Stable door open for the famous Marengo to be returned to the North
Buttevant claims that Napoleon’s famous white charger, Marengo, belongs to it and wants the newly refurbished skeleton of the horse “repatriated” to the medieval town.
The skeleton of Marengo which has been cleaned and rearticulated at a huge cost by the British government and is now on display at the British National Army Museum in Chelsea, London.
The museum’s director general, Janice Murray, has told councillors in North Cork that she’s “happy to consider” their request to “loan” out the horse’s skeleton to them once they have built a museum in Buttevant which is capable of housing it.
Ms Murray said she would hold discussions with the Kanturk/Mallow Municipal District Council once they had an appropriate location to house the remains of the stallion.
Cllr Bernard Moynihan, chairman of the municipal district council, said he welcomed Ms Murray’s comments.
While wanting to have Marengo permanently housed in Buttevant — he was said to have been bought by the French at the famous Cahermee Horse Fair in the early 1800s — Mr Moynihan said accepted it might be some time before it might happen.
A museum capable of providing proper temperature and atmosphere controls will be required to keep the skeleton intact for future generations to enjoy.
Cllr Moynihan admitted that in the short term providing such a state-of-the-art museum “could be problematic” for Buttevant as “council funds were not great at present”.
Cllr Moynihan said a museum for Buttevant would be a huge boost for the town, where nearly 2,800 artifacts were recently found in the town during recent archaeological excavations.
“We would love the skeleton of Marengo as the centrepiece of such a museum,” Cllr Moynihan said.
“At least the door is open with them [the British National Army Museum] with ongoing dialogue promised and I’m grateful for that.”
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