€6m boost for overhaul of 'Atlantic Museum'
Galway City Tribune - Fáilte Ireland has announced a €6.64 million investment in Galway City Museum in what is the single biggest infrastructural investment made by the tourism body in its history – money they believe will create a bench mark attraction for local authorities across Ireland and draw €30 million in revenue for the region in its first five years of operation.
The €10.2 million development, which will be co-funded by Galway City Council, will incorporate the iconic building of Comerford House and will provide access to the Spanish Arch in a way that has never been possible before.
Head of Attractions with Fáilte Ireland, Mary Stack, said that while this was a big and ambitious project, they aimed to open the doors in early 2022.
“We’re aiming for a 2022 opening. It seems like a long time away but I’m telling you, it will be time well spent getting everything in place because this is going to be a state-of-the-art museum. I think it will set best practice in the country for local authority museums.
“It will be a much longer experience now, so instead of coming in for a couple of hours, you could literally spend the whole day in the museum and it would be a day well spent,” she said adding that a new addition would be the ability to climb up to the top of Spanish Arch.
“Visitors like to be able to get on top of something, to be able to climb it and get to a height, so I think it will actually draw people down form Quay Street and you’’ be able to see it straight away. Even if you didn’t know what it was before you got here, once you see people on top of the Spanish Arch, you’re going to want to come in.,” she added.
As part of this investment, the museum is also set to be rebranded to the ‘Atlantic Museum’ – a title that Museum Director Eithne Verling said encapsulated the entire concept of what will be a centrepiece in one of Galway’s most iconic locations. This is a preview only. To read the rest of this article, see this week's Galway City Tribune. Buy a digital edition of this week's paper here, or download the app for Android or iPhone.