Fresh ideas wanted for Glenties Museum AGM

A call has gone out for fresh faces and fresh ideas to help promote and improve activities at St Connell’s Museum and Heritage Centre in Glenties.

The committee is holding its annual general meeting on Monday, April 17 in the museum building and is encouraging anyone interested in joining to come along.

Over the years this facility has fulfilled its original function to preserve and cherish historical artifacts in the parish of Inniskeel and much more. 

This includes many events at Christmas, Halloween and summer time catering for locals and visitors alike; school visits to see prison cells of the late 19th-century courthouse; a wildlife exhibition; fundraising quiz nights; lectures on local historical figures such as John Stephen McGroarty and JP Craig; many legendary music sessions as well as historical reminders of the Great Famine of 1845-1847 in south-west Donegal. 

Of course you can’t think of Glenties and not recall two other great men, Brian Friel and the navvy poet, Patrick MacGill.

The museum is pivotal in displaying and preserving this slice of local and national heritage. It contains some of the furniture from the Friel ancestral homestead, The Laurels – a unique display - as well as a room devoted to memorabilia and the writings of both Friel and MacGill.

It also has information about Liam McCormick, the internationally renowned architect who designed the magnificent St Connell’s Church in the town, one of the seven churches he designed in the county.

St Connell’s Museum might be a priceless cultural asset but like many such facilities, was affected by the fallout from the Covid pandemic and there were fears for its future at the time.

Most independent museums are only ever one crisis away from closing their doors for good and at the time the Glenties Museum committee called for  Donegal County Council or the County Museum to take over the running of the facility. 

“The council had taken back the adjoining old courthouse from the Courts Service and it was hoped moves would be initiated to preserve and join the two buildings so they complemented one another. Many locally felt this would be the ideal solution to the problem and point a direction going into the future.

“If you are interested in joining and you think it’s a project worth committing to, just bring yourself and your enthusiasm to the Museum on the night,” said a spokesman for the committee.