Museum Secures Grant Aid For Conservation Lighting And Cases

We just got news today that the museum has been successful in securing grant aid from Waterford Leader Partnership. As some of our readers are aware, we are a voluntary non-profit organisation. We have to devote a lot of time to fundraising in order to ensure that the museum can maintain the high standards we set for ourselves. This particular grant aid was for 75% of the cost of any project successfully applied for. We are grateful to the WLP for looking on our application favourably. The grant aid will be spent on:

Museum / Conservation Standard Lighting: €4500
This ensures that the holdings within the museum are not damaged by Ultra Violet light. These lights also emit lower levels of heat than conventional bulbs.

5 Portable Conservation Cases: €4000
These cases are to a conservation standard in that they are made from inert materials that will not damage objects placed in them. As they are portable they will be useful for temporary and outreach exhibitions around the county.

1 Pop Up Display Banner: €270
This banner will be used at lectures and when we do outreach exhibitions etc.

Total Project Spend: €8770 (Grant Aid €6577)

The above figures are approximate. If anyone wishes to contribute towards the cost of the project they can donate money using Paypal to Waterford County Museum .

School Tours At The Museum

 Children From Knockanore School With Their Headmaster

 The museum has been very busy in the last week  with five school tours.  The 5th & 6th class from Knockanore were the first through the door, followed by the junior classes from Ballyduff Lower,3rd class St.Mary's Dungarvan and then we had the two groups of 6th class from Scoil Mhuire Abbeyside.

The children were taken around the museum by our curator Willie Fraher and then broken into groups to view the handling area, the stereoscopic viewer,view-master and the pinhead camera.  The younger pupils from Ballyduff Lower enjoyed some art work in the childrens area.

The visit's were very much enjoyed by all the groups and many of the children signed the visitors book. Some of the comments we received from the children,  Michael H- It's cool; Caragh- fantastic; Shane- unreal; Katie- fun.

Students And Parents With The Stereoscopic Viewer, View-Master And The  Pinhead Camera

Donation: War Of Independence IRA Officer's Uniform

A very interesting donation  that we have on display at the moment is an army coat belonging to Jim Mansfield, Commanding Officer 3rd Battalion Decies Brigade I.R.A. The coat, which is in very good condition, carries the label of Dan Fraher’s Drapery Shop, Grattan Square Dungarvan. Jim’s son John Mansfield very generously donated this item to the museum.

Facebook Resources For Waterford History And Genealogy

There are quite a few useful resources for people interested in Waterford local history on Facebook. As part of the Waterford Local History Network we have been encouraging local history groups around the county to get on Facebook so that they can inform the public on their activities.

The following groups have Facebook pages.

Cappoquin Heritage Group
Portlaw Heritage Centre
Bunmahon Heritage Society
Waterford County Library Local Studies
Waterford County Archive
Waterford City Library
And of course ourselves Waterford County Museum

Some of the pages are more active than others but all of them are created by people with an interest in preserving their area's heritage. If you think a page needs to be more active, get in touch with the page administrator and encourage them to post more frequently. Try and do this in an encouraging and constructive manner, as most of these people are maintaining these pages in their spare time or in addition to their normal duties.

If you know of any Facebook pages, blogs or websites that are useful for people researching in Waterford get in touch and Waterford County Museum will feature them and link to them.

Video About Waterford County Museum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HHLOI5AvRU

I have just put up a short video onto Youtube on the work of Waterford County Museum. It is a great introduction to our museum.

We would be delighted to get your views and thoughts on the video. Please feel free to leave your comments. In common with nearly all of our projects no one got any pay for their participation. The video was created in partnership with Dungarvan Dramatic Club. It was shot by Dave Lee of http://www.rememberwhen.ie/ and it is narrated by Orla Glascott. Waterford County Museum is very grateful for their assistance. This video will be also used on our new web site.

Help Us With Our Photographic Detective Work

The Image Archive at http://www.waterfordcountyimages.org/ has had quite a lot of photographs added to it recently. In particular we have had a fair few photos of Tramore and also photos of Powers Brewery, Dungarvan .

If anyone wants to do a little bit of historical sleuthing for us, we have a lot of unidentified people and unknown places. Simply do a search for unidentified to find the people and a search for unknown to find the places. If you can help us with information please contact us. I am particularly interested in finding these premises.

Visit Of 3rd Class Pupils From Scoil Garbhain

 John Young, Muinteoir Siobhan Noonan  And The Children From 3rd Class Scoil Garbháin

We recently had a visit from 3rd class of  the local Gael Scoil along with their teacher Siobhan and local historian John Young.  The children were very interested in the many artifacts and photographs on display and had many questions to ask  They showed a great interest in the  Edmond Keohan photographs as they identified many of the places, comparing them with how they look today.

As usual our handling area proved to be a big hit with the children and as did the colouring area, with many of the  children taking a picture home with them to colour at their leisure.