Grave Discoveries / Glasnevin Cemetery and Museum, Dublin

A couple of weeks ago, Maeve and myself made good on our pact to visit Glasnevin Cemetery. I bought a Groupon coupon for discounted entry a few months ago, which I thought was a good way for Glasnevin Museum to generate visitor footfall. They're selling Groupon tickets at the moment too. The skies remained a clear, deep blue for the duration of our visit, we were blessed with the weather!



Maud Gonne MacBride and Jim Larkin's graves

On April 24th, 1916 the Easter Rising began in Dublin city, and lasted for 6 days, fiercely fought by the Irish Republicans who wanted to emancipate Ireland from British rule. In the end there were casualties on both sides, and Ireland wouldn't achieve its independence until 1922. Some of the most famous figures of the Rising, assassinated for their part in the Rebellion, are buried here at Glasnevin cemetery.

Glasnevin Cemetery is Ireland's largest non-denominational cemetery, established in 1832 by Daniel O'Connell "The Emancipator". The Penal Laws operating in Ireland at the time prevented Catholics from practising their religious rites publicly. Many Catholics could not afford to bury their dead in consecrated ground. O'Connell sought to redress this state of affairs. Now over 1.5 million of over 12 different faiths are buried here, death being the great equalizer.

Our tour lasted a little over an hour, they have two public tours every day at 11.30am and 2.30pm, and on different days you are treated to a historical renactment of a particular event at the cemetery. When we were there, we were presented with a renactment of Padraig Pearse’s graveside oratory at the funeral of the Fenian O'Donovan Rossa, in 1915. It was a bit naff, but its probably a good crowd pleaser, and does set the context, particularly if your memory is a little rusty on twentieth-century Irish history. It did put us in the mood for the rest of the tour. Our guide was Niall and he had a special association with the Rising, through his grandfather, who had gotten involved as a volunteer at the age of 15.


Roger Casement was one of the first graves we stopped off at. Casement was an Irish nationalist, anti-imperialist and abolitionist. He was stripped of his knighthood, and executed for treason on August 3rd, 1916, for his involvement in the Easter Rising, this judgment is said to be strictly enforced due to the recent discovery of Casement's "black books" which revealed his homosexual activities.



We were taken into the O’Connell family crypt underneath the round tower. Visitors were once able to climb the tower, until an Loyalist bomb was planted there in the late 1970s, which destroyed the staircase. The Glasnevin Trust is a registered charity, so they rely heavily on visitor income and fundraising. They hope to reinstate the staircase inside the tower at some point in the future. The crypt was recently refurbished, in 2009. The quotations on the wall are said to be O'Connell's dying words; "My body to Ireland, My heart to Rome", which was taken literally, as his heart was taken to what was then the chapel of the Irish College there, now the Sant'Agata dei Goti.

O’Connell’s coffin takes centre stage once inside the crypt. The macarbe part of me got a thrill at seeing O’Connell’s coffin, which is visible through the marble tableau above it. The interior has undergone a recent restoration with bright murals painting on the walls, outlining key dates in O’Connell’s life.


Afterward we went to where Charles Stewart Parnell is buried, above the cholera pit. Popular legend speaks of how one of his dying requests was to "bury me with my people", which was honoured, whether this is true or not.



On the final leg of our tour we were brought to the Republican plot, where the names are so familiar to all of us who’ve come through the Irish primary school system. The plot is simple and unadorned, the grave markers recording only their name, and the dates of birth and death. A young boy was very enthusiastic about this part of the tour, I could empathise, having had an appetite for Irish history when I was in school myself (and retain to this day may I add!). I would love to see more little girls express the same interest, perhaps if the Women of 1916 were celebrated more (watch this space!).


The Funeral of Harry Boland (1922) by Jack B. Yeats.
Harry Boland, an Irish nationalist, was a member of the First Dáil. Boland joined the Irish Volunteers and took an active part in the Easter Rising of 1916. Boland was Michael Collins best friend and right hand man, but their friendship was strained as Boland opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty. In November of 1922, Boland was accosted by soldiers of the Irish Free State Army at a hotel in Skerries, and though he was unarmed, he was mortally wounded and later died from his injuries. At his burial in Glasnevin, no press nor photography was permitted, and thus Yeats' painting is the only pictorial evidence of this event. This painting is held in the Niland Collection at The Model, Sligo. I had the pleasure of speaking on this work during some summer tours of the gallery I gave last year. You can see the base of the O'Connell monument (as in my first photo) in the picture.


