A proposal to establish a music and historical museum in Mullingar’s Market House is to be drawn up by Westmeath County Council.
The museum would honour past and present musicians from the locality, as well as the town’s military and rail history.
Speaking at the recent Mullingar Municipal District meeting, Cllr Aidan Davitt said Market House, much of which is not currently in use since the abolition of Mullingar Town Council and the relocation of the Citizens Information Service, was the ideal location for a museum for the town.
While he initially suggested “a museum to honour the musicians of Mullingar, both past and present”, the discussion soon expanded to widen the museum’s scope.
“It is ideally located beside the tourist office... Our music stars are happy to give their time and possessions to promote Mullingar. People would give their time freely to run it. I was talking to a Defence Forces member who said that if we had a museum they would release artefacts back to Mullingar,” said Cllr Davitt.
The motion was supported by Cllr Ken Glynn, who said that Mullingar was seen as “one of the music capitals of Ireland”, and added Iarnród Éireann and St Loman’s to the list of bodies which should be represented in a museum.
The council’s director of services David Hogan said the council was conscious of the building’s “pivotal location” but must also take into account the costs involved in providing and operating the proposed museum.
The council is to draw up a proposal for Market House by September.
