The Best and Worst Museum(s) in Dublin

Taking a little summer break I went to visit Dublin for a few days, and of course to rifle through its various museums. Bucking the convention of how this is supposed to work I will be featuring two museums for both best and worst for what I hope will become obvious reasons.

The Best - Guinness Storehouse/National Leprechaun Museum

It should perhaps not be a surprise that the highest rated and most touted museum in all of Dublin was the best. But it still kind of was. Part art museum, part brew tour, part collection gallery the Guinness storehouse offers a simple and enjoyable experience for just about anyone.

The famed Guinness Storehouse Gates (Taken from ireland.com)

Spread over several floors the museum starts with a brief description of the ingredients and brewing of Guinness which is largely described through assorted art installations. A field of wheat, a rather nifty water curtain that is able to display words and images. It all fits together fairly well, getting across the key ideas in a fairly novel way. It hits well on Instagram-able moments and would to many have the effect of a modern art gallery. From here you climb up to a more traditional set of exhibits about how Guinness changed over the years including the making of barrels, transportation throughout the world and its famed advertising.

Part way through this there is also a tasting experience which expounds on some of the flavours and offers the drinking in a Victorian-themed drinking room.

Of course, at the top there is then a bar where your ticket gets you a free pint of Guinness or (if you’re like me and just the taster was plenty to let you know you don’t like it) a soft alternative. There are also a variety of eateries and additional tasting experiences for an additional fee.

In some ways the Guinness Storehouse doesn’t do anything particularly special. But it does it on such a grand size and scale, whilst doing it all so well that it truly is a fantastic visit. That’s not to say there aren't plenty of bits to pick at. The information that’s provided about nearly everything is pretty lacklustre, though this potentially works to its advantage as it keeps you moving at a reasonable pace. Additionally the whole place has a heavy hand of corporate propaganda for which your tolerance may vary.

Giving the best museum to the Guinness alone however feels a bit like a sports movie where the winning team is the favourites who have all the money, training facilities, and significantly larger players. So I wanted to at least share this spotlight with the National Leprechaun Museum.

Image from one of the rooms in the National Leprechaun Museum (Taken from National Leprechaun Museum)

A leprechaun museum could very well be a cheap cash grab. Throw in some gaudy statues, a couple plaques about the origins of the folk tales, and then whatever art and knickknacks you can find and call it a day. So whilst originally trepidatious I was delighted to say that the National Leprechaun museum was very much not that!

It’s not a traditional museum as such but rather a guided set of story telling. Moving between four different themed rooms your guide tells you a series of traditional folk tales. One set that’s family suitable and another more adult/horror themed set on select evenings.

This is such a simple setup that I’m kind of surprised I’ve never really seen it done quite this way before, and even though the tales were somewhat childish (I saw the normal daytime showing) they remained an absolute delight, delivered by an excellent guide.

The main disappointment was that whilst the sets were pleasant they were pretty much static. It likely wouldn’t take much to add things like triggerable sound effects, changing lighting, or maybe the odd item that moves to really add a sense of space to the stories being told.

Overall both of these museums are well worth your time if you’re visiting and I recommend booking ahead for both as they both sell out pretty quick. 

The Worst - The Irish Famine Exhibition/The Irish Rock ‘n’ Roll Museum Experience

I often wrestle with what it means to be the best or the worst. In Poland it was a place that squandered its opportunity, Berlin about relying on technology but then not following through, and Amsterdam about something more masquerading as a museum than actually being one. But in Dublin it was just a plain bad museum classic.

The Irish Famine Exhibition was tucked away on the top floor of a half abandoned and fairly grotty shopping centre which whilst in theory a good idea wasn’t a great look. Upon actually getting to the exhibit I was greeted with bland posterboard stories placed around in an otherwise fairly empty room.

Image features in the Irish Famine Exhibition, there are no pictures of it for obvious reasons. (Taken from myguidedublin)

There is no one particular terrible thing about the exhibit. No grand lies, dreadful pieces or misleading placements but it’s just incredibly dull. The text and image on the poster boards are functional but uninspired. It’s possible to take away the facts of the experience but hardly the story.

