This article is from page 29 of the 2008-05-06 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 29 JPG
QUILTY man Dominic Egan is making the headlines this week as he leads an exhibition of the country’s J er0) bys AYAeL tb u-1 Ce) umm DOMmr: RB e-hY od ODD OTS. exhibition celebrating childhood in Ireland over the 20th century.
As curator of Cavan County Muse- um in Ballyjamesduff, Dominic was the first curator in the country to host the innovative exhibition, expected in Clare in the coming months.
While the exhibition may be enti- tled ‘Seen But Not Heard (Feictear Ach Ni Cloistear) – A Century Of Childhood In Ireland’, the west Clare native was the face of the nationwide exhibition over the weekend.
Born to the late Paddy Egan and Margaret (née Boyle) in Dromore in the parish of Kilmurry Ibrickane, Dominic went to Quilty National
School.
From there he attended the CBS in Ennistymon where he completed his Leaving Certificate in 1968.
After his Leaving Cert he planned to do Gaelic studies in UCD, but the death of his father when he was just 10 years old meant that there were other pressures on the family and a third level education at this time was not to be.
The summer after his Leaving Cert, once the minor football season was finished, he packed his bags and went to England to find work.
While in England his uncle in Aus- tralia suggested that the 20 year old try his luck in Van Diemen’s Land. There he worked in the mines as a driller saving enough money to go to university.
While in Australia he met his West- meath born wife. It was while she
was in Ireland nursing her ill father that the opportunity for work in his native land came about.
His wife saw the curator’s job ad- vertised in the local paper and faxed it to her husband thousands of miles AEN
The rest is history, as armed with his new qualifications he returned to Ireland and got the job. He was in- strumental in setting up the Cavan museum in 1994, The Clare man took a break from Cavan for a year to work in the Clare Museum, but as his two sons had settled in schools in Cavan a permanent move was not possible for the family.
“What I miss most about Clare is the sea, I was brought up only two miles from the sea,” said the talka- tive Quilty man.
He plans to visit the Clare County Museum when the exhibition makes
it to the Banner County.
The exhibition celebrates some of the many lifestyle changes as expe- rienced by successive generations of children growing up in Ireland. Themes covered include education, health, work, play and memories.
Dominic explained that the exhibi- tion was certain to recall a moment in everyone’s childhood.
“Anyone who attends the exhibi- tion is likely to be reminded of their own childhoods, whether it be that fleeting memory of a school day long forgotten, playing games on newly mown grass or the reverential hush of a Sunday Mass. The vivid thoughts and memories that are evoked through this truly interactive exhibi- tion will also enable people from out- side Ireland to learn about the many varied aspects of growing up on this island over the last century.”