Michael Collins grave is the most visited grave in Glasnevin, unsurprisingly as it is set apart from the others, close to the Glasnevin Museum building. Personally I wasn't a fan of its position, I'd like to have seen Collins' grave beside his contemporaries. Set apart from the others, the sensitive side of me sorry for the grave, alone.




The Museum is contained in the basement, and is eerily enjoyable, it includes some quirky coffin seating in the interactive cinema and models of gravediggers, as well as some excerpts of recorded conversations between Glasnevin Gravediggers in a local pub. The mood remains dark and contemplative. There are interactive panels that explain in an intelligent but understandable manner, the philosophies of each of the religious faiths that are buried here. A series of display boxes includes the names of some of those interred there and some items associated with them during their life.






The museum continues upstairs with an interactive exhibition, and a small display of some O'Connell memorabilia. You can browse through the interactive exhibits and learn about the famous 'residents' of Glasnevin. I like that you have a view of the graveyard in front of you as you do this, a reminder of past, present, and future.

Glasnevin Museum have a strong social media presence and you can intereact with them on twitter, facebook and instagram.

Getting to the cemetery from the city centre is very simple, you can get Dublin bus 140 from O'Connell Street, a bus ticket is around €2.20.

Wellcome Collection

“Painters have presented to us with some horrour the skeleton… but the state of a body, in the dissolution of the grave, no pencil can present to us. Between that excremental jelly that thy body is made of… and that jelly which thy body dissolves to…. There is not noisome, so putrid a thing in nature.” (Sermon XCV, John Donne)

When I was in London before the Easter I had a Friday afternoon to kill before meeting a dear friend. Another friend had recently recommended the Wellcome Collection to me, as one of London's premier quirkier and free museums. It's a hop, skip and jump from Euston station and St. Pancreas, an ideal location to kill some time. Here art and artefact meet the bizzare.

Again, this is where I bemoan the quality of my camera, but here are a few of the more SFW (safe for work) objects that caught my eye.

A pair of moccasins owned by Florence Nightingale, 19th century

Vanitas ceramic portrait head, 18th century

Silver vanitas statuettes, 18th century

Vanitas objects and portraits were popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. Their purpose was a symbolic one, the macabre imagery was to remind the owner of the transience of life and the deposition of the body after death. A gruesome warner to the beholder to mind what they do in this life, should they suffer in the next! John Donne wrote some grisly verse on the onset of death (See above).

A collection of artificial limbs, mostly 19th and early 20th century.
I love the spook element of these, how they are displayed upright and facing the visitor as if they are approaching powered by a supernatural will!

Grotesque paintings, a small part of a selection hung on the wall.

The lush glass display cases, wooden panelling and intimate layout of the exhibition space remind me of a Victorian connoisseur's private collection (which indeed it was at one point), walking around it was like being introduced into the inner sanctum. I'm sure not many respectable Victorian ladies would have been given the private tour after dinner parties!

Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome (1853-1936) was a pharmacist, entrepreneur, philanthropist and collector is the man behind the Wellcome Collection. An esoteric Victorian collector, the massive volume of objects held in his collection after his death included a lock of Napoleon's hair to Japanese turn-of-the-century sex aids. There is a heavy medical and instructive theme to the collection.

The shop and café were divine places to lounge afterward. Lots of beautiful hardback art books with Renaissance anatomical drawings and macabre imagery. Too large to fit in my hand luggage for the journey home. A postcard had to suffice (more within my price range, to be fair).

Ladies and gentlemen, the above illustrates one of the many reasons why I am a Victorianist. They were mighty eccentric folk!

Titanic Belfast, Belfast, N. Ireland

Front view, Titanic Belfast. CivicArts / Eric R. Kuhne & Associates & London Todd Architects, Belfast

Due to the large volumes of visitors they only let in groups of people every 20 minutes. You wait in the queue at the bottom of the escalators. It became obvious that most visitors went in groups, I was one of the few individual visitors. Its very much a day out for families, tourists, and schoolgroups. The building is buzzing with all the activity of the exhibition on the upper floors, and the Galley restaurant and shop on the ground floor. The ground floor itself is a bit of organised chaos, a bit confusing when you first enter the building.

