Pearse Museum, dedicated to the memory of one of the 1916 Proclamation signatories, Padraig Pearse, and his brother, William, based in his former school at St. Enda’s Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin, has achieved the highest standard possible under a museum national standards programme run by the Heritage Council. The museum, run by the Office of Public Works, also achieved a longstanding ambition this year with the launch of a new permanent exhibition on the life of Patrick Pearse, and last year it held a total of thirty different events.

Pearse Museum was one of seven of Ireland’s museums to be awarded the top standard of Full Accreditation, which requires complying with all 34 designated standards under the MSPI. It takes about five years to achieve all the standards and now, of the 57 participants in the programme, 29 museums have achieved full accreditation and 11 others have been awarded interim accreditation.

Originally awarded Full Accreditation in 2012, its Assessor commented: “The curator is to be congratulated on the exemplary fashion in which he manages and animates a museum which, for many, presents a complex story, dealing with concepts and ideals, matters which are difficult to communicate in any format, be they artistic or literary…”.

“The Museum continues to mount a very impressive educational and general activities programme…. including a series of lead-in exhibitions on aspects of the life of Patrick Pearse; [these are] innovative and of a high standard of interpretation and presentation, an achievement in a museum devoted largely to political and educational ideas and concepts as much as to the life and times of the Pearse family”.