Exploring the Hunt Museum

On Monday the 25^th of October I visited the Hunt Museum which is situated on Rutland Street in Limerick City, near the Potato Market. I found out about the Museum from the site myguideireland.com and decided to venture there myself. When I arrived I saw large Cannons in the small courtyard and was already intrigued by the museum as Canons are pretty awesome. I got to the reception and I bought a student ticket which had only cost €6.25, which was fairly modest as I was given a tour and a map of the museum’s layout. When looking at a leaflet, however, I found out if I had come on Sunday I could have entered the Museum for free, but this would have been without the tour and the tour I was given was definitely worth the money.

There were about 5 of us availing of the tour at the time and we started briskly after I had paid for my entry. We were first given a brief history of the Hunt family and how they began their collection; this information was given to us as we walked into the first exhibition room. The tour guide spoke a little too fast for me to pick up everything he was saying, but I was also busy admiring the artwork that was abundant throughout the gallery. Among the artwork were paintings done by artists such as Picasso and Yeats. The Hunt’s collection was not however limited to paintings.

As we drifted through a beautifully set up Museum, we witnessed many artefacts from the Celtic period as well as tool and weaponry from the medieval times. The tour guide had spoke in detail about the use of the tools and weaponry in the times they were used. We then finished the tour in the Jewellery Gallery and the Treasury where we were shown fine pieces of masterly crafted trinkets, brooches and other pieces of historic jewellery. A key piece of this collection was the Greek coin as the tour guide explained that it was one of the thirty pieces of Silver that was paid to Judas for the betrayal of Christ.

We were allowed roam around after the tour and there was staff stationed in each exhibition in case you wished to discuss the artefacts. The overall tour was quite enjoyable and I would definitely return there for some of the themed tours.

http://www.huntmuseum.com/

http://two.archiseek.com/2009/1769-hunt-museum-former-custom-house-limerick/

http://www.myguideireland.com/hunt-museum

Stevie Cregan-Nolan - 10106014