#IrishMuseumsOnline: content and resources

Looking for online content from museums but finding it hard to find? 

We have collected some of the material being shared by Irish Museums in one handy portal, to make it easier for you to access their activities and get inspired. 

Museums across the island are also using the hashtag #IrishMuseumsOnline to provide a easy touchpoint across social media. 

Below is a list of content which we are currently adding to. We will be gathering these into more focused access points as it expands so do check back with us!

 

Virtual and 3D Tours

 

Chester Beatty 

EPIC: The Irish Emigration Museum

Glasnevin Museum

National Museum of Ireland: Natural History museum

National Museum of Ireland: Archaeology museum

National Gallery of Ireland

National Print Museum

 

360° Visual Tours

 

Andrew Jackson Cottage

Ballymoney Museum

Carrickfergus Museum

Dublinia

F.E. McWilliam Gallery and Studio

Fermanagh County Museum

Galway City Museum

Green Lane Museum

Irish Linen Centre and Lisburn Museum

Mid-Antrim Museum

Museum at the Mill

National Museums NI 

Sentry Hill

Tower Museum

Ulster Museum

Waterford Treasures: Medieval Museum

 

Audio/Video Tours and Podcasts 

 

Cavan County Museum : Guided tour videos of the museum and the WWI Trench Experience

Galway City Museum: Podcasts and Vodcasts

Glucksman: Exhibition tours

IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art): Comprehensive range of curator and artists' talks

Kerry County Museum: 20:20 KERRY – Twenty objects, twenty stories, tales from the store room 

OPW video tours of their sites on their YouTube channel, including archived behind-the-scenes Kilmainham Gaol Facebook Live tours with the curator.

Leprechaun Museum: Facebook Live tours

MoLI (Museum of Irish Literature): MoLI Radio featuring 24/7 broadcasting of new commissioned writing, discussion interviews, radio plays and documentary.

National Gallery: Curator and artist talks  

Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI): Youtube channel featuring recent lectures. 

 

Online collections and Exhibitions

 

Armagh County Museum: Highlights of the collection 

Clare County Museum Riches of Clare: thematic collection catalogues under Earth, Power,Water, Faith, and Energy. 

Cobh Heritage Centre: Online exhibitions gallery

Digital Repository of Ireland: Collections include, Kilkenny Design Workshop, collections from the HSE, Chester Beatty, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork LGBT community, plus more. 

Donegal County Museum: 3D sketchfab images with description of a selection of items from the collection and a selection of online exhibitions 

Fermanagh County Museum: Exhibitions ‘Fermanagh – a story in 100 objects’ and 'William Scott: The Early Years’

Farmleigh House, Parkland, and Sculptures: Online exhibition tour

Galway City Museum Online Collections 

Hugh Lane Gallery: Online collection 

Hunt Museum: A user-friendly 'search the collection'

IFI Irish Film Archive: Online exhibitions and the IFI Player, which includes a large collection of TV commercials from the '60s, '70s and '80s

Marsh's Library:  Selection of online exhibitions

Monaghan County Museum: Online exhibitions, including the Monaghan Book of Plans Restoration Project 2018.

National Museum of Ireland Resilience - a response to the current Covid-19 crisis. See also the NMI Online Hub for a wide range of online exhibitions and activities from each of the four sites. 

RCPI Heritage Centre: Touchpoint page bringing together all their online exhibitions 

Trinity College Library:  Digital Collections Repository: and more than 50 Online Exhibitions

 

Creativity and Learning Resources

 

14 Henrietta Street:  Online teacher resources, exploring the connections to the Primary and Secondary School curriculum through stories that bring the house to life. 

Butter Museum: Worksheets for Primary schools and Junior Cert

Chester Beatty: One touch-point page with resources for teachers and educators, audio and 3D tours, collections access. 

Clare County Museum: Stones and Bones activity sheet on the stone ages of Ireland

Coleraine Museum: Children's interactive archaeological exploration of Mountsandel 

Crawford Art Gallery: Resource packs for students and teachers, online workshops 

Design & Crafts Council Ireland: Primary schools programme, working with teachers, craftspeople and learners

Donegal County Museum: Selection of publications and museum booklets focusing on The Plantation, emigration and the landed gentry in Donegal 

Dublinia: Learning resources on medieval and viking Dublin, separated into primary, secondary and everybody, and teacher resources

Galway City Museum: Look, listen, learn with educational resources to help with home-schooling

Glucksman #CreativityAtHome: Daily creative activities designed for 'At Home'

Highlanes Gallery: Sign-up to receive a weekly ezine with art workshops, tours, and more. 

