SERVICES
Award-Winning Museum Re-Opens at Brand-New €22m Peace Campus
Major New Exhibition, Bordering Realities – Monaghan People and Stories Explores Evolving Narrative of Life on The Border
Monaghan County Museum has a new home at the state-of-the-art Peace Campus in Monaghan Town following a full year’s closure, which involved the painstaking logging, categorising and relocation of over 50,000 artefacts accumulated over the Museum’s 50-year history.
To coincide with the move, a major new exhibition has been unveiled – Bordering Realities – Monaghan People and Stories – heralding a new era at the Museum.
“Over the last five years we have worked to develop the story which became Bordering Realities -Monaghan People and Stories, a major new exhibition exploring the idea of borders in our lives, to coincide with the move to our new home at the Peace Campus,” said Curator Liam Bradley.
“The story of lines is rooted in the bedrock of our community. These lines reflect the bordering realities of life in this county. Over time those lines have bent and curved in response to changes in society and in doing so have created a beautiful mosaic of the cultural diversity and historical richness that is county Monaghan. As we open to the public once again at our new home in the Peace Campus in our 50th year of serving the people of Monaghan we invite everyone to put their foot on the line and explore the question: Do our borders define us or do we define our borders?” Bradley concluded.
Highlights of the new exhibition, include:
- The Story of the Ulster Scots – working with cross-borders partners in the Ulster Scots Agency as well as organisations representing the Ulster Scots or Scots Irish story in the US, a dedicated space chronicles the journey of sharing cultural ideas and identities.
- Video interviews with well-known Monaghan people, including Caitriona Balfe, Barry McGuigan, Ardal O’Hanlon and Tommy Bowe, in which they each speak candidly about their own unique, personal experience of growing up on the border.
- ‘Place’, a short film by award-winning filmmaker, Luke Leslie, commissioned especially for the exhibition – a visual journey which explores the border region around County Monaghan.
Visitors can also expect to see key artefacts of local and national significance, including the Cross of Clogher, approximately 500 years old and one of the most famous pieces of Medieval Irish Art in existence; and the fully restored door to Rossmore Castle, one of the last remaining pieces of Rossmore Castle, which was destroyed by fire and demolished eventually in 1974.
Accessibility is at the fore of the new facility: Vision Ireland and the Independent Living Movement of Ireland (ILMI) advised the museum team to ensure that the exhibition can be experienced and enjoyed by all.
Features of include tactile and sensory displays, accessible exhibition cases, comfortable seating, easy to read text and QR codes which take visitors to read aloud version of the information; this feature will also allow visitors to listen to the fascinating stories within the exhibition in their own language.
Monaghan County Museum at the Peace Campus is open Mon-Fri, 11am-5pm for the summer period, with the plan to expand these opening hours later in the year entrance is free of charge.
To find out more, visit www.monaghan.ie/museum/