It feels like an exhibit plucked from the pre-2000s and carries all the sensibilities of such. So whilst it’s perhaps not ‘bad’ in the way some of others have been it does have a complete lack of ‘good’ that earns it this spot.

Right before the end of my trip this was the clear winner of the worst museum but then the final place I visited was the Irish Rock ‘n’ Roll Experience. 

Image of the Inside of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Museum (Taken from Viator)

The place wasn’t off to a great start when I realised it shared a ticket with the Wax Work place but heading down there was a corridor filled with a variety of records, guitars and the kind of thing you’d expect to see.

The tour guide (it’s a guided tour only) started telling tales about the rock legends that have passed through the facilities halls. Those that have played in the upstairs venue, how U2 rented out one of the practice rooms before they made it big.

He seemed like a nice enough guy but he utterly bored me to tears. I’ll write some day about the gamble that is guided tours but this guy was possibly the worst I’ve ever come across. I can’t pinpoint exactly why, nor do I think the others there were as off put as I was. But after about 40 minutes when he indicated that there was plenty more to see I did something I'd never done before, and simply left. 

This is possibly not a fair reflection on either the tour guide or museum. But it did happen and I've endured through some pretty terrible guided tours before so I think it still deserves the title of shared worst.

The City Pass, A Good Deal?

Visiting as many museums as I do is an expensive endeavour. That why i’m delighted when a new place I’m going to visit offers a city pass. A one price fits all that lets you visit as many places as you can fit in a day. However the quality of these passes can vary quite drastically. One thing that doesn’t however is the expense.

City passes are universally quite expensive. I could run the numbers properly but assuming a three day pass in a major European city you’re looking at between €40 - €60 per day. Once again eyeballing it means you need to visit something like 3 - 5 different museums to get value from it.

Factor into this that often some of the more high profile (and thus more likely to be visited) places in any given place will either be Free, or not included because they feel they can do without. This means that for an average city visitor making their money back on such a card might be more difficult than they expect. 

Promotional Image for the Amsterdam City Card (Image from Amsterdam2go)

For a museum fiend like myself it’s definitely worth it. As a bit of fun I calculated how much money I saved by purchasing the ‘I amsterdam’ city card and got a figure a little bit over €300 across a five day visit. But that did involve visiting basically every single place covered by the program so I do wonder if others will get as much a deal.

These city cards also often give transport around the city on buses, metros, and even boats. Though I usually take to walking everywhere this can be a big plus as it removes the worry about how to pay for these things or even factoring it in as a potential expense. Bonuses such as city tours, or access to attractions like high points in tall buildings can help sweeten the deal too.

I can’t help but think that most people will possibly end up spending more than they otherwise would through one of these cards, and I would caution anyone to have a serious think about if it’s worth it. However, despite all this I don’t think that they should get cheaper. Primarily because of how they help out smaller museums.

The details of the scheme works of course varies between places but the general idea is that a good portion of the money is put into a pot which is doled out to the attractions on the card based on proportion of visitors. The help here then is in removing a cost barrier to visiting smaller museums. You might pick up the card to visit a couple of biggies but hey you’ve already paid for it and there’s a small esoteric one here so why not!

As an example I’m preparing for a trip to Dublin. For a three day pass It’ll be €124 (€41.33 per day) which is actually a pretty good deal given that the attractions in Dublin are quite expensive compared to many other cities. A reasonable itinerary might be the Guinness Storehouse, EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, Dublin Castle, The Cathedral, Dublin Zoo, and the National Wax Museum. Without the card this would come to a little under €100 and with the use of the buses to get around this would make for a reasonable offer. But now you’ve paid for it then why not pop along to the Museum of Literature Ireland, or the Botanic Gardens?

Image of the Botanic Gardens (Image from Heritage Ireland)

I don’t know how crucial or even useful these cards are as a source of income for these kinds of places. But I imagine that they are generally fairly useful otherwise they wouldn’t continue to take part in the schemes.

So here’s to the city pass, long may it continue. And not just because they save me a small fortune.

Showtown: All Style, No Substance

I was born and raised near Blackpool, so I can tell you with a local’s knowledge that it is a tacky and awful place.

