Wednesday 6 August 2014

Drogheda Museum Millmount issues gun challenge

Drogheda Museum, Millmount is looking to identify an old gun. It has been part of the Museum's collection since being donated by former Minister of Defence, Patrick S Donegan; he had acquired it from former President Erskine Childers, whose father had smuggled rifles and ammunition into the north Dublin village of Howth aboard his yacht, Asgard, in July 1914.

The gun, a 19th-century rifle, was recorded in the museum log as being from the Asgard, but in the run up to the centenary of the Howth gun-running episode, it has been found that the weapon may not have originated from the Childers' vessel, after all. It is now thought possible it originates from the Larne gun-running, which saw a German weapon consignment smuggled in to arm the Ulster Volunteers a few months before the Asgard made its journey.

Eager to establish the origin of the rifle, the Museum has issued a challenge. A prize of €100 of history books is offered for the first person who provides its definitive provenance. So if you know your guns, it's time for a trip to Drogheda Museum.