Murty Quinn: ‘I’m 43 years collecting’

Murty Quinn, the man behind the new museum at Columb Barracks, served with the Defence Forces for 24 years, mostly in Mullingar, and was a sergeant in the Military Police for 22 of those years.

He served in Cyprus and in Lebanon on four occasions. The first one in Cyprus was as an artillery gunner, and the other ones in Lebanon were as a military policeman.

Asked to explain the military memorabilia in his museum, Murty said: “My collection consists of artefacts from the army, the navy, the Air Corps, and UN artefacts from overseas that Irish soldiers would have worn or had, and gave me as presents when they brought them back.

“They brought back plenty of things called ‘Mingis’, and I have a lot of them from different lads, different friends.

“I have a fair number of uniforms, probably around 100 altogether, all Irish, collected over the span of more than 40 years – I’m 43 years collecting this year.”

Murty has a lot of small items such as helmets and badges. “All the troops overseas had badges, their titles, say, they were the 53rd or the 54th, and I have nearly all the army insignia, say, the 6th Battalion, the 1st Battalion.

“I have a badge up there, made with the 4th Field S&T in Columb Barracks, it’s called the IV badge – soldiers will know what I mean. It’s one of the first badges that was ever made. I have one of them, and it’s damn near priceless.”

The oldest item is a Vickers helmet from World War I. “It’s a German helmet, but the Irish government bought them and they wore them here in the Irish Army,” said Murty.