It is however a big tourist town which means attractions. The primary ones being the rollercoaster filled pleasure beach and the famous Blackpool tower but there are some of the ubiquitous staples like Madame Tussauds and Ripley's Believe it or not.

There have also across the years been a few occasional smaller and more interesting museums. Most notably was the Dr Who museum that my young self visited many times.

When I was back visiting my parents told me something new had opened. ‘Showtown’, a museum about the town’s showbusiness history. And a new museum is always enough to make me overcome any disdain I may have for a place.

Seemingly forming a part of the council's earnest yet doomed attempts to reform the town, the museum is a modern and airy space filled with interactive exhibits, archival clips and even themed actors to introduce you to the space.

It looks great, pulling off a loud but clear decorative style with distinct themed zones covering comedy, circus, ballroom dancing and more. Children running around pressing fart noise buttons or playing with Punch and Judy puppets. It gives off a great atmosphere and looks great in photos.

Image of the Inside of Showtown’s Circus Section (Image from Showtown)

As an educational space however, it's all fur coat and no knickers. Whilst not as bad as the Cold War Museum in Berlin, which offered almost no information at all, the panels and displays offer only the scantest of context. Did you know that Tommy Cooper performed in Blackpool? Did you also know he wore a Fez? Well now you do and that's all the display will tell you, but there is a big picture of him and a huge fez you can take a photo with.

Don't get me wrong, Instagramable moments are something I think are vital to modern exhibitions but there still needs to be some actual information available.

By way of an example we can point to the display about the famous Blackpool illuminations. I tasked my parents with what should be a fairly simple task. “what was the first year of the illuminations?” They came back from the display with a couple of possible answers and a confused look.

This confusion is understandable because it's not a totally straightforward answer. The short answer is 1912, but that was effectively just the implementation of fancy street lighting along the promenade (which was a novelty at the time). The modern idea of the tableauxs, shaped lamps and festooned trams only really started in the 1930s. And there was also a proto illuminations hosted in 1879 which was simple a few bright lamps which was enough of a feature at the time and is what inspired the later parade of lights.

Image of the 1912 Princess Parade Lighting (Image from Showtown)

The display however makes basically no distinction between these three very different styles of event with it being unclear if the lights were there between 1897-1912. Indeed the display reads almost exactly like the Wikipedia page which is equally unclear.

“The Blackpool tower ballroom is hugely important to ballroom dancing the world over”, okay but why?. “Did you know that there are three different types of clowns, here are the different kinds of outfits they wear” interesting… But how do the types differ and why? It was the same over and over again, an interesting tid bit about something but then no further explanation.

This puts Showtown to me as definitely an ‘Attraction’. It will entertain for an hour or so  but is ultimately a hollow experience that teaches nothing. Which whilst not invalidating to its existence does make it as disappointing to me as the rest of Blackpool.

The City that Never Was

After I’ve ranted to some poor unsuspecting person about museums for way too long, unless they take the first opportunity to dash away, they often ask me “Okay. If you could make a museum, what would you do?”. Little do they know I have at least a dozen ideas and a pre-prepared PowerPoint presentation for just such an ask.

In all seriousness, it’s not a particularly easy question to answer. As with many things there are so many caveats and constraints that make wild imaginings rather difficult to follow through on. I have worked with a number of museums and collections at various times on a number of projects, and I may speak about some of them in the future. The various ideas I espouse in this blog and lessons learnt from my years of science communication are something that I can and have used to help others try to improve their own spaces (Incidentally my consultancy rates are very reasonable).

However, here I want to instead let my imagination run a little while and talk about what I would do if I had total creative control and a nice big budget in an occasional segment I’ll call ‘My Museums’.

It is important to note that these ideas are not normal museums per se. Inspired by a trip to my favourite museum of all time the Museum of Jurassic Technology (that I will definitely write about sometime) they are more typically museums about museums. Ways of trying to use the design of a space and the very idea of museums to say something.

A History that Never Happened

It’s not an altogether rare framing device for some Fantasy or Sci-Fi book to be a supposed in-world artefact. Be it a character's diary, or a story recorded by some scholar who may occasionally choose to make references. This is I think best typified by something like Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, it reads like a historical monograph complete with footnotes.

