‘Led up the garden path’ - Frustration mounts over uncertain future of Kilkenny Archives
The Kilkenny Archives are temporarily being housed at St Kieran’s College
Board members of the Kilkenny Archives have expressed frustration at the lack of progress toward finding a permanent home for their collections and the appointment of a full-time archivist, nearly a year on from a major investment in these being announced.
A €4m refurbishment for Carnegie Library and hiring project was unveiled by Minister for Heritage, James Browne, last September with local TD John McGuinness hailing it as “fantastic news for Kilkenny and a testament to what can be achieved through sustained advocacy.”
However, the archive is currently still in limbo as the old library was later deemed unsuitable by the board for the valuable materials due to its high flood risk while the appointment of a dedicated archivist has not occurred.
The collections are currently being kept at St Kieran’s College, and although board members are grateful for the school’s hospitality in accommodating them, they are keen to get the archive to a more suitable location as conditions are becoming increasingly overcrowded.
“It is only out of the generosity of the trustees and the president of St Kieran’s that we’re able to be there,” said Peter Seaver, one of the archive’s members. “But it’s bulging at the seams now,” he added.
The Kilkenny Archives were asked to send an Expression of Interest to place themselves in the Shee Alms House as an interim measure, but this was not granted and they are pointing to the example of Offaly County Council who opened a dedicated building with an in-house archivist in 2021.
“Their place is exemplary,” Mr Seaver outlined. “It’s a purpose-built brownfield site with all the proper installations, a reception room, a study room and the proper air conditioning.”
“Two members of the Kilkenny County Council came with us on that expedition, and we expressed out amazement that a place like Tullamore and County Offaly could be so far ahead of a city like Kilkenny.”
“We’re really annoyed because we’ve been led up the garden path so many times,” he described.
The need for a full-time archivist was expanded on by Mr Seaver with the rest of the board, although happy to continue their passion of protecting local history, needing to plan for the future of the collections also.
“We are a board of six individuals, most of us are well over 70 and some of us are in our 80s, so we’re nearly as old as some of the material in the archives!” he laughed.
“The idea was that an archivist would be appointed by the Council and would be informed of what we possess, how to hand it over, when to hand it over etc.”
“What’s happening with the archives that belong to the County Council is they’re all hidden away,” he lamented.
An aspect of frustration felt at the archives is the idea of the Council passing the buck on properly housing the materials, especially after over three decades of work and care being put into their preservation as board member John Kirwan laid out.
“We started collecting in 1994 and since then we’ve collected and catalogued this and most of it was generously donated to the city and county.”
“The 400 plus boxes are certainly worth well over €100,000 or €200,000 so you’re talking about hundreds of thousands of euros which the city has not had to fork out since 1994,” Mr Kirwan continued.
As uncertainty around the future of the archive continues, the board are running out of ideas on how to get these invaluable local resources the attention they need and are exasperated with the lack of urgency around the problem.
“We don’t know where to go next really,” Mr Seaver said. “As far as we can read it, they’re quite happy for us to bat on and give us a paltry grant each year.”
“As long as St Kieran’s College and their charity is there, they see no urgency about it.”
When asked what their first priority would be in ensuring the future of the Kilkenny Archive, both men were clear in their response.
“The appointment of an archivist,” Mr Kirwan answers. “Two or three years after the money’s been allocated and instead the appointment hasn’t been made.”
“In my eyes there’s plenty of archivists who’d jump at the job,” he added.
“The archivist should be a direct employee of the County Council and they should be the driver,” Mr Seaver said as he concluded. “They should work in collaboration with an engineer on a building saying, ‘this is what should happen’.