Country Life

We offer a range of resources which you can use at the museum, at home or in the classroom.

Find Peadar and his Friends!

Pygmy Shrews are Ireland’s smallest mammals. They usually live outdoors in woodlands, hedgerows, farmland, gardens and even bogs but Peadar lives at the Museum with seven of his friends. They like to play hide and seek in the exhibition galleries. See if you can follow the map to find their hiding spots! This is a fun, self-guided trail through the Museum galleries, available during Museum opening hours from the activity cart at reception.

Woodland Explorer

The grounds of Turlough Park are home to lots of different habitats with woodland, gardens, lake and river areas. Pick up the new ‘Woodland Explorer’ activity booklet from Museum reception to learn more on a self-guided nature trail through the Museum grounds. Use your keen senses and skills to complete a series of fun nature challenges and finish the trail!

Primary and Post Primary Learning Resource

This learning resource will help you explore the first two floors of the Museum, Levels A & B. The main themes covered are: Aran Island clothing, the Irish Folklife collection, Romance & Reality, Continuity & Change, the Times, the Natural Environment, Housing and Materials.

The teacher's notes give additional background information and answers to Student Workbook 1.

Object Fact Sheets

Did you know there is a handling table full of interesting objects for you to touch when you visit the National Museum of Ireland - Country Life? Find out all about these objects by reading the fact sheets below. Click on the factsheet link available in Irish and English.

Others in the series

• Cailleach/ Last Sheaf
• Dolly Peg
• Hand-Carders
• Head Ring 
• Hen's Nest  
• Horse Collar  
• Lámhóg/Piggin
• Lobster-Pot
• Noggin
• Pitcher 
• Rush Basket
• Sad Iron   
• Sciob
• Strawboys Hat
• Tin-Milk-Pail
                                    

General activity sheets

Make and do!

Discover Ireland's past through this series of worksheets for students of the English language:

Find out about....

Use the worksheet below to learn how we celebrated, the work people did, and what we wore in the past. There is also an activity sheet to explore the exhibition Straw, Hay & Rushes and some information available on the some of the different traditional house building methods demonstrated through the Education Department's house building project in 2003.

Preserving the Peace learning resources

Exhibition Information Panels:

     Introduction (1023KB, Adobe .pdf)

1. An Garda Síochána (939KB, Adobe .pdf)
2. Crime (1.2MB, Adobe .pdf)
3. Michael John Carney (2MB, Adobe .pdf)
4. Peace Preservation Force (1.3MB, Adobe .pdf)
5. Poitín (1MB, Adobe .pdf)
6. Policing in the late 1700s (810KB, Adobe .pdf)
7. Punishment in Victorian Ireland (622KB, Adobe .pdf)
8. Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) (1.5MB, Adobe .pdf)
9. Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) (992KB, Adobe .pdf)