National Museum of Ireland-Country Life

The Museum of Country Life is the youngest of the four museums that make up the National Museum of Ireland. Set in the spectacular grounds of Turlough Park, Co. Mayo, it opened in September 2001.

The Museum is the home of the Irish Folklife Collection of the National Museum of Ireland, that is, the National Folklife Collection of the Republic of Ireland.

The Country Life complex includes exhibition galleries, storage facilities for the reserve collection, education rooms, and a conservation laboratory. The exhibition galleries are housed in a purpose-built stone-clad building designed by the Architectural Services of the Office of Public Works.

Public facilities, including a restaurant, bookshop and library, and staff offices are located in the Victorian Turlough Park House – formerly the home of the Fitzgerald family. The original drawing room and library of the 'Big House' are open to the public and furnished as they might have looked in 1900.

Upcoming Exhibitions:

Coggalbeg Hoard
October2011 – Summer 2012
This important hoard of Early Bronze Age sheet gold work was found in a bog at Coggalbeg, Co. Roscommon, in 1945. The lunula and the discs were placed in a safe in Sheehan’s pharmacy in the nearby town of Strokestown in 1947. In March 2009 a break-in took place at the shop and the pharmacy safe was stolen. This lead to a massive investigation by An Garda Síochána which eventually led to the recovery of the gold in a rubbish skip in Dublin city. The lunula and the discs weigh only 70g (2½ oz.). They were wrapped in brown paper and because they are so light and flat they were not noticed by the robbers. Fortunately, the objects were not damaged.

Power and Privilege: photographs of the Big House in Ireland, 1858-1922
Dec 2011 - Spring 2012
Visit this photographic exhibition from the National Photographic Archive. Step back in time, and into the homes and lives of the first Irish photographers. Put faces to the names of those that lived in the ‘Big Houses’ of the 19th century. Meet the many house servants, farm workers and tenants that kept-up the landed estates and ‘Big Houses.’

Permanent Exhibitions:

Romanticism & Reality
Life in rural Ireland is popularly portrayed as simple and romantic. The reality was different. Life was a struggle and survival depended on a detailed knowledge of the landscape and environment; on craft, skill and ingenuity. This way of life changed little over many hundreds of years and its continuity is evident in the similarities between recently-made objects and their counterparts made long ago. This exhibition also highlights the importance of Folklife, which deals with objects, the skills needed to produce them and their place in the lives of the people; and Folklore, which deals with stories, myths and traditional beliefs outside formal religion.

Trades and Crafts
This exhibition contains the objects relating to the various skills practised in rural Ireland between 1850 and 1950. It also displays the methods, tools and produce of the blacksmith, tinsmith, wheelwright, wood turner and carpenter, country cooper, harness maker, thatcher, basketmaker, tailor and cobbler.

During this time, most of the objects that people needed for their daily lives were made by hand using locally available raw materials. Many householders, adept in a range of crafts, provided for their own needs by making objects such as wicker baskets, wooden furniture and clay vessels. However, most objects were made by local craftsmen such as the blacksmith or wood turner.

Although the objects made by the country craft workers were often beautiful in form, they were primarily influenced by practical use or function rather than aesthetics. Traditional craft workers generally didn't use written measurements or patterns; they relied instead on the skill and accuracy developed through many years of rigorous apprenticeship and experience. Their skills were passed from one generation to the next, often within the same family, resulting in several generations of craft workers who kept traditional patterns and forms in the objects they created. Their tools were greatly valued and usually made by the local blacksmith, wood turner or carpenter. Those tools were also handed down from one generation to the next. These craftsmen were very important members of the community, providing the necessary goods and services to the local people, and were highly respected for their skills.

The Natural Environment
Communities relied on the resources available in the immediate natural environment for self-sufficiency and survival. This exhibition looks at how the way of life in rural Ireland was influenced by the landscape and its resources. This is explored through vernacular architecture and illustrated by using different raw materials to make similar objects.

Temporary Exhibitions:

Straw, Hay and Rushes
You can imagine a mat made from straw. How about sleeping on a straw mattress, horse-riding using a saddle made from rushes, making a raincoat from a wheat sheaf or insulating your home with plaited straw draft excluders? The Museum’s new temporary exhibition will include more than a hundred objects made from these natural materials, some of which you will be able to experience for yourself. You never know, in these days of credit crunches and recession, you might even pick up some money saving ideas.

For the current calendar of events for the National Museums, visit www.museum.ie.