Galway City Museum needs your help to tell Galway’s revolutionary story in a new exhibition entitled Revolution in Galway, 1913-1923, due to open in Spring 2016. This exhibition offers Galway people the chance to have their story told alongside the national story that we are already so familiar with. The Revolutionary years leading up to the Easter Rising of 1916 through to the War of Independence and the Irish Civil War had a major impact on the shaping of modern Ireland. What part did Galway play? What steered ordinary Irish people on the path towards Irish Nationalism?
Among the objects borrowed so far are a Fr. Michael Griffin memorial card from Galway Diocesan Archive (by permission of Diocese of Galway, Kilmacduagh & Kilfenora ); a volunteer card courtesy of Galway County Archives; and a statue of Saint Thomas Acquinas from the Dominican Sisters, Taylor’s Hill, Galway.
The latter statue once stood on a pedestal near one of the windows of the Dominican College, Secondary School facing Lenaboy Castle then headquarters of the Black and Tans. Father Michael Griffin was shot through the head resulting in his untimely death in 1922. One of the bullets fired that same night made its way through the window of the Study Hall in the Dominican College, hitting the statue and leaving its mark. The bullet has since been retrieved but the mark remains clear to see and can be examined closely by all visitors to the new exhibition.
Galway City Museum are discovering countless other objects and photographs which had long being consigned to the stores. Thanks to people and institutions such as the Galway Diocesan Archive such images will be appreciated and enjoyed once again.
The material borrowed by the museum for the new exhibition is of huge value to the representation of Galway’s revolutionary story and to the understanding of its part in the birth of our nation. It is expected that the new exhibition will attract huge visitor numbers to the museum, surpassing last year’s visitor count of 160,000 and adding to its current status as the most popular free tourist attraction in the West of Ireland.
If you have objects, stories or memorabilia drop into the museum today, Thursday 17 September 2015 between 5pm and 8pm. If you cannot make the Open Evening please forward your story to [email protected].
All original material will be scanned, photographed, catalogued and returned to owners. Galway City Museum is located at the Spanish Parade, Galway. Open: Tues-Sat, 10am-5pm & Sun during Summer 12pm-5pm.
Admission is always free.
