Dissolving Boundaries: Museological Approaches to National, Social and Cultural Issues, ed. Annette B. Fromm & Bärbel Kerkhoff-Hader, 2014
The National Museum of Ireland – Country Life is the national folk museum of the Republic of Irel... more The National Museum of Ireland – Country Life is the national folk museum of the Republic of Ireland and is a branch of the National Museum of Ireland. When it opened to the public in 2001, its opening was the culmination of decades of campaigning for the establishment of a national folk museum. It is my contention in this paper that, although it has been hugely successful in attracting visitors and garnishing a very positive public response, in its present incarnation it is essentially an historical museum based on an ideological outlook of the late nineteenth – early twentieth century. Irish society has gone from being largely mono-cultural to multi-cultural and multi-ethnic in a very short space of time. In a number of recently undertaken projects, the Museum has begun to look beyond the confines of its founding and has identified further areas to address: both more contemporary issues, generally, and also areas of exclusion. One of the recent projects focused on the lives of Irish Travellers; another project dealt with a multi-ethnic group of asylum seekers; both resulted in exhibitions.
This paper was published in Annette B. Fromm & Bärbel Kerkhoff-Hader (Eds.) Dissolving Boundaries: Museological Approaches to National, Social and Cultural Issues, Bamberger Beiträge zur Europäischen Ethnologie Bd. 13, Bamberg 2014
Que rest-t-il du présent? Collecter le contemporain dans les museés de société, ed. Jacques Barresti, 2012
The current mission of the National Museum of Ireland, as set out in its
Statement of Strategy 20... more The current mission of the National Museum of Ireland, as set out in its Statement of Strategy 2008 – 2012 is, among other things, to “collect, promote and exhibit all examples of Ireland’s portable material heritage and natural history….” However, the National Museum of Ireland does not currently seek to collect, in a sustained and systematic way, objects that reflect contemporary society. The closest it has come to the systematic and organised collecting of the lives of ordinary people from recent times is in the area of folklife. This chapter argues that if the National Museum is to reflect Irish society in the later twentieth and even the twenty first centuries, it is, perhaps, in a re-conceptualisation of the role of the Irish Folklife Division and of the Museum of Country Life that develops and enlarges the scope of their activities that this might be done.
Late draft of paper published in Jacques Battesti (ed.), Que rest-t-il du présent? Collecter le contemporain dans les museés de société, Bayonne, 2012
An antiquarian description of Newgrange, county Meath, with some account of the manuscript in whi... more An antiquarian description of Newgrange, county Meath, with some account of the manuscript in which it occurs, and a comment on the description
Dissolving Boundaries: Museological Approaches to National, Social and Cultural Issues, ed. Annette B. Fromm & Bärbel Kerkhoff-Hader, 2014
The National Museum of Ireland – Country Life is the national folk museum of the Republic of Irel... more The National Museum of Ireland – Country Life is the national folk museum of the Republic of Ireland and is a branch of the National Museum of Ireland. When it opened to the public in 2001, its opening was the culmination of decades of campaigning for the establishment of a national folk museum. It is my contention in this paper that, although it has been hugely successful in attracting visitors and garnishing a very positive public response, in its present incarnation it is essentially an historical museum based on an ideological outlook of the late nineteenth – early twentieth century. Irish society has gone from being largely mono-cultural to multi-cultural and multi-ethnic in a very short space of time. In a number of recently undertaken projects, the Museum has begun to look beyond the confines of its founding and has identified further areas to address: both more contemporary issues, generally, and also areas of exclusion. One of the recent projects focused on the lives of Irish Travellers; another project dealt with a multi-ethnic group of asylum seekers; both resulted in exhibitions.
This paper was published in Annette B. Fromm & Bärbel Kerkhoff-Hader (Eds.) Dissolving Boundaries: Museological Approaches to National, Social and Cultural Issues, Bamberger Beiträge zur Europäischen Ethnologie Bd. 13, Bamberg 2014
Que rest-t-il du présent? Collecter le contemporain dans les museés de société, ed. Jacques Barresti, 2012
The current mission of the National Museum of Ireland, as set out in its
Statement of Strategy 20... more The current mission of the National Museum of Ireland, as set out in its Statement of Strategy 2008 – 2012 is, among other things, to “collect, promote and exhibit all examples of Ireland’s portable material heritage and natural history….” However, the National Museum of Ireland does not currently seek to collect, in a sustained and systematic way, objects that reflect contemporary society. The closest it has come to the systematic and organised collecting of the lives of ordinary people from recent times is in the area of folklife. This chapter argues that if the National Museum is to reflect Irish society in the later twentieth and even the twenty first centuries, it is, perhaps, in a re-conceptualisation of the role of the Irish Folklife Division and of the Museum of Country Life that develops and enlarges the scope of their activities that this might be done.
Late draft of paper published in Jacques Battesti (ed.), Que rest-t-il du présent? Collecter le contemporain dans les museés de société, Bayonne, 2012
An antiquarian description of Newgrange, county Meath, with some account of the manuscript in whi... more An antiquarian description of Newgrange, county Meath, with some account of the manuscript in which it occurs, and a comment on the description
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Papers by Anthony Candon
This paper was published in Annette B. Fromm & Bärbel Kerkhoff-Hader (Eds.) Dissolving Boundaries: Museological Approaches to National, Social and Cultural Issues, Bamberger Beiträge zur Europäischen Ethnologie Bd. 13, Bamberg 2014
Statement of Strategy 2008 – 2012 is, among other things, to “collect, promote and exhibit all examples of Ireland’s portable material heritage and natural history….” However, the National Museum of Ireland does not currently seek to collect, in a sustained and systematic way, objects that reflect contemporary society. The closest it has come to the systematic and organised collecting of the lives of ordinary people from recent times is in the area of folklife. This chapter argues that if the National Museum is to reflect Irish society in the later twentieth and even the twenty first centuries, it is, perhaps, in a re-conceptualisation of the role of the Irish Folklife Division and of the Museum of Country Life that develops and enlarges the scope of their activities that this might be done.
Late draft of paper published in Jacques Battesti (ed.), Que rest-t-il du présent? Collecter le contemporain dans les museés de société, Bayonne, 2012
This paper was published in Annette B. Fromm & Bärbel Kerkhoff-Hader (Eds.) Dissolving Boundaries: Museological Approaches to National, Social and Cultural Issues, Bamberger Beiträge zur Europäischen Ethnologie Bd. 13, Bamberg 2014
Statement of Strategy 2008 – 2012 is, among other things, to “collect, promote and exhibit all examples of Ireland’s portable material heritage and natural history….” However, the National Museum of Ireland does not currently seek to collect, in a sustained and systematic way, objects that reflect contemporary society. The closest it has come to the systematic and organised collecting of the lives of ordinary people from recent times is in the area of folklife. This chapter argues that if the National Museum is to reflect Irish society in the later twentieth and even the twenty first centuries, it is, perhaps, in a re-conceptualisation of the role of the Irish Folklife Division and of the Museum of Country Life that develops and enlarges the scope of their activities that this might be done.
Late draft of paper published in Jacques Battesti (ed.), Que rest-t-il du présent? Collecter le contemporain dans les museés de société, Bayonne, 2012