Re - opening of Waterford County Museum

View of the Museum and Town hall Theatre

Tom Murphy, FAS. Dr Patrick Wallace, national Museum of Ireland who carried out the official opening. Dungarvan Town Mayor Theresa Wright, Eddie Cantwell president Waterford County museum & William Fraher, Curator Waterford County Museum, & Donal Brady, County librarian

Address by Eddie Cantwell

Mayor of Dungarvan Mrs Theresa Wright, deputies, Councillors, Dr. Patrick Wallace, Friends and benefactors and fellow Museum workers.

I extend a warm welcome to you all to this the official re-opening of the Museum after extensive refurbishment.

Most everyone present has had some input into what is a good example of what can be achieved by genuine public/private partnership.

A museum is a non-profit institution in the service of society and its development; it acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity.

Despite being a small museum, we can claim all of the attributes which I have just listed. We can also claim a further attribute, in that we are a voluntary Institution!

The society was founded as Dungarvan museum society in 1982 (I was but a mere child back then!) It was founded under the auspices of the then County manager Mr. Dan Hurley, following (would you believe) an approach by the local branch of the Irish Countrywomen’s Association under their President the late Mrs. Joan bailey.

It was not unusual back then to see a skip placed outside an old established business that was closed down and the contents from within thrown in the skip . A lot of the town history was lost in this manner. It was something the new committee would address

The committee elected at that time were:

Joan Bailey Chairperson Ciaran Tracey Secretary and Gai Morrissey treasurer

Committee: Ritchie Walsh, Tom Nolan, Jim Shine. Kathleen Dowling, Billy Kyne, Pat Veale, Willie Fraher & Donal Walsh.

Only two of the original founding members still hold positions on the committee today, they are Jim Shine and Willie Fraher; both have contributed greatly to the Museum over the past 28 years.

A Number of people who have served on the committee over the years are no longer with us and we remember them on this special occasion.

This view of the handling object which are a great interest to Children. They can play and enjoy objects from the 12th and 13th century, including chain mail and weaponry .

The first exhibition, which mounted in the building before refurbishment had a maritime theme, which struck a cord with the public and generated a great deal of interest.

This also attracted donations of items of local historical interest for permanent exhibition.

The cost of the exhibition area was estimated at the time to be £2.000 and approximately £1.000 was spent by the society, (including voluntary labour) in setting up exhibition cases, information panels etc.

It also proved possible through the assistance of the national museum and the national Library to mount temporary exhibitions which were useful in establishing the Museum’s presence and maintaining public interest

The first thing that was donated to the Museum was a branding iron, which came from Mansfield’s of Old parish. I have speculated that an early emigrant from Old Parish may have started Steer branding on the plains of Texas!

In addition to rent-free accommodation from the Urban Council, the County Council provided, on an informal basis, secretarial and copying services, which enabled the Museum to publish various booklets, guides, and brochures on local topics and items of historical interest.

When a decision was made by the local Authority to establish an Arts Centre in the Old market house in 1998 and for the Urban Council to move its offices,

The Museum Society acquired a lease on the Vacated space on the ground floor and negotiated the conversion of most of the old office space to an exhibition area and administration /storage, this in turn doubled the exhibition space which was badly needed and allowed for more items to be displayed.

The cost of this conversion was approximately, E19.000, and the society acquired, from its own recourses, exhibition cases valued at E8.000.

The local Authority continued to fund the annual cost of heating, lighting etc and agreed a nominal fee for the lease, thus enabling the society to husband its recourses for its core work.

The assistance of FAS in agreeing to support a community Employment Scheme involving the Museum, Tourist interest and Chamber of Commerce enabled work to be undertaken on cataloguing and conserving artefacts, engaging in historical research and keeping the Museum open to the public.

It would not be possible for the Museum to be opened five days a week without the involvement of FAS, or indeed the massive amount of work that is carried out within the Museum could never be undertaking without the input from FAS.

This is something that we are very aware of and very grateful for. We have a good working relationship with Mr, Tommy Murphy, and his input is very much appreciated. I would like to thank him here this evening. We have also been lucky with the continuing support of staff that has been supplied to the Museum; we are grateful for their input and hope that it has been a learning experience for them.

