Onwards and upwards: New gallery director on her plans for the Crawford

As the new director of the Cork gallery, Mary McCarthy will oversee a €22m extension, and also hopes to rejuvenate public interest in the city-centre facility, writes Ellie O’Byrne.

MARY McCarthy sits in the wood-panelled library upstairs in the Crawford Art Gallery. The room is occasionally used for meetings and talks but is rarely open to the public. Art journals dating back to the 1870s, scientific display cabinets and a mahogany globe: the room is steeped in an Enlightenment-era atmosphere of learning. It’s like stepping back in time.