Table of ContentsIntroduction To Waterford County Museum........................................................................................2Our Committee, Staff And Membership..............................................................................................3Our Innovative Approach.....................................................................................................................4Future Proofing Our Organisation........................................................................................................6Future Benefit To The Community......................................................................................................7Promoting Inclusiveness.......................................................................................................................8Waterford County Museum Plans For 2010.........................................................................................9Appendix A – Contributors To Our Redevelopment Fund................................................................10Appendix B - Night Of The Museums...............................................................................................11Appendix C - Museum Statistics For July 2009.................................................................................13Appendix D - Photographs.................................................................................................................14

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Introduction To Waterford County Museum

Waterford County Museum is run by a voluntary group, The Waterford County Museum Society and is a registered charity.

The aims of the society are:• To preserve the history of Dungarvan and County Waterford.• To acquire and preserve individual items and collections of interest.• To encourage public interest in local history.• To publish original research in book form or on the Museum website.

The society was initially founded as Dungarvan Museum Society in 1984 and operated from the Old Market House on Lower Main Street. In 1999 the museum moved to a new premises at the Old Town Hall, St. Augustine Street, Dungarvan. The building was formerly the office of Dungarvan U.D.C.

In late 2007 Dungarvan Town Council commenced the reconstruction of the Old Town Hall and incorporated a theatre on the first floor. Prior to the closure of the building for refurbishment the museum was accommodating 7000 visitors per annum and handling in excess of 100 substantial historical queries per month from locals, schools, genealogists, researchers, publishers and documentary makers.

While the cost of the refurbishment work was borne by Dungarvan Town Council, the cost of the interior refurbishment of the museum was the responsibility of the Museum Society. Over the course of 12 months in excess of €100,000 was raised by the Museum from Waterford Leader Partnership, Waterford business, locals and expatriates. This money was used to fund the purchase of conservation standard display cases, display panels, flat panel TV screen, and a variety of handling objects. A feature of the project was the co-operation that the museum received from the staff of Dungarvan Town Council and the Waterford Probation Service.

The new museum features exhibitions on all aspects of Waterford history including photography, the Famine, the 1798 Rebellion, country houses, religion, writers, artists, the Civil War, the War Of Independence, business and sport. In addition special temporary exhibitions will be mounted during the year on a particular theme.

A series of public lectures are held during the winter season. Visits to places of historical interest are arranged for members of the Museum Society during the summer season.

Achievements by the Museum Society to date include:

• Heritage Council Publication Of The Year 2002.• Museums And The Web, Boston, 2002 – Shortlisted As Best Research Web Site.• Waterford Co Co Community Awards 2006 Heritage Section – Winner.• Museums And The Web, Albuquerque 2006 – Best Small Museum Website Award.• Mounting 45 Major Exhibitions.• Running 140 Lectures.• Publishing 4 Books.

Museum Contact Information:E-mail: history@waterfordcountymuseum.orgWebsite: www.waterfordcountymuseum.orgPhone: 058 45960Museum Opening HoursMonday to Friday 9.30a.m. to 4.45p.m.Saturday (June to September) 10a.m. to 4.45 p.m.

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Our Committee, Staff And Membership

Our committee currently comprises of James Shine, Martin Whelan, Mary Giblin, Roberta Whelan, William Whelan, Eddie Cantwell, Nicholas Graves, Willie Fraher, Margaret O'Connor, David Hourigan, Martin Coffey and Helen Moynihan. No committee member receives any payment or expenses for any work that is done on behalf of the museum society.

Over the past 16 years we have had over 20 staff work in the museum as part of the CMT Fas CE Scheme. Many staff members have later gone on to serve on the committee. Our staff have come from all walks of life and some had serious physical or mental disabilities. Partially as a result of the work placement and training received while with the museum, most former staff have now gone on to secure full time employment elsewhere.

Our membership currently comprises of 112 adults (some of whom live abroad). The annual membership fee is €10. At this moment we do not have a facility specifically for child membership but they are more than welcome to come along to all of our events. Many of the events run during our 'Night Of The Museum' event (see Appendix B) were specifically designed for children.

