Over here in DCTV we're not just another TV operation. We have a unique mission.

So, when we sit down to think about the sort of programmes we want to make, we always factor in how we can empower communities and build participation in the making of media.

We like exposing the process behind how we make something and involving new layers.

As part of this mission, we came up with a show called Dublin Diaries.

Since November 2008, we've been broadcasting a show that put the people of Dublin back in touch with their own forgotten histories.

It was a people's history and consisted of a 3 minute programme, one for each day of the year.

It was a calendar packed with nuggets of forgotten histories.

Of names and events no longer whispered.

Lost in the past but resurrected again to populate each day of our diary, our Dublin Diaries.

Our researchers went digging for historical nuggets from several archives.

We furrowed away in the digital archive of the Irish Times.

Got lost for weeks in the specialized collections of The National Archive.

Poured over the registrar of imprisonment at Kilmainham Jail and the death records at Glasnevin Cemetery.


Then down in the dungeons of DCTV, our team of skilled video technicians worked night and day.

But most of all, we needed the help of Dublin communities to narrate the show and pull it across the final line.