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| National Archives of Ireland, Bishop Street, Dublin, receives funding for exhibition and storage facilities |
Some €22 of the overall fund will be administered by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and is earmarked for investment in a range of major national commemoration projects in 2015. The six flagship projects are:
Military Archives: Refurbishment of existing premises at Cathal Brugha Barracks to provide front-of-house facilities for visitors to the archive and for a state of the art storage facility for the Military Pensions Archive.
GPO Interpretive Centre: Construction of an extended exhibition and interpretive centre at the O'Connell Street landmark housing a permanent exhibition of the 1916 Easter Rising.
Kilmainham Courthouse and Gaol: The adaptation of the former courthouse building will result in a new visitor facility for Kilmainham Gaol.
Teach an Phiarsaigh, Ros Muc: The project envisages completion of a proposed new visitor centre at Pearse's Cottage.
Tenement Museum: No. 14 Henrietta Street will be redeveloped as a centre for the exploration of tenement life in North Inner City Dublin.
Richmond Barracks: This project will see the refurbishment of the barracks, where the leaders of the 1916 Rising were held after their surrender, into a cultural, educational, training, heritage, tourist and community facility.
The funding will also support the following projects, which are included in the commemorations programme:
National Archives of Ireland Project (Phase 1): The project will entail the redevelopment of the National Archives at its Bishop Street HQ to provide state-of-the-art exhibition and storage facilities in three phases up to 2020.
National Concert Hall redevelopment works: The project entails the development of the recital rooms – including the Kevin Barry Room, where the Treaty Debates took place – as well as ancillary works to front of house facilities.
Yeats 2015: This ambitious year-long programme will mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of WB Yeats and will be a celebration of Irish culture across a range of genres: poetry, literature, drama, music, fine art and craft.
The Irish Parliamentary Party Monument: Restoration work to the burial vault of John Redmond, the politician and statesman, who died in 1918.
Making the announcement at the GPO, Minister Jimmy Deenihan welcomed the funding allocated to projects under the auspices of his Department:
“As Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht – and as Chairman of the Commemoration and Decade of Centenaries Programme – I am delighted to be here with Minister Howlin as we announce this significant funding for 2015.
"The social and political developments of the decade from 1912 helped to form modern Ireland. We are commemorating these momentous events, and the people so closely associated with them, especially in the lead in to the centenary of the Easter Rising of 1916. This funding for 2015 is extremely important in our preparation for that major centenary."