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Minister Madigan welcomes reopening of National Cultural Institutions as part of Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business

The Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan TD, today announced that, as part of the Government’s Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business, six of our National Cultural Institutions will be reopening either fully or partly to the public with effect from 29 June 2020, while the Irish Museum of Modern Art will reopen from 30 June.

The six that will be reopening from 29 June are as follows:

  • The National Museum of Ireland (Decorative Arts & History, Collins Barracks, and Country Life, Turlough Park)
  • Crawford Art Gallery Cork
  • Chester Beatty
  • National Library of Ireland
  • National Archives
  • National Gallery of Ireland

The National Museum of Ireland’s Natural History Museum and Archaeology Museum will reopen on 20 July, while the National Concert Hall and the Abbey Theatre will reopen at a later date.

Speaking today, the Minister said:

I am delighted that six of our National Cultural Institutions will be reopening to the public either fully or partly from next Monday while a seventh - the Irish Museum of Modern Art - will reopen on Tuesday. Since the lockdown began on 12 March our National Cultural Institutions have done a wonderful job in responding to the Covid crisis by providing online content of the highest quality on their websites. Clearly this is no substitute for being able to visit a gallery, library or museum itself and I commend all of the institutions for all of their hard work in enabling this to happen!

The world as we know it has changed dramatically since the Covid crisis and our cultural institutions have also had to take measures to ensure that both visitors and staff will remain safe following reopening. While this may mean that in the short term not all of the collections or galleries will be available to visitors, I am nevertheless sure that visits to the institutions will remain a very rewarding experience.

While both the National Concert Hall and the Abbey Theatre are facing different challenges, I look forward to them being able to reopen to the public at a later date.

Reopening details for each Cultural Institution are available on their individual websites and links to the websites are set out below.