I was delighted to visit Carlow County Museum after the long lockdown. A lot of new fascinating objects since my last visit.
It`s made me impress how displays are well set out: exhibitions and items in the Museum’s collection of over 5,000 artifacts.
I highly recommended to visit it. This is a wonderful museum that tells the story of Carlow from the earliest days to the present.
Among the items on display are:
- The magnificent nineteenth-century pulpit from the Carlow Cathedral. It has been placed by the Irish Times in “History of Ireland in 100 sites”;
- A scale model (a maquette) of the Carlow Castle and Liberty Tree;
- Exhibition Geology of County Carlow, Culm Crusher – large round stones that were used for crushing culm (a type of coal dust);
- The original gallows trapdoor from Carlow Gaol;
- Items from Carlow’s Sugar Factory, which operated for almost 80 years;
- Items relating to John Tyndall, the Carlow scientist who discovered the greenhouse effect;
- The printing press used by The Nationalist newspapers;
- The smoking pipe of Captain Myles Keogh, killed at the Battle of Little Big Horn;
- The exhibition ‘Journeys in Time – The Archaeology of the Carlow By-pass’ is home to many of the archaeological objects found along the route of the M9 Carlow By-pass.
- The Bell from Clonmelsh Church of Ireland church dating from 1687. Buried in the adjoining graveyard are the ancestors of cartoonist Walt Disney and Pierre Butler (signatory of the American Constitution).
- A special exhibition on St. Willibrord, an English monk who trained in Carlow before becoming the Patron Saint of Luxembourg;
- ‘Carlow 1916 Commemorative Stained Glass Panel by Peadar Lamb’, which depicts a Carlow narrative on the 1916 Rising. Featuring some of the key Carlow figures and the role they played in 1916;
- Since the 1980’s Carlow County Museum has displayed famed Irish Republican Kevin Barry’s wallet. And the remains of the last cigarette he smoked in Mountjoy Gaol immediately before his execution by hanging;
- Kevin Barry’s death mask will remain on display in Carlow County Museum until May 2022.
- Carlow GAA 125th Anniversary Exhibition;
- The special exhibition “On My Honour, I Will Try…” Scouting in Carlow, 90 Years Growing;
- and many more …
Carlow County Museum is open again.
But visits must be pre-booked via 059-9131554 or by emailing museum@carlowcoco.ie. Please go to carlowmuseum.ie for further information.
Carlow County Museum is currently open between Monday to Friday, 10.00 am – 12.30 pm, with the last admission at 12 noon; and 2.00 pm – 4.30 pm, with the last admission at 4.00 pm.
Admission to the museum is free.
Location of Carlow County Museum:
Below are photos from my visit to Carlow County Museum in June 2021.
