In June 2016, with the help of Limerick City and County Council, JP McManus Benevolent Fund, John Moran and Loretta Brennan Glucksman, Narrative 4 Ireland opened a state-of-the-art creative facility in Limerick in a renovated a dilapidated Georgian townhouse that once served as a public library on O’ Connell Street. 

Because of Ireland’s history, Limerick seemed like a natural place in which to set up an Empathy Centre; a place where young people from across the city, and indeed the globe, could come together to step into one another’s shoes. That is the fundamental tenet of Narrative 4 – You tell my story, I will tell yours. 

This act of radical empathy is designed so that the true function of stories – to connect us and bring us alive in bodies not our own – can not only live on, but flourish. Since we have opened in Ireland, we have worked with thousands of young people; all eager to tap into their creativity and tell their stories. 

The Story Exchange allows us to see each other and ourselves in new ways, to connect in profound ways; as our shared humanity becomes apparent. What is the world except the story of everyone else?