A TOTAL of 28,947 people visited Clare Museum in Ennis during 2013, making the year the busiest since 2008. More than 3,000 extra visitors came to the museum during the year representing 12.5% increase on 2012 and continued an upward trend that began in 2011.
While both the The Gathering and increased traffic into Shannon, particularly from the United States, were important factors in this increase, a number of museum initiatives were hugely successful during the year also.
Among these initiatives were public talks on the Hidden History of Clare that attracted great interest locally during the winter and spring. Another was the Festival of Poland, a project designed to build a bridge between the museum and the largest ethnic minority in the county.
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.