s Olympic running shoes to a War of Independence grenade, the stories are profound, entertaining, heart-warming and tragic.

The National Treasures project was produced by EZ Films for RTÉ in association with the National Museum of Ireland and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. It is RIGHT: Jackie Cronin with her U2 poster.