There’s hardly a person in Ireland who hasn’t heard of the Gaelic Athletic Association. Such is the popularity of hurling and Gaelic football that almost every parish has its own club. It’s an important part of what it means to be Irish and the games are now played around the globe. Despite its iconic status, the story of the founder of the GAA remains largely untold... until now.

MMID was commissioned earlier this year to design & develop a multimedia experience which would bring to life the fascinating story of Michael Cusack.

Set in the very cottage Cusack grew-up in, the exhibition spans across three rooms. In the first area, 'The living Quarters', the visitor is welcomed by Michael Cusack sitting by the fire. Cusack tells us how it was like to grow-up in the Burren in the mid-nineteenth century before prompting the visitor to bring some turf to the classroom next door just as he would have done as a pupil in Carron National School.

In the classroom, Cusack remembers his life as a pupil and tells us about how he became a teacher and went on to found his own academy. Here we discover his passion for Gaelic Games and follow the captivating journey which would lead him to the founding of the GAA in Hayes' Hotel, Thurles in 1884.

The visitor is invited to witness the historical meeting in the third room which has been redecorated as Hayes's Commercial Hotel & Posting Establishment for the occasion. The meeting is followed by an old newsreel projection retracing the GAA's history until today's Croke Park - a testimony to the founder's vision.

Featuring professional acting talents powered by cutting-edge holographic glass and computer control technology, the project was delivered in just under three months and is now open to the public. A unique mid-air holographic projection, never seen before in Ireland, will soon be completing the installation with a floating ghost-like video of Cusack.

Visit the Michael Cusack Centre's website at www.michaelcusack.ie and plan your trip to Carron now.

Waterford County Council recently launched its official tourism portal for County Waterford. Designed by MMID, the portal is an integral part of the new Waterford County Council website which is managed in-house by the County Council team through TerminalFour content management system. The tourism site is visually attractive and has its own visual identity whilst remaining true to the rest of the County Council site. A unique template system allows the site administrators to quickly create micro-sites with a professional look and feel for current tourism initiatives. The Sean Kelly Tour and the Waterford Festival of Food were the first two such initiatives to avail of the facility.

Bausch & Lomb Ireland is launching its new corporate intranet this week. Developed in the first quarter of this year by MMID the new Intranet is a platform which encourages the creation of content by the workforce for the workforce. Following initial training sessions in April and May, Bausch & Lomb employees started adding their own content to the site.

Essential documents and information can now be found in a central location but the company is also making the most of this innovative system - broadcasting internal news via B&L Web TV, Bausch & Lomb's own news channel. International news feeds, weather forecasts, special staff offers, competitions, live site calendar and time zones are displayed along with the user-created information in a dashboard-type layout which every user can customise to his/ her needs.

Only one month has gone by since the launch of this year's series of DES approved EPV on-line summer courses by CPD College (MMID's on-line college platform) and the take-up has been phenomenal. The Jolly Phonics course is leading the way, representing over 60% of the total enrolments.

Jolly Phonics was created by a UK primary teacher, Sue Lloyd, in 1977, after the realisation that the whole language approach used in her classroom was not reaching a small group of children. As part of an experiment, these children were taught structured blending of words. They were taught to listen carefully to the sounds in the words, identify the sounds and relate them to the letters. As a result, these students who were previously demonstrating difficulty in reading and writing made significant progress. After many years of research, Lloyd was encouraged to compile 'The Phonics Handbook', which was published in 1992. It was immediately embraced by teachers worldwide.

Of course CPD College offers other EPV courses that spread right across the curriculum. Visit www.cpdcollege.com for more about our range of on-line Continuous Professional Development courses.