Brown bear goes on display at Mayo museum
Tiernan Gaffney, Curator, Irish Folklife Division at the National Museum of Ireland, is pictured with the brown bear that is on temporary display in the National Museum of Ireland in Castlebar. Picture: Karen Cox
A bear has returned to the historic estate of Turlough Park in Castlebar - more than 200 years after the infamous landlord, ‘Fighting Fitzgerald’, kept one there as a pet.
The brown bear is on temporary display in the National Museum of Ireland as part of an ongoing exhibition, The Murmur of Bees - which explores bees and their important role in Ireland’s biodiversity.
Bears have long been associated with bees and honey and one of the ancient Irish names for a bear is milchobur (honey-lover).
The bear, which is from the Museum’s Natural History Collection in Dublin, was officially unveiled at the start of December. The female bear from Alaska has pale brown fur and is mounted standing on her hind legs, with long claws outstretched towards the visitor.
Brown bears once roamed throughout Ireland. While they became extinct here thousands of years ago, some were occasionally brought to Ireland as exotic pets or circus performers and for blood sports.
In the late 18th century, George Robert Fitzgerald, also known as ‘Fighting Fitzgerald’, kept a pet bear at Turlough Park – the former ancestral home of the Fitzgerald family and now the site of the National Museum of Ireland. A colourful and controversial figure, Fitzgerald reportedly chained his own father to the pet bear at one time. Fitzgerald was later convicted of conspiracy to murder his father’s attorney and was hanged in Castlebar in 1786.
Emma Murphy is a curator with the Natural History Division of the National Museum of Ireland. She outlined that bears are the most abundant and widespread carnivore found in the Irish fossil record.
“Fossils from Irish caves show that bears were present in Ireland for tens of thousands of years, from 40,000 years before present (BP) to 3,100 BP,” said Ms Murphy.
“They lived here at most times when the country was free of ice, repopulating the area many times. The most recent date of 3,100 BP means that there was a time when early human settlers and bears co-existed on this island. Evidence of bears has been found in many counties including Aillwee Cave, Co Clare; Castlepook Cave, Co Cork; and Poll na mBéar, Co Leitrim.”
No booking is required to visit the Museum and admission is free. Visit www.museum.ie for further information.
