This publication is the proceedings of a conference that kick started the creation of the IHAI in 1996.
The publication gives an overview of the (perilous) state of industrial heritage in Ireland in 1996. Despite plenty of talk since then, it can safely be said that attitudes towards IH are as backward today, if not more so, as they were in 1996. Details of IH surveys carried out on the island of Ireland constitute the bulk of this publication, which ends with a summary of what is required to establish an IH inventory for Ireland.