Tag Archives: Clare Museum

Clare County Council has closed a number of facilities including the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience due to severe weather conditions expected during Hurricane Ophelia. Limited essential services will be provided by the council during Monday. A number of local authority facilities will remain closed during the day. These include the Central Waste Management Facility, Ballyduffbeg, Ennis, Lisdeen, Scariff and Shannon Recycling Centres; Active Kilrush Amenity Park, Active Ennis Leisure Centre, Active Ennis John O’Sullivan Park, Lees Road, all Clare County Library branches, Clare Museum, Loop Head Lighthouse and the Clare Arts Office.

RELAND’S rich musical heritage will be showcased at Clare Museum in Ennis during Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, with an exhibition of some of the oldest known musical instruments, spanning more than 6,000 years. Ancient Music Ireland will present the interactive, multi-sensory exhibition at from Monday to Friday next. Featuring reproductions of ancient horns and trumpets from pre-Norman Ireland back to the Stone Age, the collection will feature rare and historic bodhráns, with a story to go with each drum. Among the frame drums to be displayed are the oldest known surviving bodhrán and stick in Ireland (circa 1935), a drum made from the last goat on Coney Island and examples of drums made by the renowned Charlie Byrne of Thurles. Horns and trumpets are displayed to showcase the evolvement of music and ritual from the Stone Age (circa. 4,000 BC) to the Early Medieval Christian era (circa. 700 AD). A progression of musical culture is represented from cow horns through cast and …

Clare Museum is seeking donations to expand its collections for future generations to enjoy. The Ennis-based Museum is particularly looking for items relating to the 1917 East Clare byelection which began Eamon de Valera’s political career, Ardnacrusha Power Station on the 90th anniversary of the founding of the ESB, Shannon Airport and the Free Zone on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dr. Brendan O’Regan, and Clare participants in the Spanish Civil War. According to Museum Curator John Rattigan, “Clare Museum collects items that exist in or relate to Clare. Our collection is our greatest resource as it underpins exhibitions and educational activities.” “Last year we successfully collected information technology items. This year we are particularly interested in any items relating to the 1917 by-election or the hunger strikes of that year. The centenaries for both will be commemorated during 2017,” said Mr Rattigan.

The Clare Museum is among seven of Ireland’s museums which have been recognised for high standards of management, care of collections and visitor services, by the Heritage Council under its Museum Standards Programme for Ireland (MSPI). Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane and the Zoological Museum in Trinity College were awarded full accreditation, while Farmleigh OPW and the GAA Museum have successfully maintained their full accreditation. Three other museums – Clare Museum, Dublin Castle State Apartments OPW and Highlanes Gallery in Drogheda – have been awarded interim accreditation. Michael Starrett, Heritage Council Chief Executive outlined that Clare Museum submitted a high quality and thorough application and strove hard to complete any outstanding matters.  In particular, Clare Museum regularized the questions about collections ownership, documentation and disposal policy. “It has also prepared a sound Strategic Management Plan, something it did not have in 2007. The preparation of an SMP is one the more onerous tasks of the MSPI scheme and Clare …

Clare Museum is to receive Interim Accreditation Status under the Heritage Council’s Museum Standards Programme for Ireland. The programme is designed to improve all areas of museum practice across the whole museum, including museum management, public services and collection management. Clare Museum now joins an elite band of museums of all types that have achieved accreditation at some level, including National institutions and small volunteer-led organisations. The Accreditation programme comprises 34 agreed minimum standards. Twenty-five of these are required to achieve interim accreditation, while the remaining nine standards are required for full accreditation. New Collection, Loan, Exhibition and Disposal Policies were recently adopted by Clare County Council as part of the process along with a Strategic Management Plan, which will help to develop the museum for the next three years. John Rattigan, curator of Clare Museum, stated that ‘the remaining standards required for full accreditation will be pursued by the staff and volunteers at the museum over the next sixteen …

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.