Military History and Decorative Arts- Together at Last (?)

Yup, we're back to Collins Barracks- this time we're going inside to see the two most easily-compatible museum subjects: violent military history and interior home decorations... wait, what?

Collins Barracks Drilling Yard

Ok, this place is huge, really quite spacious, so my guess is that the National Museum folks put these together because they had neither enough military history nor interior design pieces to fill this huge complex.

In any case, the interior drilling yard is quite impressive. This facility was used first by British then by Irish soldiers as a training facility. Today, one can almost hear the sound of marching boots in the yard among the imposing stone square of buildings.

The Irish relationship with their military is much different than the American admiration and near-worship of men and women in uniform. The USA has been involved in so many conflicts in its short history, and it looks like that will be the case for a long time to come... but most of Ireland's organized fighting was done against the British (and the Irish) in their own towns and cities. Ireland did lose tens of thousands in World War I, but they were technically British soldiers fighting for the King. Since independence, Ireland has only had a small role in some UN peacekeeping operations.

Ireland was (somewhat controversially) neutral in World War II, and have never really stopped fighting the British in Northern Ireland, so it's easy to just say that Ireland's military history is... complicated.

The military branch of Collins Barracks displays uniforms, personal effects, and weapons from the various conflicts faced by the Irish from ancient Celtic warriors to eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth-century rebels to the guerilla fighting IRA during The Troubles.

I Use a Razor Just like That!

See?

Irish Volunteers Recruiting Poster 

You Call that a Gun? This is a Gun!

Now... let's put down the guns and pick up... our best China for guests? It's on to the Decorative Arts wing of the museum. I have a feeling that "Decorative Arts" is the catch-all museum category- and I don't mean that in a bad way. This wing had displays not only of domestic decorations, but of many niche categories like coins, medals, and timepieces.

My Favorite: The 1950s Room

Victorian Music Room

It was almost too much to see the museum in one day. I made a point to go through as much as I could, but I was feeling museum fatigue by the end of my visit. I slogged through the last few exhibits, but didn't pay them much mind. It was certainly no fault of the museum, but this complex might very well be a multiple-day museum.

For short-term visitors (as I recommend in my eBook project), I would suggest seeing the military museum on the ground floor and only the fully-decorated rooms of the Decorative Arts museum. For residents, get out there once in a while. If you haven't been there for a while, get back there- maybe for one of their many scheduled talks or tours.