Irish National Museum
 Outside view of the museum section on Kildare Street |
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| Data | |
|---|---|
| place | Dublin and Castlebar , Ireland |
| Art | |
| architect | Thomas Newenham Deane and son Thomas Manly Dean |
| opening | 1890 |
| Number of visitors (annually) | (All parts) 783,278 (2009) |
| operator |
Republic of Ireland
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| management |
Raghnall Ó Floinn
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| Website | |
The National Museum of Ireland ( English Irish National Museum , Irish Ard-Mhúsaem na hÉireann ) is a complex of the collections of the Royal Irish Academy , the Museum of Irish Industry , the National History Museum and the Dublin Museum of Science and Art under one administration. The museum, founded in 1877, contains around four million pieces (as of 2013). It has three offices in Dublin and one in County Mayo . The collections focus on history , Irish art , culture and natural history . At first it reflected the British imperialist view of the world and hardly contained anything specifically Irish. It was only after the formation of the Irish Free State in 1922, at the request of the government, that it became a propaganda tool for Irish nationalism. Administratively it was under the Ministry of Education.
history
Poor people or farm workers who, as a result of population growth, opened up new, centuries-old untouched areas for agriculture and the expansion of localities, found many artifacts in the 19th century . Many historical tools were also unearthed during peat extraction . If the finds were not destroyed or melted down, they ended up in collections of existing institutions such as the Irish Royal Academy and the Royal Society of Antiques . At the beginning of the 1880s, George Coffey was appointed the first Superintendent of Irish Antiquities , but he did not initiate any excavations of his own specifically on Irish history for the time being. But on August 14, 1877, those responsible set up the new archeology and history department in the museum on Kildare Street. The Dublin Museum for Science and Art quickly emerged from the museum department and was finally opened in 1890 in a new building including the Leinster House . The constant expansion of the collection and the formation of a separate Irish state led to the renaming of the National Museum of Ireland and the use of additional buildings. (The "Leinster House" has been the seat of the Irish Parliament since 1922.)
Targeted archaeological excavations began after a commission with the Swedish Prof. Nils Lithberg had drawn up a reorganization plan in 1927. The implementation was carried out by the Austrian Adolf Mahr , who was initially Keeper of Irish Antiquities and director of the museum from 1934 to 1939.
Mahr rearranged the exhibition. The Irish artifacts were displayed in the central hall, gold jewelry, etc. brought from the vaults to the general exhibition. Furthermore, from 1931 onwards, he increasingly promoted young archaeologists who first introduced modern scientific methods into archeology. In doing so, he often exceeded his competencies and did not wait for the required permits. In spite of all public activities, by the 1930s the house had only a third of the resources it had had under colonial rule before 1922.
The departments of the museum
Archeology ("Pre-Historic Ireland")
The archeology department is housed in a complex on Kildare Street. Finds from the area of present-day Ireland (Celtic art) can be seen here: early metalwork in gold, silver, bronze or iron, church treasures and objects from the Viking Age and the Middle Ages .
A special highlight is the presentation of the first written finds in Ireland: the Ogham script (alphabet, not unlike Latin and consisting of 20 letters). An obelisk with corresponding carved characters is considered the first evidence, it is dated between the 4th and 6th centuries AD.
- "Ireland's Gold" and "The Treasury"
The Treasury exhibition area includes finds from the Bronze Age and art from the early Middle Ages. Here are especially brooches , chalices , such as the Tara Brooch and the Ardagh Chalice to name. Even Bishop bars and other church utensils and other 50 gold jewelry belonging to this part of the exposition.
- "Kingdom, Vikings and Medieval Ireland"
Important exhibits include a field gun captured in the Sikh War in 1846 and Lord Chancellor's sofa, which was imported to Ireland in 1790 . Also worth mentioning are well-preserved bog bodies (including the Ralaghan Man ) and a peat boat ( Loughan boat or Loughan canoe ), which are attributed to the Iron Age. The exhibits are complemented by the presentation of ongoing investigations by specialists in the Offaly and Meath countries. Corleck's stone head is also assigned to the Iron Age.
Finds from the years 795 to 1170 document the life and settlement of the island by the Vikings : weapons, fishing, agriculture, funeral services. Another section is devoted to the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 (Battle of Dublin).
In addition to the country-specific exhibits, the archeology area of the National Museum also has a collection of ceramics and glass from Cyprus as well as finds that illustrate the development of civilization in ancient Egypt .
Special exhibitions are regularly installed on the ground floor.
"Decorative Arts & History" (Decorative Arts and History)
Decorative art and history with the Great Seal of the Irish Free State is the part of the collection in the rooms of the Collins Barracks , a former military barracks. This area of the National Museum was opened in 1997 and shows furniture, dishes, ceramics and glassware, also examples of folk art, money and weapons and other military items from 1550 to the present day. A Chinese porcelain vase from around 1300 is remarkable here. Special exhibitions are also regularly set up, for example Irish high crosses were on view in the summer of 2007. The headquarters of the National Museum are also located in the barracks buildings.
Country Life
Country Life opened in 2001 as the youngest part of the museum. It is just outside the village of Turlough , on Highway 5 five miles east of Castlebar , County Mayo . The exhibition focuses on everyday life from the middle of the 19th to the middle of the 20th century. Most of the exhibits come from rural Ireland in the 1930s. Aspects of the environment and the development of the places are represented as far as possible.
naturehistorical Museum
The Natural History Museum is also part of the National Museum of Ireland. Samples of animals and plants from Asia and around the world are collected in a Victorian building on Merrion Street in Dublin. The basis for this area of the collection was the delivery of 22 Tibetan pictures on leather that the emigrated Irish Jew Albert Bender donated to the National Museum in 1931. After that, Bender delivered more Asian items . In 1932, at Bender's request, the entire collection was named Augusta Bender Memorial Room of Far Eastern Art in honor of his mother. The Taoiseach Éamon de Valera opened this memorial room on June 25, 1934. The holdings have been in the magazine since 1973.
The big game specimens in this area are the prey of Livingstone's expeditions.
literature
- Patrick Denis O'Donnell: Short Stories Irish Barracks. In: Ein Cosantoir (Irish Defense Forces Journal), 1969–1973.
- Mairead Dunleavy: Dublin Barracks - A Brief History of the Collins Barracks. National Museum of Ireland, 2002.
- Treasures of Early Irish Art, 1500 BC Christ until AD 1500: from the collections of the National Museum of Ireland , Royal Irish Academy, Trinity College, Dublin . The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1977,ISBN 978-0-87099-164-6.
Web links
- National Museum of Ireland website
- Introduction to the archeology and ethnography of the National Museum
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gerry Mullins, Seán O'Keeffe (Ed.): Dublin Nazi No. 1: The Life of Adolf Mahr. Blackrock 2007, ISBN 978-1-905483-19-8 , pp. 38ff.
- ↑ a b c d e f g information sheet that visitors receive with admission; Status 2014
Coordinates: 53 ° 20 ′ 23 " N , 6 ° 15 ′ 12" W.