Plans are under way to open a branch of the National Museum of Ireland in a landmark Limerick city building ahead of next year’s Ryder Cup.
The property, formerly home to the International Rugby Experience, is being gifted to the State by businessman JP McManus, whose Adare Manor resort will host the 2027 tournament.
Representatives of the McManus Foundation joined Minister for Culture Patrick O’Donovan and delegations from the National Museum of Ireland and the Office of Public Works in Limerick today for an initial meeting on the transfer of ownership and the building’s future use.
The complex, closed for the past 14 months, is set to reopen as a branch of the National Museum, featuring a permanent exhibition celebrating the stories of women in Ireland.
Mr O’Donovan said it is “the ambition” of all stakeholders to have a new National Women’s Museum open ahead of the Ryder Cup.
“This building is being presented to us with no strings attached to be used by the Irish nation as a place of education, as a place of learning and as a place for the curation of exhibitions, that the National Museum will have complete independence over.”
The McManus Foundation previously offered the building to Limerick City and County Council, along with a donation of around €1.2 million to cover projected losses through to 2027, but talks collapsed due to the local authority’s concerns about the long-term financial viability of the project.
“I’m not interested in the past,” Mr O’Donovan said.
“Limerick City and County Council made their own determination with regard to this building. To be honest about it, I see this building through a totally different lens.
“It was architecturally created for the purposes of being an international museum centre to curate any and all kinds of exhibitions. The presentation of this building, the size of this building is like nothing else we have in Ireland.”
Representatives of the McManus Foundation joined Minister for Culture Patrick O’Donovan and delegations from the National Museum of Ireland and the Office of Public Works
Chief executive of the International Rugby Experience, Barry Hannon, said it would be nice to have the building operational in time for the Ryder Cup, when there will be “an international audience in town”.
He said the McManus Foundation will provide support and guidance to help achieve that.
The National Museum of Ireland is assessing the plans for the development, which would mark a significant step in advancing gender representation within Ireland’s cultural infrastructure.
“It’s very generous of the McManus family to do this,” said Interim Director with the National Museum of Ireland Dr Éimear O’Connor.
“I think there is a lot of ways to interpret the stories of women in Irish society and that is extremely exciting for the National Museum,” she said.
“It will take us a while; there’s a lot of negotiations going on in the background around resourcing. We have a lot of work to do in the meantime, but it’s very exciting.”