Ladies and gentlemen.
It is a great pleasure to be here at the National Museum of Ireland’s Country Life branch to help it celebrate its tenth birthday.
The Museum of Country Life is unique in the National Museum of Ireland because it is more than just the conventional galleries and other usual facilities.
Its location makes it unique. Part of the museum’s attraction is its setting – the Big House, the wonderful gardens, the lake. Here, in the magnificent grounds of Turlough Park House, are housed and displayed the objects that tell us so much about traditional life in Ireland in the century between the end of the Great Famine and the immediate aftermath of the Second World War.
The decision to locate a branch of the National Museum outside the capital city was a brave and imaginative one, and a decision I am proud to have been party to. The fruitful collaboration between my then Department, the National Museum, Mayo County Council and the Office of Public Works has given the country a museum to be proud of.
After more than eighty years of collecting, campaigning and planning, Ireland finally has a national folk museum, in common with most other European countries. It is fitting that the youngest collecting division in the National Museum, the Irish Folk Life Division, should have the newest museum, with fine modern display galleries and state-of-the-art storage and conservation facilities.
I want to pay tribute to the two organisations whose early vision has brought us to this day – the National Museum and Mayo County Council. Without the Council's foresight in purchasing Turlough Park House as an investment for the County when it came on the market, things would be very different today. I congratulate Mayo County Council for the way in which they have restored and maintained the grounds, and I congratulate the Office of Public Works for their work on the House and the Museum.
Although the museum has been open only ten years, the Museum has firmly established itself as one of the principal cultural and tourism destinations outside Dublin with more than 100,000 visitors each year. A total of more than 1.1 million people have visited the museum since it opened in September 2001. The economic importance of the Museum of Country Life to County Mayo and the West cannot be under-estimated. It is now firmly part of the tourism infrastructure of the Region, and we are all aware of how important tourism is to the economy. The Museum is also a significant employer. In addition to the 32 Museum staff, another dozen people earn their living at the Museum – security, grounds maintenance, cleaning and catering staff. With additional staff employed in the Café during the summer months, the number swells to nearly fifty people. All of these people live and spend money in County Mayo. The Museum, of course, also purchases other goods and services in the Region, sustaining employment and contributing to the local economy.
The Museum has won the coveted “Museum of the Year Award” as the best museum in Ireland, North or South, and it has also won awards for its education service. A carefully selected programme of temporary exhibitions catches the public imagination, and has included everything from evocative children’s toys to travel posters, and from Aran knitwear and the Cross of Cong. Many of the temporary exhibitions that are developed here in Turlough Park are eagerly borrowed by museums elsewhere in Ireland and abroad.
The Museum runs a constantly changing programme of workshops, events and festivals for adults, families and schools. This helps raise awareness of the Museum collection and the associated traditional crafts, customs and traditions. The regular agenda consists of talks, demonstrations and performances as well as hands-on art and craft workshops. And, of course, there is Féile na Tuaithe, now in its seventh year, a 2-day festival of craft and family fun held each May that attracts up to 25,000 people. The exhibition of posters and photographs in the Museum Café gives a flavour of the number and variety of activities of all sorts that have been staged here over the last ten years.
I wish to congratulate the Director of the Museum, Dr. Pat Wallace, and his staff on what has been achieved so far. I say “so far”, because the work does not stop here. I planted an oak tree, a little earlier. It is already a few years old and it will continue to develop and grow here in Turlough Park in the coming decades. So also with the Museum of Country Life! Ten years is a significant milestone, and it is now time to review what has been achieved and where the Museum goes from here. Already, the Museum of Country Life is setting the pace within the National Museum as it goes forward for Accreditation in the Museum Standards Programme for Ireland.
Pat, I wish you and your very committed and talented team here in Turlough Park every success in what lies ahead. Happy Birthday!