KILMALLOCK’S museum has been a place where visitors can see a fascinating array of artefacts, historical information, and a scale model showing how the town looked in 1597.
In fact, the need for a place to display the wonderful scale model, which was made locally, was one of the reasons for the creation of the museum in 1988.
But the museum is a labour of love, run by the Kilmallock Historical Society and after being closed for two years with no revenue coming in, it’s future now hangs in the balance.
“The cost of the overheads is more than we can meet,” Historical Society secretary, Noel Collins told the Limerick Post.
“We use very little electricity but we still have to pay a commercial rate and the cost of insurance is very high. We don’t know if we will be able to open up again.” he said.
The museum is loved locally for its intimate setting on the converted ground floor of a domestic house, where visitors were greeted by a welcoming open fire.
It’s home to local memorabilia from The Brewery, which never brewed beer but produced whiskey and lemonade; replicas from archeological digs at nearby Tankerdstown where the remains of Neolithic houses were found and items from local agriculture, industry and day-to-day lives.
“When the museum was open, we generated enough money to keep going or the Historical Society made up the difference but now the kitty is empty,” said Noel.
“The museum needs modernisation and it needs public money to reopen. Otherwise, it has no future.”