David Hourigan Willie Fraher Willie Whelan Eddie CantwellMountain Castle Dungarvan Colligan Ballinroad

Mary Giblin Helen Moynihan Jim Shine Nioclás ó GriofáinDungarvan Dungarvan Abbeyside Rinn Ó gCuanach

Roberta Whelan Martin Coffey Margaret O'Connor Martin WhelanArdmore Old Parish Dungarvan Abbeyside

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Our Innovative Approach

Museums are very different institutions from Heritage Centres. Heritage Centres are generally designed to provide a bite-sized piece of history for tourists and visitors to the locality. Museums have a much wider and broader remit. While museums also mount exhibitions, much of the work done in a museum is behind the scenes. Museums are designed to be visited repeatedly, deal with queries, do research, preserve and catalogue artifacts and generally help foster and preserve the history of a locality. Generally speaking we try and build a relationship with our visitors. Many of them will visit the museum time and again, to see new exhibitions, make new queries or perhaps to donate new material to our archive. Our relationship with the community is fundamental to our continued existence.

Due to our scarcity of funds (our annual budget is €6000 to €8000) we have consistently been forced to create innovative partnerships. Most County Museums in Ireland operate with an annual budget well in excess of €300,000. Below I have listed some of the groups we have partnered with:

Dungarvan Dramatic Club: In conjunction with the museum, the Dramatic Club has mounted some short plays to mark the occasion of our opening and for the Night Of The Museums event. The plays dealt with the lives of Sarah Purser, Valentine Greatrakes and John Palliser. Currently we are working with the Dramatic Club on filming a 3 minute introduction to the work of the Museum society. This short video will appear on the homepage of the new museum website when it launches.

Waterford Probation Service: We were very fortunate to have secured the services of Paddy Daly and the Waterford Probation Service. Much of the carpentry work done in the museum (including our donation box, lectern, book shelf, mobile wall units and display tower) is created by Paddy and his team in their workshop in Waterford City. For the cost of the materials, we have managed to source custom made furniture to outfit the museum. Paddy's latest project involves mounting a set of tailors dummies on a display platform. These will be used to display replica clothing and armour.

Dungarvan Town Council: The council allow us the use of the Old Town Hall at a nominal rent. They also pay our utility bills and lease a storage area for the use of the museum.

FAS: One of the primary reasons that our museum has been successful is that we have had access to a pool of dedicated staff via the CMT Community Employment Scheme which we are part of. We currently have 4 part time staff in the museum. It is notable that several former CE staff have gone on to join the committee once they have left the scheme and continue their work with the museum in a voluntary capacity.

Grant Funding Bodies: Waterford Leader Partnership and The Heritage Council have consistently supported us in our work over the years. The WLP supplied us with €44,000 towards our redevelopment fund. The Heritage Council have supported us with smaller amounts of money annually (typically €1500 – €2000). Past projects that the heritage council have supported included:

• Installation of conservation shelving.• Purchase of a computer for administration.• Purchase of a mini photographic studio to allow us document our artifacts.• Purchase of a server to store all of our data and make it available on-line.• Purchase of conservation materials for our photographic outreach programme.• Purchase of a plasma screen TV to show old film and slide shows in the museum.

Business Community: We rely on the Waterford business community for financial support and sponsorship. Local business across Waterford County supplied us with over €25,000 towards our redevelopment fund. We also participated in an 'after hours' networking event run

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by Dungarvan And West Waterford Chamber Of Commerce. We outlined to the group in a presentation what the museum can do for the locality how it can foster a sense of community and a sense of belonging to a locality. This chimes in well with the motto of the chamber which is 'Keep your town in business by keeping your business in town'. We provide quite a few services to local business these include:

• Mounting outreach exhibitions in Dungarvan Shopping Centre And Garvey's Supermarket.

• Providing advice and material to local groups / companies on history. These groups include local government bodies, festivals (Feile na nDeise, Waterford Festival Of Food), accommodation providers. Recently we have provided images for a heritage trail being erected in Lismore.

• We also provide a large amount of research and photographic material to professional authors, researchers, TV documentary makers (RTE, Nemeton, BBC)

• Extended opening hours and events being run to coincide with local festivals.