'Boomtown Belfast'
The first stage of the exhibition, aims to set the scene, or context of the period in which the RMS Titanic set sail. It was a politically potent time in Northern Ireland (as the sandwich boards and banners reflect). These were the years before the Republic of Ireland attained its sovereignty from Britain.

Large screens display archive footage of the streets of Belfast, whilst silhouettes in period clothing walk vertically across the screen every now and them, coupled with the noise of the archive city to recreate the experience of the city. Personally I felt like it added another distraction to a room already filled with people and interactive exhibits.

We are given a run through of life in Belfast at the time, Belfast as "Linenopolis". Linen was a particularly strong industry in Northern Ireland throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, until the turn of the century. Belfast had a strong shipbuilding heritage, like Glasgow, Liverpool and Southampton. RMS Titanic was constructed in the iconic Harland and Wolff shipyard. Titanic Belfast is built on part of the site occupied by Harland and Wolff's shipyard.

Initially I enjoyed how the exhibits explored the social and economic background of Belfast and the Harland and Wolff workers, from the dockers to the office men. Unfortunately, I found in the absence of artefacts, a lot of interactive screens were cluttered around the gallery to make up for this lack of primary sources (a common theme throughout the exhibition itself). They were noisy, and for me, ultimately unengaging, I would have preferred to have looked at contemporary artefacts instead of playing around on a computer screen, or playing an interactive game.

The building work records that original Harland and Woolf gates were installed as part of Titanic Belfast's construction, I'm not entirely sure if these were them, as they are quite a focal point.

As I progressed further, a bizarre turn of events took place, unlike anything I've seen or expected from a museum. I joined a lengthly queue to wait on a Shipyard Ride. The ride was an audio and visual guide as it took you on a tour of a recreated shipyard, informing you how a ship was made, what sort of materials were used, how much manpower would have gone into the construction of the RMS Titanic. It was a bit of a novelty and I suppose if it had been composed as a standard "What was the Shipyard like?" exhibit it wouldn't have been as engaging. I really don't think that it added anything to the experience for me, I would rather have progressed through the exhibition at my own pace and not spent ten minutes queuing for ride that I couldn't just skip past. It was a novelty, but it is a concept that could potentially date very rapidly, five, or ten years down the line.

'The Launch' gallery was exciting - I loved the frosted glass that looks out upon the original launch site. I don't have any pictures sadly, but I thought this gallery was a lovely addition to the flow of the museum. It lent a brief moment of contemplation to the visitor as you progress through the museum.

Original White Star Line first class crockery, from RMS Titanic, originally made by The Royal Crown Derby Porcelain Company

'The Fit Out' gallery was the one I was most looking forward to, owing to my own interest in interiors. This gallery recreated three bedrooms, for first, second and third class passengers on the Titanic. These were contained behind glass, and included video projections of people in the costume of the period, according to class. One of the shortcomings of relying too heavily on interactive exhibits was glaringly in evidence here, at least two of the projections were not working while I was there. I think displaying the costumes of the time alongside the room refits would have been more effective, and significantly less hassle. I don't especially need to see a projection of someone in character brushing their hair to help me understand what someone does in their cabin.

This room had a small amount of artefacts, it also had a walkthrough of the styles used in the interiors, and particularly the dining rooms of the the Titanic, comparing it to other luxury liners of its time. Titanic's interiors were far superior to cruise liners of the period, particularly for second and third class passengers. Obviously, displaying genuine artefacts here is an issue, considering most of them are buried 4km below the Atlantic ocean. It was more how they were displayed that I had issue with, but overall, save for the room refits, I felt this gallery was laid out appropriately.

I was particularly piqued by this recognition of Ireland's Titanic town. Mary Mangan was one of 14 passengers from a small community in County Mayo, in the Republic of Ireland. Addergoole Parish (Lagardane) is so-called 'Ireland's Titanic town' as this community suffered the most loss of life in the tragedy, proportionate to its population. Eleven of the fourteen passengers from Addergoole died when RMS Titanic sank on her maiden voyage.

These personal vignettes give the passengers motives for being on the Titanic, some are more poignant than others, such as "Home to show off the ring".

