Echoes from The Barrow: Oral History Listening Sessions in Carlow Libraries

What to Expect

Echoes from The Barrow is the listening arm of the Lived Experience Project, an oral history collection gathering the voices of people who grew up in Carlow in the 1950s and 1960s. The recordings cover childhood, school, family, work, faith and community life in post-war Ireland, and they do not soften the hard parts: large families in small houses, siblings and friends emigrating, and the narrow range of options open to young people at the time.

Carlow Older People’s Council is presenting the material as a podcast series and bringing it into the county’s libraries for shared listening sessions during Heritage Week. Sessions run in Carlow County Library, Bagenalstown Library, Tullow Library and Borris Library across three dates, so most of the county is within reach of one. These are free, drop-in-scale events built for conversation as much as listening, and older residents who lived through the period tend to add as much in the room as the recordings do.

Good to Know

• Tuesday 18 August, Thursday 20 August and Friday 21 August 2026. Morning sessions run 10:00am to 12:00pm; the 21 August session runs 2:00pm to 4:00pm.
• Venues: Carlow County Library, Tullow Street, Carlow (059 912 9705); Bagenalstown Library, The Courthouse, Bagenalstown; Tullow Library, New Road, Tullow (059 913 6299); Borris Library, Main Street, Borris (059 917 0350).
• Free admission.
• Organised by Carlow Older People’s Council, phone 085 850 5549, email info@carlowopc.ie.
• Funded by the Heritage Council and presented as part of National Heritage Week 2026.
• Contact the individual branch to confirm which session is running there before travelling.

Getting There

Carlow County Library is on Tullow Street in the middle of Carlow Town, walkable from every town-centre car park and about ten minutes from the railway station. Bagenalstown Library is in the Courthouse in the middle of Muine Bheag, roughly 15km south on the R705, with its own rail station on the Dublin to Waterford line. Tullow Library is on New Road, 15km east on the N81, and Borris Library is on Main Street, about 25km south. All four sit on Bus Eireann or local link routes from Carlow Town.