Glenties museum to reopen next week

How do you help reopen a local museum?

The hard-working St Connell’s Museum and Heritage Centre committee in Glenties is using every trick in the book to gather the €10,000 needed for their iconic building and to this end last Sunday they went down the tried and trusted route using cups of tea and some home baking.

They ran a parish tea in the Market Hall after the blessing of the graves ceremony. The locals donated a vast amount of homemade goods to the event and it helped add an extra €545 to their coffers.

But that was only one part of many fundraising efforts over the past few months. Raising money is a challenging task at the best of times but this project is well on its way to the target needed to open the doors again.

The museum, which is situated on Mill Road, Drumnasillagh is now in its fourth decade of service to the history, culture and heritage of Glenties and surrounding areas. It houses artefacts, literature, documents, treasures and memories for the people local to the area, passers-by, and those on a quest to find their roots and belonging.

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 a unique display of some of the furniture from the Friel ancestral homestead, The Laurels as well as a room devoted to memorabilia and the writings of both Friel and MacGill.

It has always been completely dependent on fundraising and patrons walking through the doors. The pandemic severed its ability to run the facility but the committee is determined to clear the way for the doors to reopen once more.

St Connell’s Museum and Heritage Centre in Glenties

Spokesperson Laura Farren said they were delighted with the support their event received.

“We had a phenomenal turnout from the local people and those living away, who return annually for the blessing of the graves. It’s a wonderful thing when people get together for the sake of getting together, and there is no better way than over a cup of tea and a homemade bake.

“If there is one thing we firmly believe in, it’s the community, and we are really passionate about making St Connell’s Museum a hotbed of community activity and togetherness.

“The community of Glenties has given us so much support in our effort to keep the museum going for future generations, so the result has got to be about them. We don’t want to just showcase our brilliant local history, of course, that is a vital role of the museum, but it’s our story as a parish, and our doors will be open to the community at large for more than just a window to the past,” she said.

In fact, at Monday night’s committee meeting members were told that they now have €9,600 in the bank and a reopening date has been set for Wednesday, July 12 from 10am to 6pm. The facility will also be open every Thursday, Friday and Saturday after that for the summer season during the same times.

A success story for Glenties and hopefully a long and productive time ahead for the unique St Connell’s Museum and Heritage Centre.