{"id":630244,"date":"2026-09-20T06:38:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T06:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630244\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T06:38:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T06:38:21","slug":"irelands-museum-and-gallery-staff-reveal-their-favourite-exhibits-this-is-the-best-job-i-have-ever-had-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630244\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s museum and gallery staff reveal their favourite exhibits: \u2018This is the best job I have ever had\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s nothing like whiling away a few hours in a gallery or museum. These public spaces provide welcome distraction from daily worries and obligations pinging from nuisance phones \u2013 once you remember to put them on silent and lodge them deep into your pocket. You can immerse yourself in art<\/a> or history<\/a>, in beauty and stories, and forget yourself, just for a while.<\/p>\n

They are unique places, not just because they are home to important objects of interest, but because so many people are privately and simultaneously experiencing emotions and ideas evoked by what they see. <\/p>\n

The sheer volume of exhibits can be overwhelming; it\u2019s easy to feel you could never spend enough time in a museum to truly take in all that is on offer. <\/p>\n

But what about the people who spend their working days among the exhibits? What is it like to have unrestricted access to some of Ireland\u2019s most celebrated artworks and artefacts?<\/p>\n

From security guards to volunteers, we asked the people who work behind the scenes in museums and galleries around the State to tell us about their jobs, and their favourite exhibits.<\/p>\n

\u2018Kids bring a fascination to the place. Especially if they have seen the Night at the Museum movies\u2019Derek Flynn, deputy front of house manager at the National Museum at Collins Barracks\"DerekDerek Flynn, visitor services and security officer at the National Museum of Ireland Collins Barracks, with ‘Dead Zoo’ exhibits. Photograph: Alan Betson\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

Derek Flynn from Dublin has worked at the National Museum for 7\u00bd years, first at the National History Museum<\/a> on Merrion Street and now at Collins Barracks<\/a> where the Dead Zoo Lab is located while the Merion Street premises is being refurbished. He is also a keen wildlife photographer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m one of the duty managers in the building, so I monitor the whole place. If I\u2019m working at the Dead Zoo Lab, we generally clean down the [display] cases first thing \u2013 kids love to paw at them \u2013 and we have to make sure everything is ready. <\/p>\n

\u201cKids just love it. They bring a fascination to the place, especially if they\u2019ve seen the Night at the Museum movies. Sometimes they\u2019ll walk in and, all of a sudden, they\u2019re hesitant. And just for a laugh, I\u2019d say, \u2018It\u2019s okay, they were fed last night\u2019,\u201d in reference to the stuffed-animal exhibits. \u201cAnd it kind of breaks the mood. And when they\u2019re leaving, they can\u2019t wait to come back. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have fun with the adult visitors coming in, especially tourists. They\u2019d walk in in awe when they see the giant Irish deer, and they\u2019d say, \u2018Oh, look at the elk!\u2019 And I joke with them: \u2018If you insult that deer again, you\u2019ll be thrown out\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can get up close to animals you\u2019re never going to see up close anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Favourite exhibit: Puffins feeding their puffling in a burrow<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen puffin season comes around, myself and a group of friends would be off down to the Saltee Islands in Wexford to spend the day among the puffins.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey arrive from late March, early April until early August, having spent the majority of their year on the Atlantic.<\/p>\n

\u201cPuffins mate for life and they only come to land to breed. They lay just one egg and everything they do while on land goes into raising that puffling. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey love the likes of rabbit burrows, on the top of the cliffs, and you\u2019d see them going into the soil where they\u2019ll actually excavate their own burrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a fantastic little creature. People don\u2019t realise that the beak only gets its bright colour during breeding season, so the rest of the year, the beak would be dark and dull coloured.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they\u2019re a friendly little bird. We would generally just sit on the island and watch them flying in, flying out. And when they land, they come up beside you.. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was lucky enough last year to photograph the first puffling on the island.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I always tell people there is no pressure, you can like or dislike the art\u2019Anastasia Malynovska, front of house at Limerick City Gallery of Art (LCGA) \"AnastasiaAnastasia M, who works at the Limerick City Gallery of Art, with the Paul Henry painting Achill Head (1918-20) from the LCGA permanent collection. Photograph: Bryan O\u2019Brien\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