One of our most successful and enduring partnerships is with local web design company Deise Design. This company has provided us free of charge with two substantial websites (www.waterfordmuseum.ie and www.waterfordcountyimages.org and software to catalogue our holdings. These websites are visited by in excess of 2500 people per week. Deise Design are currently developing our new website which will place us at the forefront of technology use in the museum sector. In conjunction with the museum curator and after researching best international practice they created the specification for the design, font size, type, word count and colours used in the new museum exhibition. This saved the museum a considerable amount of consultancy fees.

Community Groups: One of the museum's initiatives over the years has been an exhibition outreach programme. Essentially we bring photographic exhibitions out to people's communities. We have exhibited in Ring, Old Parish, Clashmore, Cappoquin and Bonmahon. In each of these areas we have partnered with a local community group to mount the exhibition.

Waterford DiasporaWe maintain a mailing list of over 1800 individuals, local and international, that are interested in Waterford history. This group are informed on a regular basis on goings on in the museum. When our funding drive to renovate the museum was nearing an end we were still faced with a shortfall of €10,000. An appeal to our mailing list raised almost €8000 in a 2 week period. As well as the financial benefit we also have quite a quantity of historic material donated to us from abroad. Appendix A is a facsimile of the donations board in the Museum hallway. All individuals donating in excess of €100 are listed on the board. This document clearly shows the geographical diversity of our support.

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Future Proofing Our Organisation

One of the problems with many local history groups and museum societies (indeed voluntary groups in general) is that they are often driven by one or two key individuals. Once these individuals lose interest or pass away, a voluntary organisation can quickly become rudderless and defunct.

In the past 4 or 5 years much of the effort of the museum society has been put into ensuring that we are a sustainable organisation. To this end we have computerised our database of 4000 objects and 5000 photographs. Not only does this make our material more accessible to the general public (as it goes online), it also means that managing our holdings has become more easy. If a staff member wants to see what material we have in our possession regarding the Civil War in Waterford, a simple search will now return our holdings and their location within the museum storage area.

In essence we are trying to get as much specialist knowledge in our possession documented in a form that simplifies the future administration of the museum.

We are using software, databases and file formats that are a common standard. This means they will be accessible hundreds of years from now. Our databases are being constructed with the distant future in mind.

All of the storage and presentation materials we work with in the museum are to conservation standard. Our conservation standard cases were supplied by Click Netherfield [www.clicknetherfield.com] one of the leading museum case manufacturers in the world. The shelving in our storage area is specialist conservation standard museum shelving (acid free paint). The plastic stands within the cases (custom made by a local company Kelpex Displays from Tallow) are made from an inert material. By working to a professional conservation standard we can ensure our holdings are not damaged by light, atmospheric conditions, improper storage or poor handling.

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Future Benefit To The Community

As can be seen from the section on 'Future Proofing Our Organisation', the museum takes the long view in terms of the work it undertakes and the outputs it achieves. Much of the present work being performed by the museum society is based on data and photos gathered up over twenty five years ago by volunteer members of the society who never envisaged an Internet or even a full time museum. Our work on the image archive and website has yielded huge results in terms of new materials being contributed to the museum. For example we are currently in the process of digitising almost 2000 images of Tramore. This material is being preserved for generations to come.

Obviously we believe that it is inherently a good thing for our heritage to be preserved. There are also very good practical reasons for preserving our heritage.

Economic: Much of our tourist industry is based on our rich cultural heritage. As can be seen from TV programmes such as 'Who Do You Think You Are' etc. there has been a huge rise in interest in genealogy over the past decade. Many tourists that visit the locality have an ancestral tie to the area. These people perceive Co. Waterford to be their ancestral home. This is graphically demonstrated by the contributions we received from the Waterford diaspora to renovate the museum interior. We are one of the few organisations in the county that provide these visitors with a tangible connection to their ancestral past. In the last year prior to renovation 2007 we had over 7000 people visit the museum. In 2009 on current projections we expect to have some 8000 to 8500 visitors. This increase comes despite the fact that we still have some signage issues that we are in the process of rectifying.

We have also partnered with local shops to mount exhibitions within them. One such project with the Dungarvan Main Street Traders resulted in a 30 minute nationwide programme on Dungarvan. This gave the local community much valuable coverage on the national broadcaster.

We also provide a range of photographic materials and information to business that they use for marketing or commercial purposes. Most local accommodation providers working from historic houses have sourced much of their home's history from the museum. We also supply historic material to broadcasters and professional authors.

