The Tourist Information Dublin website
[visit
link] tells us:
"The National Museum of Ireland
(Ard-Mhúsaem na hÉireann - Seandálaíocht" in Irish) is housed over 4 sites as
follows:
-
Archaeology,
Kildare Street, Dublin 2
-
Decorative
Arts & History, Collins Barracks, Benburb Street, Dublin
7
-
Natural
History, Merrion Street, Dublin 2
-
Country
Life, Turlough Park, Castlebar, Co. Mayo
The Archaeology department features
displays on prehistoric Ireland, including early work in gold, church treasures
and the Viking and medieval periods. Special exhibitions are regularly
mounted.
The Archaeology section of the
National Museum of Ireland houses such famous pieces as the 8th century Ardagh
Chalice (pictured), the shrine of St Patrick's Bell from the 11th century
(pictured) and the Tara Brooch, as well as the Broighter Gold Hoard and the
Derrynaflan Hoard, all beautiful examples of early medieval metalwork in
Ireland, as well as prehistoric ornaments from the Bronze Age in Ireland. Many
of these pieces were found in the 19th century by peasants or agricultural
labourers, when population expansion led to cultivation of land which had not
been touched since the Middle Ages. Indeed, only for the intervention of George
Petrie of the Royal Irish Academy, and other individuals from the Royal Society
of Antiquaries of Ireland, most of the metalwork would have been melted down for
the intrinsic value of its materials, and these priceless, historic items lost
forever."
The museum's website [visit
link] further tells us:
"The National Museum of Ireland was
founded under the Dublin Science and Art Museum Act of 1877. Previously, the
Museum’s collections had been divided between Leinster House, originally the
headquarters of the Royal Dublin Society, and the Natural History Museum in
Merrion Street, built as an extension to Leinster House in 1856 - 1857. Under
the Act, the government purchased the museum buildings and collections. To
provide storage and display space for the Leinster House collections, the
government quickly implemented plans to construct a new, custom-built museum on
Kildare Street and on 29 August 1890, the new museum opened its doors to the
public.
The Building
The building, designed by Cork
architects Thomas Newenham Deane and his son Thomas Manly Deane, is an
architectural landmark. It is built in the Victorian Palladian style and has
been compared with the Altes Museum in Berlin, designed by Karl Schinkel in the
1820s. Neo-classical influences can be seen in the colonnaded entrance and the
domed rotunda, which rises to a height of 20 metres and is modelled on the
Pantheon in Rome. Within the rotunda, classical columns – made of marble
quarried in Counties Cork, Kilkenny, Galway, Limerick and Armagh – mirror the
entrance.
In the great centre court, a
balcony is supported by rows of slender cast-iron columns with elaborate
capitals and bases decorated with groups of cherubs. On the balcony, further
rows of plain columns and attractive openwork spandrels support the
roof.
The interior is richly decorated
with motifs that recall the civilisations of ancient Greece and Rome. Splendid
mosaic floors depict scenes from classical mythology, of which the zodiac design
in the rotunda is especially popular with visitors.
Particularly lavish are the
majolica fireplaces and door surrounds manufactured by Burmantofts Pottery of
Leeds, England, and the richly carved wooden doors by William Milligan of Dublin
and Carlo Cambi of Siena, Italy. "