Anastasia Malynovska moved from eastern Europe to Limerick three years ago and has been working at LCGA for 2\u00bd years. Trained as an architect, she is particularly interested in how the Carnegie Building, originally a library, works as a home for contemporary art exhibitions.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring your daily working life, you don\u2019t ordinarily have time to be part of the art world, but now I\u2019m happy almost every day as I get to be in the gallery. This is the best job I have ever had. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s interesting for me to investigate the building and how it works. The spaces change for each exhibition \u2013 by painting the walls or adding partitions \u2013 and it\u2019s wonderful to see how it\u2019s done.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a front-of-house assistant, I greet people, give them some information about our exhibitions and direct them where to go. Sometimes people step into the gallery, and they stop in shock because they didn\u2019t realise it was here [beside Limerick\u2019s People\u2019s Park]. I always tell people there is no pressure, you can like or dislike the art. I believe contemporary art makes you think, and makes you feel. Sometimes you can just be impressed with an idea, other times you just like how it looks, and you can\u2019t understand exactly why. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe usually meet the artists of new exhibitions, and I love talking to them and getting the inside information about what inspired them and how they created their work.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople ask me a lot if I get bored in the gallery or tired of looking at the paintings and I really never do. I can always spot something new in the artwork that I hadn\u2019t noticed before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Favourite exhibit: Achill Head by Paul Henry (1920)\"AchillAchill Head by Paul Henry. ‘It\u2019s pure nature, it\u2019s pure Ireland.’ Photograph: Bryan O\u2019Brien\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to choose something that\u2019s not obvious. People can just walk by this and maybe not pay attention. I like to point it out, and invite them to stand in front of it and look at it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful, small painting by a famous Irish artist. At one time he was so popular, so people made copies of his paintings. But when I\u2019m looking at this painting, it\u2019s pure nature, it\u2019s pure Ireland, and I feel something I can really understand without words.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to find this connection. For me, it has been a way to find a sense of belonging here. People of all nationalities and people throughout time can find a connection to this same painting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at it, you almost feel the air. You almost feel these drops from the waves on your face. You feel this and it\u2019s beautiful. And the light, and how it glints and catches your eye when you move.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2018You have a connection to people you mightn\u2019t have anywhere else\u2019Orla Magee, volunteer at the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI)\"NationalNational Gallery pf Ireland volunteer Orla Magee. Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne for The Irish Times <\/p>\n

Orla Magee from Dublin has always been fascinated by colour, even as a child. Her passion for art really began when she saw a Walter Osborne exhibition at the NGI in the 1980s. She has volunteered at the gallery for more than three years. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was attracted to volunteering by the art. If you like people and you like art and you love museums, I can\u2019t say enough good things about it. It really is a magic mix. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re here, you really are a part of the gallery. There\u2019s a great buzz. It\u2019s busy, and I love the camaraderie with colleagues. That\u2019s a big part of volunteering, being with like-minded people. You might go somewhere, visit other museums, and you come back and you share what you saw. We have a bit of fun as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best thing is people coming back to the desk to tell you about their experience. This woman came back twice recently \u2013 people get very emotional sometimes about the art \u2013 but she said, \u2018I haven\u2019t been in the gallery for such a long time, and I just want to tell you, it was the most amazing experience.\u2019 This is another really nice thing about volunteering: you have this kind of connection to people that you mightn\u2019t have anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Favourite exhibit: The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon by Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614)\"TheThe Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon by Lavinia Fontana, at the National Gallery of Ireland. Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne for The Irish Times <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a feast for the eyes. This painting was bought for the gallery in 1872, and it\u2019s enormous. The gallery was only open eight years then, and they probably were saying, \u2018that\u2019ll fill up a wall\u2019, because it is huge.<\/p>\n

