Clare Museum's new departure

It was the historical collection, housed for many years in the local library, that gave Clare Museum in Ennis its initial impetus. Opened twenty years ago, the museum's collection has grown over the decades, with a long-term loan arrangement in place with the National Museum, encompassing mainly archaeological material of past local finds. The recent addition of a watercolor by Frederic William Burton (1816-1900) to the museum's collection represents a new departure. 'This is the first acquisition by Clare Museum of a painting and it is very fitting that it is by an artist whose ancestry has a strong Clare connection,' says museum curator John Rattigan.