Social: The sense of belonging to a locality is a valuable source of motivation for many community activists. One of the most important aspects of community is the shared history, tradition and culture that members of the community have in common. This sense of belonging to a locality is a valuable source of social capital and has many positive social and economic benefits.

As an organisation the museum is tasked with passing on our communities shared history, tradition and culture to the next generation. The educational element of our work is perhaps the most important contribution we can make to the social fabric of our locality. If we can pass on a sense of pride in our communities past, there is every hope that our communities future will be a better one. When people see that they belong to a community or social grouping they will be more inclined to contribute to the future development of that group.

Our future GAA coaches, committee members, scout leaders and community activists already exist. The job of the museum and other similar community groups is to convince them that they are part of a community that is worth contributing to.

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Promoting Inclusiveness

As an organisation the museum is committed to being as inclusive as possible. Examples of this inclusiveness include:

• Providing valuable training in office administration and other specialised computer tasks to participants on our Fas Community Employment scheme. Many staff members have enjoyed the work so much that they continue to work with the museum in a voluntary capacity once they have completed their time on CE.

• Employing people with physical and mental disabilities on our CE scheme.• Making our museum wheelchair accessible.• Providing translations for non-English speaking visitors (currently underway).• Providing an Irish language translation of our main exhibition (currently underway).• Utilising the Co. Waterford Probation Service to construct many of our display systems.• Appointing an education officer on our committee to co-ordinate visits from Co.

Waterford's National and Secondary Schools.• We have consistently mounted exhibitions to cover all aspects of Ireland's history. We

have never discriminated on the basis of class, creed or political belief. Our job is to record the history as it happens. Nationalist, Republican and the Loyalist histories are faithfully documented. In late September 2009 we are running a day long lecture series on the War Of Independence in Waterford. In 2008 to mark the Armistice we had a major exhibition on local men who fought in the British Army during Word War 1.

Some of the groups that visited the museum in the past year included;

• Dungarvan Daycare Center• Abbeyside National School• Scoil Garbháin• Carriglea Cairde Serves• Dungarvan Active Retirement• Villierstown National School• Kilbrien National School• Carriglea National School• Kilmacthomas National School• Aglish National School• Waterford Adult Education Group• Business After Hours Group From Dungarvan Chamber Of Commerce• Kilmeaden Writers Group• Castlelyons National School• Ballyduff Lower National School• Copper Coast Heritage Group• Ballycurrane National School• Refugees Group from Waterford City• Waterford Institute Of Technology Group

Our museum also provides lecturers for groups by invitation. In recent months we have given lectures for groups like the Dungarvan Daycare Centre and the Probus Club.

The Work Of The Education Officer: Committee member Helen Moynihan (in conjunction with our CE staff) has put together a package for visiting schools. This includes drawings to colour in and a museum quiz that is answered by observing the contents of cases in the museum. Each school in Waterford County is written to annually inviting them to the museum. If we have an old photo of their school from the 20's or 30's we include it with the invitation to pique their interest. On the new museum website the 'Education Packs' as we call them will be available for teachers to download in advance of their visit.

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Waterford County Museum Plans For 2010

• Run a one day conference in Dungarvan Town Hall Theatre on the War Of Independence / Civil War. A temporary exhibition will be run in conjunction with the conference. (Late September 2009)

• Launch our revamped website (February 2010)• Improve and expand our schools programme• Expand on the pack we have available for schools (more pictures, quizs)• Commence Using Twitter, Facebook and Web 2.0 Technologies to promote the

museum. (February 2010)• Construct a version of our website for mobile phones and PDA's (Summer 2010)• Translate the content we have into other languages• Install conservation standard lighting within the museum• Initiate a purchases fund for historic objects we wish to buy• Contribute to the Museums And The Web - International Conference (April 13-17, 2010

in Denver, Colorado, USA)• Present a paper on the development of our museum to the Irish Museums Association

Conference (February 2010).• Expand our handling objects area.• Add another tailors dummy to show Medieval Ladies clothing.• Mount a temporary exhibition called 'The Devil Is In The Detail'. Photographs of

Architectural detailing from around Co. Waterford. (late August 2009)• Mount 2 temporary exhibitions in Spring and Autumn 2010. • Participate in European Night Of The Museums. Our 2009 programme can be found in

Appendix B. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Night_of_Museums • Participate in Heritage Week (August 2010)• Improve our use of metrics within the museum. In 2009 we have started to record in

detail the museum usage. We will present these figures annually in a report to Waterford County Council. The figures for June 2009 can be found in Appendix C. We have also commenced an ongoing survey of visitors in a bid to improve our visitor experience.

