TAOISEACH Enda Kenny has opened Ireland’s first 1916 exhibition at the County Museum in Dundalk, Co Louth, ahead of the centenary commemorations.
‘Birth of a Nation – the Evolution of Irish Nationhood, 1641-1916’ displays artefacts, including an original 1916 Proclamation and handwritten documents by Padraig Pearse, WB Yeats and Roger Casement.
Opening the exhibition, the Taoiseach said: “This exhibition, the first in our country to celebrate the 1916 centenary, allows us to find out more about the birth of our nation via the words, thoughts and possessions of those who were there.
“Included here are names which are already firmly etched in our history books but also those who we are just beginning to find out about thanks to their families, friends and all those who have contributed artefacts to the County Museum here in Dundalk.
“This thought-provoking and moving exhibition provides the ultimate inspiration for projects taking place throughout Ireland as we approach the 1916 centenary.”
Weaponry, medals and uniforms used over the centuries and letters sent from prisoners to their families after the Easter Rising also feature.
Families of those involved in 1916 and in events leading up the Easter Rising were in attendance at the opening, as well as people who had contributed to the exhibition.
County Museum Dundalk Curator Brian Walsh, said it had been a privilege to work on the exhibition, which was opened after two years of planning.
“I have been able to work on and with some of the most significant artefacts in our history - items associated with many of the pivotal points in the national narrative,” he said.
Mr Kenny was joined by Minister for Arts, Heritage & the Gaeltacht Heather Humphries, and Senator Jim D’Arcy, who is a member of the 2016 Easter Rising Commemoration Committee.
