Bringing Cork's past to life: the 80th anniversary of city's Public Museum

On April 4, 1945, a small crowd of guests and dignitaries gathered in Fitzgerald Park to witness the official opening of Cork Public Museum by Minister of Posts and Telegraphs, PJ Little.

The reporter from the Cork Examiner proclaimed that the moment should “be regarded as a landmark in the history of the municipality and its surroundings by all who believe in the preservation of a memory of the past coupled with a realisation of the present”.

This was not the first public museum in the city’s history, or indeed in Fitzgerald Park, but the first iteration, the Fitzgerald Park Municipal Museum (FPMM), had closed over two decades previously, leaving Ireland’s second city without a cultural institution to collect, preserve and exhibit Cork’s material heritage.

This changed in March, 1942, when a historical exhibition, organised by Coiste na Gaedhilge, was held in the Cork Examiner offices at 97, Patrick Street. It contained hundreds of documents and objects, especially from the 1916-1921 period, that endeavoured to present an overview of Irish political history from 1798.

According to its organisers, the undertaking was designed to “reveal to the younger generation the long-reaching roots which fed the tree that blossomed in glory during Easter Week, 1916”.

The exhibition proved a huge success, revealing an appetite and interest among Cork people for the “tangible remains of their nation, county and city”.

This public enthusiasm prompted well-known philanthropist and politician, Jane ‘Jeannie’ Dowdall, to spearhead efforts to establish a permanent museum in the city.

To this end, a large public meeting at the Imperial Hotel on April 18 led to the formation of a Museum Committee, comprised of prominent of the city’s political, social and educational classes.

The city’s previous public museum had closed with little more than a whimper after only 14 years in 1924, when the newly appointed City Manager, Philip Monahan, recommissioned the building as his headquarters.

The FPMM had not enjoyed the required financial or istrative from the Corporation and relied on a small museum advisory committee to keep it running.

No doubt influenced by these past experiences, the new Committee sought to put in place a more sustainable management and funding framework to ensure the longevity of their project.

The Committee negotiated with the Corporation for the use of the old museum building in Fitzgerald Park, while securing an agreement between the Corporation, County Council and UCC by early 1944 to manage and finance the museum. More importantly, it was also decided that UCC should manage and run the museum with from an advisory group, made up of of the original organising Committee.

When UCC took up their museum management duties in early 1944, its governing body, chaired by recently appointed President, Professor O’Rahilly, set about getting the museum ready. Though not convinced by the merit of the project, O’Rahilly reluctantly oversaw its preparations.

Filling the role of Curator was his first decision. From the records several people applied for the position, including well-known artist Seamus Murphy, but only two candidates were interviewed, soon- to-be-appointed Professor of Archaeology, Michael J O’Kelly, and Professor of Zoology, Louis Percy Watt Renouf.

Neither the Museum’s Governing Board nor its advisory committee were overly impressed with either option, but President O’Rahilly eventually selected O’Kelly.

He faced many challenges in his first year. Chief among these was the fact the building itself was in terrible condition and despite remedial works by the Corporation a year earlier, further substantial refurbishments were needed, such as the installation of proper heating and lighting systems.

Also, a sizeable area of the building was unavailable to O’Kelly as it was occupied by the Air Raid Precaution ARP, whose patrolled the streets of Cork ensuring that citizens maintained a blackout to protect against possible air raids.

The Emergency also hampered the acquisition of display cases as the scarcity and cost of getting suitable building material meant museum management had to resort to a combination of ‘beg, borrow and steal’. Most of the cases and collections were loaned by UCC, but private donations and loans were also received.

Despite these numerous obstacles, Cork Public Museum opened to the public on April 4, 1945. The herculean efforts by the Organising Committee in bringing the relevant stakeholders together cannot be underestimated.

The first exhibitions were an impressive assortment of displays and objects telling the story of Cork via a variety of subjects such as history, archaeology, geology, geography and zoology.

The assembled exhibitions and carefully designed gallery spaces were testament to the work by O’Kelly and his staff. It proved a commendable start for Cork Public Museum, helping lay the foundations for subsequent decades.

The arrangement between the Corporation and UCC ended in 1963, when museum management reverted to the Corporation and O’Kelly stepped down as Curator.

His successor, Seamus Ó Coigligh (1966-1981), a polymath and multi-linguist, shifted attention from prehistoric and early medieval Ireland to Irish political history. His tenure coincided with important commemorative dates in Irish history, such as the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Rising and the centenary of the 1867 Fenian Rising.

Ó Coigligh helped enlarge the museum’s Irish revolutionary collections.

When Ó Coigligh retired in 1981, his successor, Aodh Ó Tuama (1981-1992), had begun working as a museum assistant under O’Kelly and had served as Ó Coigligh’s assistant for a decade before his retirement.

Ó Tuama focused on exhibitions and collections that reflected local and national cultural heritage. He was succeeded by the museum’s first female Curator, Stella Cherry (1992-2016), who helped overhaul the collection management system and introduced the museum’s first digital database. Her big legacy was the opening of the new extension in 2005, setting the museum on a path towards professionalism and modernity.

I have been Curator since 2016, and worked at the museum since 2002. I have sought to build on the work of my predecessors, while prioritising improvements across all aspects of museum operations.

We were awarded full accreditation in the Heritage Council’s Museum Standards Programme for Ireland in 2022 and played a leading role in Cork City’s Decade of Centenaries events from 2013-2023.

The year 2025 promises to be an exciting one for Cork Public Museum as we plan new exhibitions, upgrade our storage and building facilities, and improve educational services.

The recent appointment of a first ever Education Officer highlights the continued commitment of management to the future growth and development of the museum to better serve the people of Cork and beyond for another 80 years.