\u201cLavinia Fontana was some woman; [the gallery] described her as a trailblazer, so she owns that word. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was an exhibition when I first arrived, in 2023, dedicated to Fontana. There was a lot of buzz because this painting had just been restored and it had revealed lots of things, like a little clock in the middle, dated 1599.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe queen was promised to King Solomon and the scene was all about him looking for an heir. There\u2019s all these little nods to fertility, like the nest in the tree, and then there\u2019s a little Cupid in one of the crowns. All these hidden messages.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at the details, and the movement and the richness in the clothes they wore. [Bologna] was a centre of excellence for silk production, so that\u2019s why [Fontana\u2019s] really showing off the clothes. And the detail of the lace is incredible; every person is wearing a different, intricately detailed lace ruff.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2018A fantastic day for me is when someone comes in and tells me something I don\u2019t know\u2019Tom Murphy, visitor security officer at the National Museum at Collins Barracks \"TomTom Murphy, visitor services and security officer at the National Museum of Ireland Collins Barracks, in front of the Great Seal of the Irish Free State. Photograph: Alan Betson\/The Irish Times<\/p>\n

Tom Murphy has worked at different National Museum locations for 25 years. He has had a passion for Irish history from an early age and used to mitch off school to visit the National Museum in Dublin.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone comes in the door and I\u2019m at the reception and they ask about what\u2019s here, I ask, what are you interested in? <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a few museums in one here at the moment: we have decorative arts and history, military history, natural history and we also have maritime, so you have to narrow it down to what you\u2019re interested in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the only time I can tell people to \u2018get lost\u2019 and not get into trouble, because you will stumble across something you love. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you see people coming in, after 25 years, you have a feeling as to what they will be interested in. If they come with small children, you know it\u2019s going to be natural history. If you come with teenagers, it\u2019s military history.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Irish museums hold artefacts from around the world. Should they give them back?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cA fantastic day for me is when someone comes in and tells me something I don\u2019t know. I love it when soldiers come in that served here [when it was an active army barracks] and the stories they have, because they\u2019re telling me their own history.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what I love about the people [who work at the museum] is they won\u2019t call themselves experts. They\u2019ll say, I know this, but I want to know more. If you ask them a question, whatever they\u2019re doing, they\u2019ll stop and talk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Favourite exhibit: The Great Seal of the Irish Free State, circa 1925<\/p>\n

\u201cThis would have been the official seal used on all official government documents. That\u2019s a brass-coloured counterpoint that we can see in the exhibit, and the other half, which is steel, is underneath. You clamp the two together and it would make an embossed seal. It\u2019s also the seal that is on the Irish coinage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was designed by Archibald McGoogan \u2013 he was the first photographer of the National Museum of Ireland; he worked here, and then he became a curator. <\/p>\n

\u201cEven the filigree around the edges, that is the base of the Ardagh chalice, and in the centre is Brian Boru\u2019s harp [or the Trinity College harp]. It\u2019s the same seal still used on Government documents today, only now it\u2019s printed. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe museum got this in 1939, and then 2007, we even got McGoogan\u2019s original plans for it. It\u2019s just an extremely interesting artefact that is very integral to Ireland, but it also has a museum connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018As my father used to say, every day is a school day\u2019Martin Tyndall, security guard at Galway City Museum<\/a>\"MartinMartin Tyndall at Galway City Museum. Photograph: Joe O’Shaughnessy for The Irish Times<\/p>\n

Martin Tyndall, from Galway, worked in security for 10 years before starting his part-time job at the museum last year. <\/p>\n