The Maiden Voyage
This is where things started to get personal. For me, this was the most effective element of the whole exhibition. It features the personal stories of the passengers and crew, and their motives for sailing on RMS Titanic. Individual stories were highlighted according to where the passenger docked. On its maiden voyage RMS Titanic had four stop off points on its journey: Belfast, Southampton, Cherbourg and Cobh (then known as Queenstown).

Father Browne's iconic photographs were used to maintain the link between the previous exhibit as one went down the stairs to The Sinking gallery.

The whole architecture of the building itself was very angular, one could look over railings to the floors below, and the large domineering windows that looked out onto the harbour gave one the illusion of being on a deck.

Four more galleries followed after this which I will sum up briefly as I have no visual guides (I didn't take pictures to be honest). The Sinking is an interactive exhibit, with icy cold air conditioning recreating the atmosphere on the Atlantic on that faithful night, with morse code signals ringing in our ears. This seemed fairly effective as my fellow passengers, nay, visitors got quite emotional throughout the course of this. Interactive screens profiled individual passengers and rescue stories.

The heroism and horror of Titanic’s final hours are induced with atmospheric sound and lighting to create a subtle and moving evocation of the ship’s catastrophic and untimely demise.

The Aftermath - This exhibit details the trials that took place on both sides of Atlantic after the sinking of the Titanic. It also highlights the recommendations that influenced major changes in maritime regulations to enforce new safety measures, such as ensuring that more lifeboats were provided. Some of the American trial is reacted in a visual exhibit, something we have already established that Titanic Belfast is preoccupied with.

Myths and Legends brings together the many stories, media reports, legends and fantasies that have grown up around the Titanic story. Displays of Titanic memorabilia (from the tame to the tasteless: Titanic ice cube tray anyone?), clips from movies and musicals (Celine Dion on a 5 minute loop really) form the basis of this exhibit. It gives you an opportunity to giggle at the recognise iconography and myth that has grown up around the Titanic myth.

One of the most compelling exhibits Visit & Explore the Wreck gave the visitor access to Dr. Ballard’s high-definition footage from the wreckage. Ballard and his team discovered the wreck of the Titanic in 1985, 4km below sea level. For me, absorbed as I was within the theatre that this footage was being played, the concept was a little marred by a clunky, scripted narrative by two actors who made subjective comments on selected items of debris around the ship (shoes, crockery, etc).

The final exhibit, the Ocean Exploration Centre was made up of... interactive exhibits! You can never have enough, or can you? While not directly linked to the Titanic the aim of this exhibit is to explore what makes up our oceans and aims to provide up to date information on marine biology and archaeology. There was some interesting information panels but ultimately it didn't hold much of my interest so I made a quick exit. I have no doubt that it would interest some people but for me it felt anticlimatic as an end to the "Titanic experience".

One of the Samson and Goliath shipbuilding cranes. These two twin cranes are still in use today and their imposing presence in the harbour around Titanic Belfast allude to the city's shipbuilding history.

Titanic Belfast is ambitious in its vision, I'm not certain if it hasn't isolated part of its market by being just too interactive, at the cost of a real human connection with the objects and the story. Everything is new and glossy, but what will happen when the initial crowds reduce in the coming years. It will be interesting to see how the surrounding Titanic Quarter develops as a cultural hub for Belfast and beyond.

The Sheelin Antique Irish Lace Museum & Shop, Co. Fermanagh

With the encouragement of a couple of blogging friends, I've decided to focus more on the things that I am passionate about, such as day tripping to museums/galleries/heritage sites.

I am particularly interested in visiting regional museums, places that are less likely to see a large influx of visitors, or to receive as much governmental funding. I am interested in seeing the impact this has on the museum itself - in terms of displays, the didactics (text panels & labelling), the information available to visitors, its perceived audience and its online presence (which is the beating heart of all the major cultural institutions we know).

A few weeks ago, a weekend visit from a dear friend prompted a visit to the village of Bellanaleck on the outskirts of Enniskillen, just under an hour away by car from Sligo.

The Sheelin Antique Irish Lace Museum and Shop is housed cosily within a beautiful thatched cottage, with tearooms adjacent, owned by the same family.

You gain entry to the museum through the shop, which itself sells a range of beautiful antique Irish and European lace, as well as vintage wedding gowns and accessories. My only purchase was a 50p postcard! It really is a charming entrance, and heightens the anticipation as you enter further inside, to find the museum at the rear of the shop.

