By Rebecca Kelly

By Rebecca Kelly

With just under a month to go until FORUM 2015, the National Council of the Forum onEnd of Life in Ireland is inviting members of the public to pay tribute to someone special in their lives.

An initiative of the Irish Hospice Foundation, the Council is seeking photographs to form part of a unique photo mosaic which will be unveiled at FORUM 2015in Dublin Castle on September 10th.

FORUM 2015 is the 4th biennial conference on end of life in Ireland and this year’s theme is “Dying to Talk?- Conversations about End of Life”.

Speaking ahead of the event, Chair of the National Council, Mrs. Justice Catherine McGuinness said: “Death will come to all of us at some stage and there is hardly a family in Ireland that will be untouched by death this year. We need to start talking more openly about it and to listen to people’s wishes and views.”

To become part of the conversation, the Council is encouraging people across Ireland to submit photographs of someone significant in their lives, either living or deceased. An entry can take the form of a family portrait, a snap of an important occasion, a treasured memory or a moment of laughter or tears. It can be old or new, colour or black & white, allphotosare welcome.

CEO of the IHF, Sharon Foley, “This is a chance to celebrate the people who influence our lives, the people who can make us laugh, who pick us up when we are down, who tell us when we need to shape up and who care about us enough to stick around when things get tough. If you want to celebrate someone or more than one great person in your life, then this is a simple and fun way of paying that tribute.”

Once received, the images will then be brought together with the help of computer art experts, Pollytiles, into a special photo mosaic image which will be unveiled on the day.To get involved in this very special project just email your image to:

The closing date for the receipt of photos is Friday, August 28th 2015.

This latest project follows on from the hugely successful interactive artwork of FORUM 2013, when hundreds of people sent in pieces of hessian cloth decorated with the initials of loved ones.

Learn more about taking part at