Pressure for museum in Mullingar is mounting

Pressure is mounting on Westmeath County Council to open a museum in Mullingar after it emerged that the National Museum of Ireland has offered to lend it some of the county's priceless ancient artefacts, which are currently being housed in Dublin.

The offer was in response to Cllr Una D'Arcy's request that a dedicated Westmeath presentation be put together in the national museum in Dublin to highlight the county's rich history.

In a letter to the council, the National Museum said that while it is not in a position to facilitate Cllr D'Arcy's request at the moment due to its “severely limited space and staffing resources”, it said that it “would gladly consider lending objects”.

Speaking to Westmeath Examiner yesterday, Cllr D'Arcy called on the council to take advantage of the National Museum's offer and open a museum in one of Mullingar's historical buildings, such as Market House or Belvedere House.

“We now have a brand, Ireland's Ancient East, that is really driving the area across the world,” she said.

“Westmeath was clearly an important place in ancient times. We have stuff found across the county that is in the national museum, and that does not benefit Westmeath because the items are not displayed together.

“Westmeath is losing out. I spoke to Fáilte Ireland this morning and it has capital funding that the local authority could apply for.

“We also have significant buildings of heritage and we are at a loss at what to do with them. We are always asking what we can do with lovely buildings at Mullingar Railway Station. What can we do with Market House? What can we do with Belvedere or Columb Barracks?

“Wouldn't it be lovely if one of them housed a county museum?”

The council has recently appointed new tourism and heritage officers, who Cllr D'Arcy says could help develop a new museum in Mullingar to showcase the rich heritage of Westmeath.

“The whole product now is about experiential tourism - it's not enough now to have things in a case and have people looking at them,” said Cllr D'Arcy.

“What you want is a space for people to be able to come in and do something; where they can try things, wear things and taste things.”

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“We want to try to have a mix of experiences, but also a space for our key treasures. Why would we be letting our family silver be shown off somewhere else?”

Mullingar historian Jason McKevitt is part of a group that has been campaigning for a number of years for a museum to be opened in the town.

He says the onus is now on the council to open a museum as soon as possible. “We may not have the Shannon in Mullingar, but we definitely have a huge amount of history. It's very important that something is set up here,” he said this week.