• Our lecture series for the Winter 2009/2010 will consist of 6 lectures.• Organise two bus tours for museum members to areas of historic interest.

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Appendix A – Contributors To Our Redevelopment Fund

• FAS• Dungarvan Town Council• Waterford Leader Partnership• The Cavanagh Family, Rathcairn, Fermoy• Queally Group, Kill, Co.Waterford• Blackwater Homes Ltd.• T. McCarthy Building Ltd.• Michael Ryan, AL EILE STUD, Kilgobnet• Agnes Devine, Colligan Mor, Dungarvan• Akram Hanna, MPSI, Mari Mina Pharmacies,

Lismore• In Memory of Harry Glanville, Dungarvan &

Liverpool• The Keohan Family, Main Street, Dungarvan• In Memory of Ann Allridge, Dungarvan• The Cahill Family, Church St., Dungarvan• Muinntear Uí Chionnfhaolaaidh, Cnocán An

Phaoraugh• William Mulvihill & Family, McCarthyville,

Abbeyside / Strokestown, Co.Roscommon• Lismore Credit Union• Blasta Wholefoods, Main St., Dungarvan• Robert (Bobby) Breen, Ballyrandle & London• Brian & Liam Gleeson, Auctioneers, Ardmore• Brian Wickham & Family, Cairbre House• Bríd & DC Fennessy, Abbeyside• In loving memory of Alice & William McCabe• i eye opticians, 1 High Street, Dungarvan• Danny & Anne Casey, Clonea, Dungarvan• In Memory of The Donovan, Power & Sheridan

Families, Dungarvan• David Cliffe, London & Madrid• Judith & David McNally• The Tynan Family, The Enterprise Bar, Dungarvan• In Memory of Paul I. and Mary Power, Dungarvan• Donal Power, Abbeyside• Doris Poyer in Memory of Patrick McCarthy 1885-

1951• The eProject Architects Ltd., Main St., Dungarvan• Eamonn King Solicitors, Dungarvan• East Cork Oil Company, Middleton• Eddie & May Cantwell• Desmond & Eileen Moloney & Family, Helvic House

/ Dungarvan• Lismore & Cappoquin Credit Union• Francis & Breda McGovern & Family, McCarthy

Ville, Abbeyside• Glanbia, Dungarvan• Gerard McCullagh & Co, Dungarvan• Dungarvan Shopping Centre• The Chavasse Family, Cappagh• Moynihan Apiaries• In Memory of Ellen Shanahan Lennon• James & Anne Cullinane, New York / Dungarvan• In Memory of Patrick Terry & Mary Terry nee

Crotty, Abbeyside• James & Thérèse Shine, Abbeyside• John Flynn, Brisca, Leamybrien• John Ketch Landscape Architects

• In memory of Garda John & Elena Rice, Kilmacthomas

• Joseph P. Gordon, Solicitor, Dungarvan• Karl Dalton, Dungarvan• Kevin & Nancy Dalton, USA• Ken & Tisha Crump, Worcester / Dungarvan• The Dalton Family, USA • Joan Baily, Founder Member• Margaret & the late Pat Keane, Dungarvan /

Ballymacmague• Flynn's Pharmacy, Dungarvan• Mary & Rita Giblin, Dungarvan• Mary Hoar & Ira Goldman, Yonkers, NY / Old

Parish• The Kyne Family, Abbeyside / Dungarvan• In Loving Memory of the Dowers of Aglish &

Clashmore - Janis & Maurice Garvie, London• Mike & Angie Hurton, Dungarvan / New York• The Veale Family, Carrigmoorna, Lemybrien• The Sweeney Family, Kilgobinet• Michael Burke, Ballyneety, Dungarvan• Michael J. Hanrahan, Solicitor• Moloney's Hardware & DIY est. 1898, Dungarvan• In Memory of those who perished on the Moresby

