Last week, we were delighted to visit the Jackie Clarke Museum in Ballina. While there, Celene, a past pupil of our school, delivered an excellent presentation on the Irish Famine and we learned lots about Ireland during the 1800s, causes of the famine and the difficulties faced by the poorer Irish people with a particular emphasis on its impact locally. We also watched a very interesting presentation on the Irish Hunger Memorial in New York. This memorial represents a rural Irish landscape and includes a 1820s stone cottage, transported from Ireland after being donated by the Slack Family from Attymass, Co Mayo. After lunch and a tour of the gardens, we watched a presentation on Jackie Clarke and we were left marvelling at this man who managed to gather so many amazing historical artifacts and documents (e.g. letters, posters, proclamations, handbills, etc.) comprising over 100,000 items and spanning 400 years. At Jackie’s request, his entire collection was donated to the people of Ballina. After the presentation, we walked around the museum to view the various displays and to complete the workbooks which were excellently put together. We also visited Ballina Library where lots of items from Jackie’s collection are also stored. We really did enjoy our visit to the Jackie Clarke Museum and without doubt, it is a wonderful historical resource to have so close to our homes.
