ALLIHIES Copper Mine Museum has launched new audio guides for the museum funded with a grant of €12,717 from The Heritage Council.
Chairman of the museum, Tadhg O’Sullivan, said the audio guides will enhance the visitor experience at the centre.
‘What we found was is that we can display at the museum is limited in terms of space, but with the audio guides we can give a more comprehensive history of both the museum and the local area,’ he explained.
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‘We can now give visitors the social history of the Allihies area at the time the copper mines were in operation, and add anecdotes including stories of 10,000 gallons of whiskey being landed in Castletownbere and the number of Shebeens in operation in the area at the time.’
The Allihies Copper Mine Musuem tells the history of mining in the area which dates back to the Bronze Age, with the more modern phase of mining in the area beginning in 1812.
Copper mining in the area was at its peak in 1845 when 1600 people were employed in the mines. The museum, which was officially opened in 2007 by President Mary MacAleese is housed in what was a former Methodist Chapel used by Cornish miners, who came work in the area.
Tadhg said the museum is grateful to The Heritage Council for funding the guides and for the support of Cork County Council Heritage Officer Conor Nelligan.
‘It’s 100% funding and both The Heritage Council and Conor Nelligan have been hugely supportive of us,’ he said. ‘Conor has been with us throughout the entire process of developing the audio guides, and they have been designed in such a way that we can increase the length of the story and the detail, and include more translations.’
The audio guides are currently available in English, Irish, Sign Language, Spanish and Polish. Tadhg outlined that the audio guides have been in use since September, are approximately 30 minutes in length and are free to use.
‘The guides are available at reception, they’re very straightforward to use, once you enter the museum they connect to the WiFi. We’re planning to include French and German translations next, as those countries would account for a large amount of our visitors. We’ve had some very positive feedback to date since we launched the audio guides.’
