€1.3m museum to honour Michael Collins and other West Cork patriots

A €1.3m museum, dedicated to Michael Collins and two other West Cork patriots, is to open in Clonakilty at the end of June.

Cork County Council, spearheading the project, is also appointing a five-person board to manage the museum at No 7 Emmet Square, a house where Collins once lived and worked.

County councillors at a Municipal District meeting yesterday were updated on developments by council official Justin England.

Mr England said the imposing corner building, painstakingly restored, will house a collection of photographs, letters and family papers associated with Collins.

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“The Longford Historical Society has also kindly loaned us a watch that Collins gave to Kitty Kiernan on the occasion of their engagement,” said Mr England.

The house and an adjoining property were acquired for the museum by the former town council in 2012. “Collins once stayed there with his sister Margaret and her husband, Patrick O’Driscoll, who published the West Cork People from 1905 to 1908 and there is a room in the museum dedicated to that newspaper.”

Collins, born at Woodfield, Lisavaird, several miles from the town, helped out by doing reporting work on various local events and, in 1906, left Clonakilty for a job in the Post Office in London.

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The two other patriots with local connections who will be featured in the museum are Tadhg an Asna and Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa.

“The museum will tell the story of the struggle for independence from 1798 to 1922,” said Mr England. “Tadhg an Asna was a patriot involved in the Battle of Big Cross at Shannonvale on the outskirts of Clonakilty. It was the second biggest battle after Vinegar Hill. He was shot, hung, drawn, and quartered and his remains then thrown into the sea.”

Meanwhile, family photographs and some artifacts are being donated by the family of O’Donovan Rossa, the famous Fenian leader and prominent member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He was born at Reenascreena near Rosscarbery on September 10, 1831. He died in Staten Island, New York, aged 83. A number of events are being planned for June 29 to mark the centenary of his death.

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The museum building forms part of a Georgian square, which was laid out between 1785 and 1810.

The house had been used as a private residence until 1981, when it became a solicitor’s practice. It was acquired by the town council two years ago and is now under the control of the county council.

Mr England said the project to restore the house will give visitors a view of what it was like in its Georgian splendour.

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