National Museum of Ireland
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The National Museum of Ireland (NMI) is the main museum in Ireland. It has three centres in Dublin and Mayo, with a strong emphasis on Irish art, culture and natural history.
Archaeology and History section on Kildare Street includes the Ardagh Chalice and the Tara Brooch, both especially famous examples of early medieval metalwork in Ireland, as well as prehistoric ornaments from the Bronze Age in Ireland. Many of these pieces were found in the nineteenth century by peasants or agricultural labourers, when population expansion led to cultivation of land which had not been touched since the middle ages. Indeed, only for the intervention of George Petrie of the Royal Irish Academy, and likeminded individuals from the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, most of the metalwork would have been melted down for the intrinsic value of its materials, as did frequently happen despite their efforts. Contemporary Irish are more tuned to their heritage: in July 2006 the alert eye of a backhoe operator in central Ireland was responsible for him stopping his machine in time to retrieve a book of Psalms, datable to the ninth or tenth century, that was buried in the peat bog; the leatherbound book, the first discovery of an Irish early medieval document in two centuries, is being conserved at the Museum.[1]
The Museums of both institutions formed the basis for the Archaeology and History section of the Museum at Kildare Street. This is the original site opened in 1890 as the Dublin Museum of Science and Art. This site also included Leinster House until 1922, now the home of the Oireachtas.
Country Life is the most recent part of the museum to be opened. It is located in Castlebar, in County Mayo and was opened in 2001. Much of the material in this site dates from rural Ireland in the 1930s and shows the characteristics of ordinary life at this time.
Decorative Arts and History, including the Great Seal of the Irish Free State, is kept at the Collins Barracks site, this is a former military barracks named after Michael Collins in 1922. This site opened in 1997 and is the administrative center.
Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum is on Merrion Street in Dublin and houses specimens of animals from around the world. Its collection and Victorian appearance have not changed significantly since the early 20th century.
Notes
- ^ http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2006/07/25/ancient_book_of_psalms_found_in_irish_bog/ "Ireland worker finds ancient psalms in bog"]
Selected References
- Short Histories of Irish Barracks by Patrick Denis O'Donnell Collins Barracks, Clancy Barracks, Griffith Barracks, McKee Barracks, Keogh Barracks, Aiken Barracks/Dundalk, Mellowes Barracks/Galway), in An Cosantoir (Journal of the Irish Defence Forces), 1969-1973.
- The Barracks and Posts of Ireland - 21:Collins Barracks, Dublin, part 3, pages 48-52 in An Cosantoir, Dublin, February 1973.
- The Barracks and Posts of Ireland - 22:Royal or Collins Barracks, part 4, the eighteenth century, pages 266-276 in An Cosantoir, Dublin, August 1973.
- Dublin’s Collins Barracks over the years, in Hollybough, December 1994.
- Dublin Barracks - A Brief History of Collins Barracks, by Mairead Dunleavy, National Museum of Ireland, 2002 (largely based on earlier work by Patrick Denis O'Donnell, as acknowledged in Preface, page 4 by Patrick Wallace, Director, and in Acknowledgements, page 7, Bibliography, page 68, and Notes, pages 67-72).