A NEW maritime museum is set to open in Foynes as part of a €1.5million expansion of the famous Flying Boat Museum. It is hoped that the interactive museum will be open in the port village over St Patrick’s weekend in time for the summer tourism season. The new exhibits will depict life on the Shannon estuary from the early eighteen hundreds to the present day with the commercial and leisure aspects of the busy estuary featured alongside myths and legends connected with the Shannon.
The original control tower from the 1940’s has been reinstated to provide panoramic views of the historic waterway.
Currently, the museum offers a 1940’s style cinema, numerous exhibits on the romantic flying boat era including Morse code equipment, a life-size replica of the Yankee Clipper Flying Boat and a 3D hologram replicating life in 1943.
It attracts over 30,000 visitors a year and is open from March to November.
