• Kildare Arts Service

Other Projects

Covid Notebooks Project

During the first months of the Covid‑19 pandemic, Kildare County Council Arts Service launched the Kildare Covid‑19 Notebook Project, an intimate countywide initiative inviting people to document their lockdown experiences. In March 2020, more than 140 identical A5 Moleskine notebooks were delivered to households across Kildare, with a particular focus on older people and those who were cocooning. Participants were encouraged to fill their notebooks with reflections, drawings, stories, observations, and daily moments, creating a deeply personal record of life during an extraordinary period.

The project captured a remarkable range of voices, from children as young as six to contributors in their nineties, revealing themes of loneliness, resilience, gratitude, nature, pets, family, and the small rituals that brought comfort during isolation. Local services such as the Kildare Age Friendly Network, Naas Care of the Aged, Moore Abbey Services, and mental‑health support organisations played a key role in encouraging participation and distributing notebooks. 

All completed notebooks were returned to the Arts Service to be digitally scanned and preserved as part of Kildare County Council’s permanent archive, creating an invaluable social history of the pandemic. The project later inspired The Covid Diaries, a documentary film supported through Creative Ireland’s Positive Ageing and Creative Wellbeing Challenge Fund, which featured several notebook contributors and was screened online for Culture Night 2020. 

The Covid Notebook Project stands as a powerful community memory project, a collective act of creativity, connection, and resilience during one of the most challenging moments in recent history.