Cloughjordan's MacDonagh museum digitises its collection and launches new website

The Thomas MacDonagh Museum in Cloughjordan will host a special event this Friday at 7.30pm to launch its Digital Memories Collection and new website, www.macdonaghmuseum.ie

The Digital Memories Collection is a temporary exhibition accessible online on the museum’s new website, and in person in the museum from October 15 to December 31.

The collection marks the conclusion of a significant six-month project undertaken by the museum directors to digitise 140 objects from the museum’s vast collection, and create a new website.

This digitisation project was made possible thanks to a significant Community Heritage grant from the Heritage Council, supported by the specialist web design talents of Kola Digital and the photography skills of Ben Hutchinson.

Generous funding from the Heritage Council has enabled the museum to start digitising the permanent collection and organise it on the website under multiple themes: The MacDonagh Family; Cloughjordan; Music; Folklife; Books, Manuscripts and Paper; Gaelic Revival; Rebellion and Commemoration.

Some highlights from the permanent collection include: Thomas MacDonagh’s magnum opus Literature in Ireland: Studies in Irish and Anglo-Irish; a wooden Maid of Eirinn Harp Emblem of the Gaelic Revival; a type, capital letter Q from the printing press on which original Proclamation of the Irish Republic was printed; a beautifully illustrated hardback bound copy of the Official Handbook of the Irish Free State; a William Hodgins Token Penny.

The Digital Memories Collection has its origins in Heritage Week 2022, when the museum hosted a Create Digital Memories event. Members of the public were invited to identify a personal object that was meaningful to their life story and bring it to the museum.

The 32 objects in the collection were shared with the museum by members of the Cloughjordan community, and each one tells an interesting or unusual story.

The collection contains many major themes including the social and cultural history of Cloughjordan since 1820; 20th century Irish politics on local, national and international issues; technological innovations in the home and in business; and international activism on social justice issues.

There are also deeply personal themes linked to arts and crafts, literature, memorabilia, skills and travel, with stories that evoke specific memories of families and friends around the world, both past and present.

The objects within the Digital Memories Collection were brought forward by a cross-section of the community that reflects the diversity of people in Cloughjordan. Many had deep family roots in Cloughjordan while others had moved here in recent years from other parts of Ireland, from the UK, the US, and India.