SERVICES
New Museum At The Peace Campus To Open In Early 2024
Monaghan County Museum will close at its current home on Hill Street on International Museums Day, May 18th this year.
This will be a last chance to see the exhibits at Hill Street – the Museum’s home for the past 40 years – before the facility moves to a new, purpose-built premises at the Peace Campus in early 2024.
The First Professionally Run Local Authority Museum in Ireland
Monaghan County Museum earned its place in the history books by being the first local authority museum in Ireland to be run by paid, full-time staff when it opened in September 1974.
“It was a bold statement from Monaghan County Council that they were looking to the future and recognised the importance of preserving and exploring the rich culture and history of the county and surrounding region,” said the Museum’s curator, Liam Bradley.
“Despite the backdrop of the troubles and shock of the devastating Monaghan bombing which had taken place just a few months prior, here was a service that was open to all. A safe space where people from all backgrounds could come and discover a shared history,” he added.
The Museum was originally housed in the Courthouse, before a fire in the building prompted a move to the Hill Street location.
Over the decades that followed, the Museum’s collection grew to reflect the cultural diversity and historical richness of the county. Each object tells a story, of a person, a place, a passion, a life lived, and lives lost.
Exciting Times Ahead As Museum At The Peace Campus Opens
The ambitions of the service and the wealth and breadth of the stories which the collection holds needed a bigger and more accessible space to reach an even wider audience. That new space is the Peace Campus building, currently under construction on Plantation Road in Monaghan Town.
It is hoped that the building will be completed by November 2023, and the Museum reopened to the public in early 2024.
“Monaghan County Museum is about you, it is for you. Monaghan County Museum on Hill Street will soon become part of the history of the county, why not come in and be part of that history before we move to the future Monaghan County Museum at the Peace Campus.” Bradley concluded.