The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) is calling for the public to help create an archive of how we lived during the Covid-19 outbreak – to ensure the story of the pandemic is preserved and made accessible for future generations.
PRONI’s Stay Home Memories project will capture individual’s experience of the pandemic through documents, photographs, art, videos and diaries.
Since lockdown came into effect on 23 March 2020, the public have been innovative in adapting to life behind doors, including celebrating milestones, finding new ways to communicate, shop, exercise and entertain.
And now PRONI is asking the public to share how they lived through the Covid-19 pandemic to capture the legacy of how our society adapted to the “Stay Home” directive.
Memories that capture how we home schooled, shopped while socially distancing, turned living rooms into movie theatres, kitchen tables into work stations, gardens into obstacle courses, clapped on our doorsteps, returned to the art of letter and diary writing and so much more.
As well as asking people to contribute items to the Stay Home Memories project, PRONI will launch a Stay Home Census, which will capture key details of daily life during the public health emergency.
A new Stay Home Memories section will also be created on the PRONI web archive based on public recommendations of what to include in the collection.
Take Part in Stay Home Memories
Find out more about Stay Home Memories on the NI Direct website