\u201cI retired two years ago. There was a part-time job coming up here, so I said I\u2019d take it, and I love it. The staff are very nice and the crowd coming in, the public, 99.9 per cent of them are lovely. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe get a lot of kids visiting, they do the Lego treasure trail. On each floor they have a little Lego monster in a plastic display case, they\u2019re hidden around the building, and the kids go and find them and tick them off, and at the end they come back to the reception and they get a certificate. It\u2019s a bit of fun, and they learn things even though they don\u2019t realise they\u2019re learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere, you learn something new every day. As my father used to say, every day is a school day.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven myself, born and raised locally, when I came here first, there were things I never knew. Like a couple of the road names around, Seamus Quirke was one of them, and Thomas Hynes \u2013 they\u2019re in an exhibit here \u2013 they were IRA volunteers that were shot; you find out small things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Favourite exhibit: Survivor Stories: Tuam and Ireland\u2019s Institutional Past\"SecuritySecurity guard Martin Tyndall at the Survivor Stories exhibit at Galway City Museum. Photograph: Joe O’Shaughnessy for The Irish Times <\/p>\n

\u201cSurvivor Stories is about the Tuam mother and baby home. It opened during the summer. It\u2019s very popular with tourists and locals alike. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey have a portrait of each survivor on the wall and their written testimony below it, detailing their circumstances. It\u2019s not something that happened 100 years ago, 200 years ago. It\u2019s only recent history.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe opening night of the exhibition, for a sombre affair, it was lovely. It was nice to have a singsong and everybody was in good form. The survivors were there, the people from the display.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I can really enjoy a couple of well-placed fire extinguishers, just as much as I can enjoy a piece of fine art\u2019James Doyle, building operations manager at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Imma)\"JamesJames Doyle in his office at the Irish Museum of Modern Art with some of his own paintings behind him. ‘I couldn\u2019t work anywhere else. I really couldn\u2019t.’ <\/p>\n

James Doyle\u2019s love of art began in childhood when illness precluded him from playing sport. Originally from Co Carlow, he has a degree in fine art from the Chelsea College of Arts in London and has had a varied career in arts and cultural policy. He has lived in Manchester, Brussels, Guinea Bissau and Dublin, and joined Imma in 2022. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy job is physical \u2013 sorting things out, problem solving and making sure that everything\u2019s right so that all the complex art programming can go on. That means toilets and the car park and the paintwork and the brickwork and the windows.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very regimented, and we\u2019ve got task lists and checklists for nearly everything. I spend a lot of my time wandering around looking at things.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Artist Orla Barry presents life and its deepest strands through the prism of sheepOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m embarrassed to say I can really enjoy a couple of well-placed fire extinguishers, just as much as I can enjoy a piece of fine art.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a huge satisfaction knowing you\u2019re underpinning the [museum\u2019s] activity. You\u2019re doing the groundwork that makes it all run smoothly. Are the gates open? Are the doors open on time? Are all the doors working? Are all the hinges working? I couldn\u2019t work anywhere else. I\u2019d have no interest whatsoever. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a couple of public sessions where artists who are resident here talk about the art and I\u2019ll join those if I can find the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you hear what somebody else has got to say, you start to question yourself and say, \u2018oh, I hadn\u2019t thought of that\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

Favourite exhibit: Stallion (2009) by Daphne Wright\"JamesJames Doyle, operations manager at Imma, with Daphne Wright\u2019s Stallion <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very much a sculptural piece, like you might see in Rome or associate with the famous sculptors we all know. I\u2019ve chosen it because it\u2019s very different, very unusual.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a distance it looks like a horse writhing on the ground and enjoying itself. When you get up to it, you actually see that it\u2019s a horse that\u2019s been killed and had its skin peeled back. That makes for a very challenging topic, about the nature of animals and slaughter and all kinds of things.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very contemporary in its interpretation, and it kind of speaks to Dublin\u2019s sense of self. Dublin, for me anyway, has always been associated with horses. And we had, until recently, one of the last horse fairs in a capital city in Europe, in Smithfield.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also speaks to Misneach [by John Byrne], a sculpture of a horse mounted by a young lady wearing a tracksuit, which is in Ballymun, in that it subverts those military horse bronzes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s nothing like whiling away a few hours in a gallery or museum. These public spaces provide welcome…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4500,61,60,106973,1396,17633,14312,43,145165],"class_list":["post-630244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-galway","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-museum-of-modern-art","tag-limerick","tag-national-gallery-of-ireland","tag-national-museum-of-ireland","tag-news","tag-paul-henry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}