We have also been lucky with the continuing supply of staff that has been appointed to the Museum

The heritage Council proved very supportive and provided financial assistance for many projects in conservation and publican areas. Again for these we are sincerely grateful

I would like to mention the local web design firm, Deise design LTD, whose principles- Martin & William Whelan-, are very committed members of the Museum Society, They enabled us to set up an award winning website which was short listed among the top five research sites in the world. And, a digital photographic archive which is being continually expanded, we now have over 3.500 images up and it promises to be the largest of its kind in the world. Both websites have come in for world recognition, and won awards in their respective fields.

Winner of the Best Small Museum Website, at the Museums, and the Web Conference in Albuquerque 2006. This was for the digital image archive.

Short listed in the top five sites in the world for Best Museum Research Site at the Museums and the Web Conference in Boston.
We also won Heritage Council Publication of the year

Historian Julian Walton, one of the speakers at the opening

The Heritage council again have been very supportive of these ventures, which in turn have established very valuable links with the Irish Diaspora, particularly in North America.

Moving swiftly on to 2006. The Dungarvan Town Council decided to refurbish the Town hall and establish a modern theatre on the upper floor, they also supported plans of the Museum Society to re-design the ground floor area to expand and improve the exhibition area, and spent approximately E300.000 on the work,.

I would like to publicly acknowledge the assistance and help which we received from the Town manager, Mr Denis McCarthy and also, Mr Joe Flaherty, Joe was always helpful & available when we needed him, we are indebted to both for their continuing help. I would also like acknowledge, Co. Manager, Mr Ray Dwyer, his Predecessors Mr Dan Hurley & Mr Donal Connelly .All have been a part of this great journey

There is an old saying, “The first step towards getting somewhere is to decided that you are not going to stay where you are”,

This is something that our committee decided on when the Council made the decision to re- develop the town hall and the museum.

And, so began a big fundraising drive by us. A third of the overall cost spent in the outfitting was given in grant aid by the Waterford Leader Partnership, who’s Chief Executive Jimmy Taffe has been very supportive at all times.

Our goal was in the region of E 100.000, and in the words of Barrack Obama, ‘Yes we can and yes we did!’ our time frame was based on the completion of Museum. The total resulting improvements cost in the region of E150.000,

The donations, large and not so large, but all given willingly, and with words of encouragement for our endeavours. We sincerely thank all those who contributed to this wonderful project. We know that other donors will forgive us if we mention Tom Kavanagh, Peter Queally, & Kevin Curtain of Blackwater homes for being particularly generous in their support.

The society for its part, undertook a complete re-design of its exhibition facility, including the provision of new climate controlled exhibition cases, and design of information panels, the entire content of which was done ‘in-house’

In this regard, we are immeasurably indebted to our curator Willie Fraher, who manages to combine the skills of a trained graphic designer,

The dedication of a gifted researcher, the expertise of a post graduate diploma in Museum Practice & management. Add to that the patience of Job in dealing with an exacting sub-committee, as well as supervising a FAS Scheme.

I recall one day calling into the Museum when Willie was about the delicate task of placing an item in a display case.

It just could not be placed any old where, it had to be positioned just right...’lash into it Willie!’ I said, ‘It’ll be grand’...obviously it was the wrong thing to say and the lecture that followed made me regret ever having said it!

I would like also to thank to thank our honorary treasurer Mary Giblin for ensuring that our cash flow handling during the redevelopment kept us out of an overdraft situation. We have also been fortunate in getting assistance from the probation Service, ably supervised by Paddy Daly in making special furniture for us.

We would like on this occasion to thank our trustee’s Mr. Ray Dwyer, Co, manager, Mrs Sean Murphy, & Julian Walton, both local historians of much more than local reputation, for consenting to act in that capacity and helping to ensure confidence between us and donors of material for the Museum.

We would also at this time extend our sincere thanks to the local newspapers, The Dungarvan leader & the Dungarvan Observer. It is always easy to forget the contribution that they make to the public.

We are now satisfied that we are on well on the way to having a standard of recording conservation, and display that meets acceptable standards, but we certainly do not think that we have reached the end of the road.

We would like to establish better storage and workroom areas, Enlarge our collection; extend into other parts of the county, Expand our facility for research and publication; enhance our outreach to our friends and supporters at home and abroad and to the county education system, so as to improve the appreciation of our history and heritage which is after all, the reason for our existence.

Our next step now is in raising E8.000 in order to complete the Museum layout. Another priority is in replacing the present lighting system which is unsuitable and not Museum friendly, this will cost in the region of E 20.000. Our next fundraising project is our book sale which takes place in May. Garveys have kindly allowed us the use of their vacant space at the Main St entrance for the fundraiser.