Hugh Lane Gallery:  School Resources (‘The Science of Conservation’ and more); #FlashbackFriday exhibition archive; Youtube channel with children activities and artists' and curators talks 

IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art): Comprehensive and wide ranging online content for students and teachers, young people, and adults

Kerry County Museum: One touch-point page with object-based activities for teachers and home schooling and talks based on the exhibitions and collections

Kilmainham Gaol Museum: Resource packs for primary and secondary schools 

The Model - Inside Out: Weekly creative activities, further content in development

MOLI (Museum of Literature Ireland) - Bright Sparks Creative Bursts: Short creative activities to do at home with children of age 8/9+ presented by MoLI and writer Sarah Webb. There is a daily creative prompt on social media, as well as a weekly video (on a Wednesday) and downloadable activity sheet, along with archived material.  For teenagers, the NovelTeens podcast asks authors deep-dive questions on how they became writers, their writing process, and generally picking their brains.

National Museum of Ireland: Comprehensive online content for students and teachers, young people and adults, from across the four sites. Including dedicated microsites: Bronze Age Handling Box, 1916 Object Stories, Roll of Honour 1916, and Documentation Discoveries

National Print Museum: Touch-point page for online resources, including primary school teacher's packs and junior worksheets

Northern Ireland War Memorial Museum: Printable resources that can be used in both the classroom or at home. 

Science Gallery Dublin #SGDAtHome: Links to social media channels for interactive talks. further content in development

National Museums Northern Ireland: Comprehensive and wide ranging online content for students and teachers, young people and adults, from across the four sites. Collections Hub and, for activities designed specifically for children, click here. 

Trinity College Dublin - Book of Kells: Primary School and Secondary School Teachers’ Guide. 

Please contact us at office@irishmuseums.org if you have additions to this page. 

 

 

The IMA has a long-standing tradition of including heritage and cultural students and museum enthusiasts in its activities and invites these to submit their 'pick of the week' from the content and resources offering by museums. 

Have a read, enjoy, and share your take with us via social media using the hashtag #IrishMuseumsOnline or contact us to learn how to submit your own reviews. 

  • Irish Linen Centre & Lisburn Museum: Virtual Museum

    "A couple of museums in Northern Ireland have stood out for me over the last few weeks for the way they have quickly embraced social media to develop an informal interaction with their audience and continue to bring their collections to visitors, including the Irish Linen Centre & Lisburn Museum – Virtual Museum, launched at the end of March. 

    Using their webpage and social media channels, the Virtual Museum showcases objects from the collection and uses photographs and videos linked to exhibition themes to offer a variety of activities that connect and engage with visitors of all ages. 

    Their extensive range of interesting, themed creative crafts and challenges will inspire and encourage younger museum visitors to engage with the museum collection.   

    The Virtual Museum has also started a contemporary collecting project which invites people to share their experiences of Covid-19 through stories, photographs, drawings, and videos. 

    “The ‘Covid 19 and Me’ research project continues the Museum’s broader ethos of participant-based practice. The initiative is the Museum’s way of keeping participants involved and engaged in the Museum and its work.  

    Museums may exist because of their collections but it is its visitors and the local community that keep museums relevant and alive. Please encourage children, teenagers, parents, and grandparents to record their experiences. 

    This is a period of history for us like no other, and when life gets back to normal this archive will be a record of the challenges, emotions and practical ways in which Covid-19 impacted life in Northern Ireland. 

    Stay connected.  Stay safe.”

     

    Anna McCann is a student on the Ulster University MA Museum Practice and Management (distance learning) and has a BA (Hon) in Conservation and Restoration. She is a former conservator for Tipperary Museum of Hidden History, has worked on projects for English Heritage, Heritage Council Ireland, and has a learning support mentor role in the Southern Regional College. 

  • National Gallery (NGI) Podcasts: The Island, A Prospect

    "Museums have always been a place of intellectual and visual engagement for me, both of which have contributed positively to my mental health and well-being. The current global crisis is a time where we will give increased recognition to the role of culture in our society, in which the digital platforms being provided to the public can greatly contribute to our overall well-being and education.

    Among the resources I was keen to look at was the National Gallery of Ireland’s podcast programme, which allows for an in-depth engagement with the gallery’s exhibitions from outside the gallery walls. 

    This series accompanies a previous exhibition, ‘Shaping Ireland: landscapes in Irish Art’ to connect us with a range of artists and experts who talk through an Irish landscape of particular significance to their work and life. 

    During a time of isolation and limited access to the natural world around us, this series brings the benefits of the outdoors to us in an accessible way that is a reminder of the role of biophilia and how nature can mentally persuade us into positive thinking. 