View of museum displays (with a cameo by yours truly!)

Irish crochet jacket, lace jacket - the displays were a mix of hand worked lace and machine lace - but the information panels didn't specify the differences, which we would have liked to have known, so we made some amateur guesses ourselves.*

This dress was donated by a member of the McGuinness family (the name escapes me now), with hand-painted floral detail and possibly swarovski crystals adorning the skirt. Some of the detail looks to have been added by hand but I can't be sure.

The detail adorns every element of the dresses on display. Imagine the effect once of these gowns trailing across the floor at a grand ball would have made. It really is beautifully laid out, it gives the visitor a sense of intimacy as opposed to the sterile atmosphere typically found in museums. Being a regional museum, with a smaller audience, and an adjoining shop selling antique lace, they have an advantage over larger museums whom would have a larger volume of people and therefore would need to be more protective of their fragile and valuable exhibits. I felt quite privileged as I walked around, almost as if I was a trusted confidante walking around the substantial wardrobe of a nineteenth-century socialite.

I loved how the dresses were presented on these mannequins, displaying them to their full effect. I however, would have liked to have known the provenance of these dresses. The only information given was on a number of discrete text panels, which explained the different types of Irish lace (Carrickmacross lace, Limerick lace, Irish crochet, Youghal lace, etc).

The sight of so many dresses, flounces and fans set us into a state of girly excitement, so we took some pictures to give an impression of the romantic aesthetic effect of the museum and shop.

Carrickmacross lace piece, with peacock detail. Dated 1910. The majority of the pieces in the museum date from the 1890s - 1910s, a highly productive period in Irish lacemaking.

I only wish that I had taken a notebook with me to note the different styles of my favourite dresses on display and I could have been more specific in this post, but if you're in this part of the world you may be tempted to come!
Also on display is a beautiful Youghal needlelace flounce, with harps and music note detailing, formally owned by the family of the late princess, Lady Diana Spencer. This type of "Irishy" design was very common for the period, usually commissioned by rich Ladies as a tangible display of their philanthropic interests (such as the Irish cause/helping the Irish poor).

The shop is a literal boudoir, a bride-to-be's dream, and more.

Beautiful window displays

Trinkets and charms on sale

Ornate hankerchiefs of Limerick and Carrickmacross lace.

After feasting our eyes on the aesthetic delights that the small museum and shop offered, we decided to treat ourselves to some afternoon tea in the Sheelin Tea Rooms next door. I'm sure the convenience offered by the benefits both the shop and the museum. I enjoyed a victoria sponge, whilst my friend and father had the apple tart. The staffed seemed rushed off their feet, the small tea room was about two thirds full on this Saturday afternoon.

Entry to the museum is £2.50 per person, which in my eyes is perfectly reasonable, considering you are making a small contribution to the continuation of this wonderful gem in the Fermanagh countryside. The museum opens from April through to October. I was pleasantly surprised that the guestbook had signatures from all over the world.

POSTSCRIPT
Some background history...

The revival of Irish lace and the cottage industries
The cottage industries in Ireland were the projects of philanthropists. Their aim was to provide “relief work” for the rural peasantry, supplying workers with a regular income for their family, and an occupation. For these lady philanthropists the notion of revitalising the countryside held a more personal motivation, it carried a powerful humanitarian and patriotic appeal. In these areas the basic production standards were in place for the creation of textiles but they were in need of updating in terms of style and quality, in order to market them to the fashion conscious urban consumer. Designs for lace

Queen Victoria was a fervent patron of Irish lace, and encouraged the ladies within her court to purchase and wear Irish lace. The purchase of national products had become a fashionable cause during the latter part of the century. The drive to buy British was a large boost to the regeneration of cottage industries. A significant part of the attraction included the revival of what was perceived as “national patterns” (harps, shamrocks, etc).

*I have since been in touch with Rosemary Cathcart who informs me that all the antique lace in the museum is hand worked and there is no machine made lace amongst the collection. (8/6/2012)

Read more:
Cottage Industries: Arts and Crafts in Donegal, 1880-1920
Cottage Industries In Scotland And Ireland
Art and the National Dream: Search for Vernacular Expression in Turn-of-the-century Design
British and Irish Home Arts and Industries 1880-1914: Marketing Craft, Making Fashion