Mobile phones are latest tour guides

Date Published: 29-Jul-2008

YOUR mobile phone can be your tour guide in Galway this summer, thanks to an audio storytelling pilot project called Murmur. Green Murmur signs can now be seen at 14 locations of historical interest in Galway City, displaying a telephone number and a unique code for that site.

Pedestrians can dial the number and hear one or more stories about that place and explore further or move on to the next sign. The stories are told in the storyteller’s own voice and are personal and anecdotal in nature.

They have been chosen by Murmur story collectors, Máire Holmes and Pauline Bermingham to provoke an emotional response as well as educate and inform. The stories are intended to complement the official history of the locations with which they are intertwined.

There are now 22 such stories available and listeners are encouraged to make their own yarns available to Murmur. Tomás Hardiman of Parzival Productions, who are the producers of the pilot project, has said that they are looking forward to hearing many more Galway stories from people.

“It is instantly………..