Visit to Millstreet museum reveals challenges ahead for Charleville
MEMBERS of Charleville Heritage Society recently visited the town of Millstreet in Duhallow to view the town museum there, which is located in the Carnegie Library situated at the western end of the town.
The Charleville party consisted of Sr. Bernadette Maria, Kerry Corkery, Michel Donegan and Michael McGrath; unavoidably absent from that group were their chairperson Evelyn O’Keeffe and Cllr. Ian Doyle and Stefan Rossi.
The Charleville party were graciously hosted by the museum curator, Sean Radley, who showed them around the excellent facility.
Opened in 1980, it is a tremendous record of life in Millstreet town through the ages. This is depicted in the many artefacts, photographs, documentation, and vividly brought to life by the description of Sean Radley, who is an excellent and passionate ambassador for Millstreet town.
“We received a lot of useful information on our visit, and learned that local museums do not get any funding from the local authority, and have to depend on local and private subscriptions and street collections to survive, and maintain their section of, and the running costs of the building,” said group member Michael Donegan.
The members of Charleville Heritage Society are presently involved in establishing a museum for Charleville to emulate what is available in other towns such as Millstreet. This arose on foot of the very successful pop-up museum which they staged at the 40th Charleville Agricultural Show last year.
The group is presently in contact with Cork County Council officials through the good offices of their vice-chairman, Cllr. Ian Doyle, to acquire the upper storey of Charleville’s iconic building, the Market House, located at the junction of Broad Street and Main Street in the North Cork town.
While the building, known locally as the Court House, is presently being assessed for what needs to be done to make it habitable, since it has been idle for nearly 20 years following its vacation by Court Service in the eighties, when the building fell into disrepair.
Portions of the lower part of the lime stone-faced building, which formerly housed the Cork County library, is now occupied by Charleville Men’s Shed. Another part of the ground floor is presently being prepared as a private club.