cork public museum

Cork Public Museum is situated in Fitzgerald Park on the Mardyke. The 18 acre site and Georgian House were presented in 1907 to Cork Corporation by the incorporated Cork International Exhibition Association, the body responsible for the International Art and Industrial exhibition held on the grounds in 1902/03. The corporation immediately commenced landscaping work and in a short number of years an undeveloped site was transformed into a beautiful people's park, situated in an unspoiled nook of the city. The building known as The Shrubberies (once the home of a branch of the Beamish family) was turned into a museum in 1909. On the burning of the city hall in 1929 the Municipal offices transferred temporarily to Fitzgerald Park. The present Museum was opened in 1945. It has been administered by Cork Corporation since 1963. The collections cover the economic, social and municipal history of the city and surrounding area from the Mesolithic period onwards, with particular emphasis on civic regalia and the trades and crafts of the 19th and 20th centuries.