Dunrbody Centre to expand into town centre
A MAJOR new museum - designed by the company behind the Titanic Belfast quarter - is planned for New Ross town centre.
A price has been agreed with the owner of a prominent town centre building for the museum, which would transform the town because of its location and the scale of the project, if funding is forthcoming from Fáilte Ireland in 2017.
The museum is a project between the Dunbrody Visitor Centre and other tourism stakeholders in the town and would be managed by the JFK Trust, which recorded a record year in 2016 with 76,000 visitors between the famine ship and the Kennedy Homestead.
Chairman of the JFK Trust Cllr Willie Fitzharris said an application for funding for the museum will be made in February, adding that plans to expand the Dunbrody Visitor Centre on the quay once the oil tanks are removed, have been scrapped in favour of expanding the centre into a new premises nearby.
At the heart of the new museum will be telling the William Marshall story, but because of the size of the premises other tourism attractions could also be accommodated, along with space for Masters and PhD students to study the town’s rich history, and further exhibition spaces.
Cllr Fitzharris said: ‘ The original plan was to devlop the tank site but now that will be turned into an amenity area. There was too much red tape and it’s a bit out of town so we’ve sourced a site closer to the town centre.’
Consultants CHL Consulting Group - who worked on the Titanic Centre in Belfast - are finalising a funding application over the coming weeks.
‘We will be making a serious bid for funding for several million euro by the end of February,’ Cllr Fitzharris, a local businessman, said.
The project, which is backed by New Ross Municipal District who see the tourism the potential the town has, aims to increase visitor numbers to the town from across Ireland, the UK and France, but also from America arising from interest in the Graves shipping company story regarding emigration from New Ross Port in the 1800s to Savannah.
‘Our intention, obviously, is to get more visitors into the town centre. I am very confident that with the Ireland’s Ancient East initiative that New Ross can benefit. We are very much supported by Wexford County Council,’ Cllr Fitzharris said.
The JFK Trust has an ambitious target of opening the museum by Spring 2019, around the time the New Ross Bypass will be completed.
‘We are working on having third level eductaion modules in the premises, (which is in good condition). We plan to work with Waterford Institute of Technology and other colleges on this,’ Cllr Fitzharris said.
If the project is backed by Failte Ireland it would provide numerous jobs for the town and rejuvinate a section of New Ross which has fallen into dereliction in recent years.