    A conversation with head gardener and horticulturist of the Powerscourt Estate, Co.Wicklow, is a particularly submersive experience as we are given an opportunity to walk through the gardens from our own home. 

    Further topics such as poetry and sculpture as part of the exhibition, contribute to a new view of the relationship between people and the natural world at a time when we need it most.” 

     

    Rachel Maxwell is completing her Master’s degree in Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies at Ulster University in Belfast. Her engagement with museums began as an Art & Design student at school which then progressed to a Bachelor’s degree in Textile Design.

  • Marsh's Library - Bram Stoker exhibition

    "With lack of access to public libraries and books of special interest, the Bram Stoker and the Haunting of Marsh’s Library online exhibition is an opportunity to access reading in a new and insightful way.  

    The online collection is an exploration of what the author of ‘Dracula’ read in the library as a teenager in 1866 and 1867.  We gain access to references to Transylvania and the historical figure of Dracula which may have inspired his most famous novel. 

    What I enjoyed most about this online exhibition was the accessibility to the authors thought processes and ‘behind the scenes’ inspirations that he also had access to.  For me, this created a real feeling of connection to the author and a sense of biographical proximity. My understanding of his work has been enriched through access to the artefacts and original manuscripts as they provide visual evidence, colour, warmth and the reality of the amount of influences that were at work.  The digitisation of the artefacts involved in this exhibition provides a high-quality experience allowing us to read every word on the pages provided. 

    As much as I am missing physical access to museum galleries, I have really enjoyed taking advantage of these readings from my own home as sitting down to read in a quite space can be a much more comfortable experience”

     

    Rachel Maxwell is completing her Master’s degree in Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies at Ulster University in Belfast. Her engagement with museums began as an Art & Design student at school which then progressed to a Bachelor’s degree in Textile Design.

  • NMNI online offering

    "The National Museums NI website features 'tours' of selected areas of their collections where visitors can use the collections tab to discover more information related to the collection themes. The Collections Stories and Collection Highlight tours offer the visitor an in-depth look at objects from across all the National Museums collections with great photographs and images of objects along with interesting background information to make the collection come alive.

    https://www.nmni.com/collections/stories.aspx https://www.nmni.com/collections/Highlight-Tours/collection-highlights.aspx

    Ulster Museum are also using Facebook to connect with their visitors online. With regularly updated content including videos, webinars, art works and objects from the collection their Facebook page is worth following. https://www.facebook.com/ulstermuseumbelfast/

    The Ulster Museum Twitter account https://twitter.com/UlsterMuseum has been joining in the #CURATORBATTLE started by Yorkshire Museum. #CURATORBATTLE sees museums challenged to share objects from their collection based on a theme. The Ulster Museum’s recent entry into #SassiestObject seems to have won as it has received rave reviews from the museum world!"

     

    Anna McCann is a student on the Ulster University MA Museum Practice and Management (distance learning) and has a BA (Hon) in Conservation and Restoration. She is a former conservator for Tipperary Museum of Hidden History, has worked on projects for English Heritage, Heritage Council Ireland, and has a learning support mentor role in the Southern Regional College. 

  • Take a walk in Jonathan Swift’s Dublin at MoLI

    Museum of Irish Literature (MoLI) / Audio Walk / Take a walk in Jonathan Swift’s Dublin                        

    "Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish author from Dublin, best known for writing ‘Gulliver’s Travels’. The famous writer studied at Trinity College and was later Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.  

    The Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) has provided us with an exciting and fun opportunity to walk the footsteps of Swift’s day-to-day life in 1743.  

    The narration from the character of Swift’s housekeeper, Mrs Whiteaway as she meets many different characters, makes it a really accessible and fun journey for all ages.  

    Beginning at Dublin Castle and journeying through to Marsh’s library and St.Patrick’s Cathedral, we can also follow along with a downloadable map.  

    The audio walk is a really innovative way to experience what Swift’s daily influences might have been and to gain a historical insight to the time in which he lived. The immersive sights and sounds of Georgian Dublin not only provided me with an escape of the current times but also an educational experience and an opportunity to engage with a museum that celebrates Ireland's literary heritage.   

    As I am currently isolating at home in Belfast, the podcast also allowed me to transition to my favorite city in Ireland that I cannot visit like I used to. I can’t wait to visit MoLI when I am again able to."

     

    Rachel Maxwell is completing her Master’s degree in Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies at Ulster University in Belfast. Her engagement with museums began as an Art & Design student at school which then progressed to a Bachelor’s degree in Textile Design.