Official Re-launch of Lár na Pairce Museum
by
President of G.A.A., Liam O’Neill
On October 11, 2013
Speech by chairman of Lár na Páirce, Seamus J. King
Uachtarán, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael, a cáirde go léir!
You are all most welcome to the official re-launch of Lár na Páirce.
You are especially welcome, Uachtarán, as this is your first visit and we are very thankful for your presence on this important occasion in the history of the museum. We are also grateful to you for coming on a weekend when your mind must be on the fortunes of your native club, Tromera, when they take on neighbours and rivals, Shanahoe, in the Laois intermediate final!
Lár na Páirce was officially opened by President Mary Robinson in 1994 following a joint venture between the Tipperary County Board, Thurles Development and Shannon Development. The hope was that this museum of such an important part of our sporting heritage would become a successful visitor centre attracting people to the Thurles area.
The original impetus towards the opening of the museum was the purchase by the county board in 1988 of the Sam Melbourne Collection of G.A.A. material, which the Horse and Jockey native had been putting together since 1935. The collection included close to 400 hurleys signed by their star owners, photographs, whistles, jerseys, footballs and sliotars, newspaper cuttings and trophies, all relating to the history and deeds of great hurlers and footballers.
Sadly, Sam can’t be with us today, having passed away at his home in Dublin, whereto he had moved in the fifties, in his ninety-first year on August 7 last. He is buried in St. Mary’s Churchyard, Clonsilla. Were he still alive he would have made a great effort to be present today and he would have been delighted with what we have done.
We have recently refurbished the museum and upgraded the presentation of the exhibits in order to make them more attractive and consumer friendly for our visitors. We have been helped in this work by a number of companies, Fitting Image, managed by Liam Walsh, Marketing Eye, managed by Una Ryan, and the Ant Team, managed by Louisa Condon. We are extremely grateful to these companies for their help and expertise and our hope is that Lár na Páirce will attract more visitors in the future and better fulfil one of the original purposes of this development. As well our website has been developed by Debbie Hickey and Jim O’Regan of JobBridge has given us a presence in the social media. During all these developments we got the full co-operation and support of the staff at Lár na Páirce. For this we are extremely grateful.
We are also greatly indebted to North Tipperary LEADER Partnership, who helped us out financially in a very substantial way. Without this help the current development wouldn’t have been possible. On behalf of the board I should like to thank the company, their CEO, Michael Murray, who is present this afternoon, and Trish Purcell, who is also present and who was in charge of our application as well as being helpful in every way.
Lár na Páirce is an important museum of Gaelic Games, a storehouse of the culture and traditions of our most popular national pastimes. It is part of what we are, a valuable and treasured expression of our heritage.
We should be proud of it, delighted to be part of it and cherish it more carefully by ensuring that it is protected and transmitted to our posterity in places such as Lár na Páirce.
This museum has another purpose, which is of importance in these difficult economic times. One of the original purposes was that it should be an important visitor attraction. Unfortunately, this hasn’t happened.
We hope now that these new developments and a more active marketing strategy on our part will ensure that this original purpose is realised and that more and more visitors will associate Thurles with an important collection of our sporting heritage and an urgent reason for visiting the town, where the G.A.A. was founded.
