Louth museum maintains top national award from Heritage Council
13 museums were celebrated at a ceremony in Kilkenny Castle yesterday
Above: Cathaoirleach Cllr Keelan receiving MSPI Full Accreditation from Dr. Martina Moloney; Chair of the Heritage Council, Yvonne O’Brien, A/Director of Services and Brian Walsh Museum Curator (Photo: Louth County Council)
The County Museum in Dundalk was celebrated at a ceremony in Kilkenny Castle yesterday for maintaining full official accreditation under the Heritage Council’s Museum Standards Programme for Ireland (MSPI).
Established to promote professional standards in museums, selection under the MSPI is a major accolade with accredited museums considered to have attained excellence across a range of areas. 13 museums were celebrated at the ceremony in Kilkenny Castle having achieved official accreditation.
With regards to the County Museum in Dundalk, the museum assessors noted that despite staffing shortages and the impact of Covid, the museum has continued to look after its collections and develop high quality projects and exhibitions. This has included marking the centenaries of the Easter Rising, the sinking of the SS Dundalk, and WW1 as well as celebrating the achievements of engineer Peter Rice and the success of Dundalk FC.
They have also held conferences, produced an animation film, developed a series of ‘Horrible History’ style songs and produced a variety of online programmes for schools and families. The museum has been successful in bringing a whole new digital programme to allow access to the collections while visitors were not permitted in the building.
Since its inception in 2006, the Irish museum sector has continued to embrace the programme with participation growing from 12 museum sites to 67 in 2022. Because no two museums are the same, the path to accreditation is different for all participants. Whereas museums with large collections may encounter challenges relating to storage and upkeep of large volumes of material, the volunteers in smaller museums may struggle to find the time or motivation to reach the MSPI standards.
Commenting on the ceremony, Chairperson of the Heritage Council, Martina Moloney, said, "The growing number of museums participating in the MSPI is testament to the regard in which it is held by the sector. It is wonderful to see representatives from so many different museums here today, all of whom have worked so hard to ensure the best possible standards are met; a commitment that has hugely positive benefits for cultural life in Ireland, for visitors to the museums and tourism in the country generally.”
Virginia Teehan, Chief Executive of the Heritage Council, said, “It’s such a pleasure for me to welcome the award winners to this ceremony today to mark and celebrate the presentation of accreditation certificates under MSPI. This is the first live awards ceremony since 2019 after the online ceremonies held for 2020 and 2021’s award winners and so it is also only right that the certificate recipients from these years also be acknowledged today. These museums have worked very hard for their accreditation and richly deserve this recognition for their efforts.”