I was invited to Limerick City Museum last year to choose an artefact(s) as inspiration for a solo exhibition to be held in the museum gallery this coming November 2025. Artist and curator Maurice Quillinan works in collaboration with museum curator Dr. Matthew Potter to produce a varied programme of monthly exhibitions by artists working in Ireland.

I was thrilled with this opportunity and I lost no time in making a bee line for Limerick City. The museum is located on Henry Street in the heart of the city and lies shoulder to shoulder with shops and department stores. The classical building is austere and somewhat imposing, fronted by four towering limestone columns that hint at its former life as a Franciscan Friary. The museum is run by Dr. Potter and a small team of dedicated civil servants under Limerick City and County Council.

Limerick City Museum ( photo by PinkHolly )

The reception is bright and welcoming and this leads into a fittingly arranged group of rooms off a long corridor. These house only a fraction of the collection which is in the region of sixty two thousand objects, gathered through donations, purchase and long term loan. The gallery room is located at the end of the corridor.

Interior of Limerick City Museum

My task on that first visit was to find an object or series of objects that would pique my interest enough to inspire a collection for an exhibition. I gazed into the glass cases expectantly, circling each of the rooms several times, but I kept returning to one of the smallest exhibits in the first room. It is so tiny that it is only on very close inspection that it is identifiable as a bronze spigot, the handgrip measuring approximately an inch in diameter. A spigot is a tap that controls the flow of liquid from a container, possibly oil or vinegar in this instance. The most striking feature of this example is the shape of the handle which has been cast into the form of a hen. It was found in the town land of Monabraher and is thought to be Dutch or German in origin. It may have been brought over to Ireland by the Palatines, whose descendants live in Limerick to this day.

There is something about this object that I find joyful in spite of or perhaps because of its diminutive scale. Perhaps it is the thought of the person who crafted it and chose to embellish it so beautifully beyond necessity. There is a jauntiness to its pose and a freshness to the design that seems out of sync with its age ( it is thought to date from the fourteenth or fifteenth century.) It may be the ordinariness of the subject and the reverence to this ordinariness that is so appealing. Or perhaps it is the idea of so many thousands of sparks of recognition that have been ignited over hundreds of years each time a user came across it and brought it into use. I think it is all of these things collectively that appeal to me when I look at it and I knew with a degree of certainty early on that this was my chosen artefact.

Bronze Spigot (c15th- c16th)

Following on from this, I decided that joy should be at the heart of any object or thing that I make. It is my wish to continue something of the lively, buoyant character of this object with its intrinsic energy and timeless vibrancy. This has been my guiding force thus far and it keeps me going as I continue to make and experiment with my materials. The bronze surface is presently brownish in colour. This would once have sparkled and reflected when polished. I came to the idea to use a limited but bold palette of colour to complement in my own way the original effect of the shining bronze. Equally, there is something about the outline of the hen that I want to carry forth. It has a kind of trapped intensity that radiates fortitude and certainty. I aim to bring this exuberance into the work where I can.

Here is a hint of the colours and imagery that I am working on. I’ll post more as time goes on.

Details of work in progress