1895, dedicated by Michael Torpey• The Keohan Family, Main St., Dungarvan• Muinntear Reagáin, An t Sean Chill• Neans Uí Bhraonáin, An t Sean Chill• Ned Whelan, Dungarvan• Máire & Nioclás ó Griofáin, Rinn ó gCuanach• Sadbh, Treasa, Domnall O'Faoláin, Rinn Ua

gCuanach• Nóirín Uí Chionaola & Dónall Ó Cionnfhaolaidh,

Abbeyside • The O'Meara Family, Dungarvan• Patricia O'Neill, Architect, Lismore• In Memory of Patrick Hurton• Permanent TSB, Dungarvan• Pearse O'Mahoney, Barnet / Dungarvan• County Waterford S. P. & B. Association Inc. New

York• The Curran Family, Ballinamona, Old Parish• Roy Dooney, Dun Laoghaire• In Memory of my G. Grandmother Bridget Heaffy

Hoff - Sharon Gravert, Sacramento• Sherry Fitzgerald Reynolds• Nemeton, An Rinn• Thomás Walsh, Dungarvan• Tom & Margo Kehoe, Western Bay, Dugarvan• Tom & Bridget Broderick & Family, Mapstown• Mr. Tom Landers, White Rock, Vancouver• GlaxoSmithKline, Dungarvan• In Loving Memory of John Joe & Mary Fraher,

Dungarvan• The Whelan Family, Coolagh Road, Abbeyside &

Colligan• Senator David Norris• Paddy Daly & The Probation Service• Michael Walsh• In Memory of Mai Rheinisch

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Appendix B – Night Of The Museums Programme

presents

European Night of the Museum

Events start at 6pm and end at 12 midnightStories, Information, Re-enactments, Music

Something for everybody throughout the night, come and go as you please!

Event Times are posted on Museum Door Admission: FREE

Date: Saturday 16 May 200911

Programme For European Night of the Museum At Waterford County Museum

Saturday 16th May 2009

Events started at 6pm and end at 12 midnight. All events were free.

6.00 Stories For Children [Performance]

6:35 Civic Link, Coppercoast Geopark [Information]

7.00 The Life Of A Viking [Re-enactment]

7:45 Songs With Anne Mulqueen [Performance]

8:15 Dungarvan Fenians In Australia [Lecture]

8:45 Stories From The Archives [Lecture]

9:10 Spanish Poetess Maria Gertrudus Hore [Lecture]

9:30 Viking Sword Display [Re-enactment]

9:45 Sarah Purser As Told By Orla Glascott [Performance]

10:25 Childhood Stories From County Waterford [Lecture]

10:50 Captain William Gibbons - Master Mariner [Lecture]

11:10 Vikings Come To Life! [Re-enactment]

Contributions From: UCC Medieval & Renaissance Re-enactment Society, Anne Mulqueen, Jim Shine, Julian Walton, Niochlás Ó Griofáin, Margo Kehoe, Norma O'Meara, Orla Glascott, Dungarvan Drama Club, Darren Moynihan, Civic Link, Coppercoast Geopark and William Fraher.

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Appendix C – Museum Statistics For July 2009

The attendance figure below for the month of July will be improved on in the future. We have recently rectified some problems with signage. As of the 19th of August the projected attendance for August 2009 is 900 adults and children.

Books Sold 17

Postcards 10

Memberships 2

Database Entries 92

Inquiries Dealt WithPhoneEmail

9518

Tours 10 hrs Tour for members

Lectures/Talks Organizing Events

60 hrs Organising Dungarvan Musical & Choral Society Exhibition

Attendance Adults 489Children 114

Images Uploaded To WebProvided To Media/Private

1255

Donations €339.07

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Appendix D – Photographs

The Museum Interior

Activities For Children And Adults At Night Of The Museums

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Ballyduff Lower NS Visit The Museum

Lecture On 'Walled Gardens' During Waterford Festival Of Food

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Abbeyside NS Visit Our Exhibition In Garvey's Supermarket

Our Outreach Exhibition In Garvey's Supermarket

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Night Of The Museums Lecture

Heritage Week

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Our Second Hand Book Sale Held In Garvey's Supermarket

Professional Conservation Standards Are In Place For Storage Of Artifacts

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