However, the particular notion struck me several years ago when I was watching a YouTube video from a channel that I now for the life of me can’t track down. The idea was simple, a 10ish minute video aping the popular style of YouTube history channels recounting some battle, or the rise of a particular historical figure. The only difference was that they were instead talking about Lord of the Ring’s Battle of Helm’s Deep, or the ascension of Warhammer 40k’s God Emperor of Mankind.

‘Coronation of the Warmaster’ based on Warhammer 40K Lore (Image by L J Koh)

The next idea that comes from this is pretty simple. Why not have a museum dedicated to 40K lore? There are already plenty of items made for promotional purposes, or crafted by dedicated fans. Why not put this together as a museum.

The appeal of this is already fairly obvious. There are a number of Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Harry Potter, etc attractions across the world which bring in plenty of interest. For a while there was even a Doctor Who museum in Blackpool that I went to many times as a child. So there is an interest in these objects, the only difference here is to instead treat it all with a straight face. Bring in a little bit of that theme park magic to say that whilst you are within these walls it is all real. If nothing else the novelty should bring in the press and crowds.

A Museum is a Place with a Purpose

It’s a fun idea, and still something I'd love to see. But to me a museum has a duty to be a place that preserves, educates, and/or informs. So instead I began to wonder what you could do with such an idea, how to make it worthwhile? Eventually I dropped it altogether. 

It was only after my visit to the Museum of Jurassic Technology that I revisited the idea. To me it is a place that forces the question of ‘what is a museum and why?’. What is a museum's purpose? How and why was it constructed? Who’s story does it tell?

And so the idea came back to me. When we visit a museum it tells us a story, about history, or science, or the people and things of a place. Often we absorb this almost entirely uncritically. Whilst you might express scepticism over a new article or maybe even a book if it’s in a museum then it is somehow more sacrosanct. The idea that it is there in physical space somehow imbues it with a certainty which it cannot truly have. Even when many museums constantly talk about how their objects have been reinterpreted and better understood over years of study.

The City That Never Was

The idea then is to fully confront people with this reality. A dupe, a con, a plot twist that people shouldn’t see coming. The story of the city that never was.

Picture an exhibition room. It tells the story of a lesser known city that wasn’t too far from here that was broadly wiped out by a war or a plague or some such and now its only remnants come from a handful of artefacts, how would they know otherwise.

I could say this carved stone come from Ancient Greece, The Vikings, or the Romans and most people wouldn’t be able to disagree (Image from Meigle Museum)

The exhibit itself follows as normal a condition as can be managed. A case on its founding with some pottery sherds and perhaps a belt buckle. A modern bolt of wool to symbolise its biggest export, a painting of some local lord accepting tribute, a quote from some famous author like Chaucer describing the place as they passed through. Finally another display board describing the story of its downfall to some disaster and perhaps a pithy remark to thinking about how fragile our modern world is.

Really the whole exhibit should be made as boringly predictable as it can be. The kind of exhibit that even the least avid museum goer has seen a dozen times over. Perhaps it could even be made to look dated.

Then, beyond that a final room (artfully hidden from the previous ones) where the wall reads something like ‘Baranforth did not exist’ in bright friendly letters. The room then can reveal what some of the objects actually are and discuss places where other museums have bent the truth or straight up lied.

The message is fairly simple. Do not uncritically absorb information just because it is in a museum.

The practicality of keeping this twist however possibly renders the whole idea mute. If you were to advertise the idea of it then it wouldn’t be a twist anymore which rather takes the joy and more importantly the learning out of it. But equally without some kind of advertising how would you get anyone to show up?

Perhaps the best way would be for it to be taken up by some kind of major museum that already has a reputation and a willing audience. Somewhere like the British Museum where any display is going to have a guaranteed crowd. Then rather than some dull town make some oblique reference like ‘The Lost Civilisation of X’ treating something like the European rediscovery of Angkor Wat with the sudden twist revealed at the end. Then you have to simply hope that the press and punters treat it like a movie twist and keep at least something of lid on it for most of the others that might visit.