Inniskilling Museum

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inniskillings Museum - Enniskillen

The Inniskillings Museum in the Keep of Enniskillen Castle has fine displays of weapons, vehicles, uniforms, medals and silver along with inspiring stories of soldiers of the Royal Inniskillings Fusiliers and the Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards. A research service is available by prior appointment and there is an AV ‘virtual tour’ for visitors with a disability.

This Museum has just completed a £500,000 re-design and modernisation project. The money was raised through an appeal to Old Comrades of the two regiments, the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board.

The aim of the project was to bring to life the story of Enniskillen’s two famous regiments.  Enniskillen is the only town in the British Isles to have two regiments named after it,

These regiments have their origins in the troubled times in Ireland between 1688 and 1691.  When James II was deposed, he came to Ireland with French troops and munitions to raise an army to enable him to regain his throne.  Much of the Catholic population in the country supported his enterprise. However the Irish Protestants, mainly concentrated in the north of the island, decided to support the new king, the Protestant William III.

The island town of Enniskillen stood in a strategic position on a network of lakes in the west, controlling passage from the west of Ireland north towards the city of Londonderry.  The citizens of the town and the surrounding counties raised volunteer units of foot soldiers and horse soldiers to defend their town and area from attack.  So successful were they and such was the fearsome reputation of these volunteers that, when William arrived in Ireland with his army, they were enrolled in it and eventually consolidated into two regiments, one of foot and one of dragoons.

These two regiments became the 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot and the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons.  Through amalgamations they later became the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards.  Today their traditions are part of the Royal Irish Regiment and the Royal Dragoon Guards.

The museum is housed on the first and second floors in the Keep of Enniskillen Castle and in the surrounding stable blocks.  The Keep originated in the late 15th century, being built by Hugh “The Hospitable” Maguire, as a tower house.  The Maguires were the dominant Gaelic clan in the area.  Though the castle’s defences were extended during the next hundred years, it was captured by the English at the end of the 16th century.  The Maguires recaptured it but it eventually fell permanently into English hands and played a major part in the defence of the town during the Williamite period.  Its buildings were extended in the 18th and 19th centuries to provide military accommodation for garrison troops.  Today the Castle complex houses the military museum, the County of Fermanagh museum and various government offices.

Visitors to the Inniskillings museum begin their tour by visiting exhibits in the old stables.  These consist of reconstructions of a Dragoons’ farrier’s shop from the mid-19th century and a First Aid post in Palestine in 1917, where there are figures representing the Inniskillings’ medical officer, Henry Lamb, who later became a famous painter and James Duffy, who was awarded a Victoria Cross for rescuing seriously wounded comrades while under heavy enemy fire.  There are also vintage military vehicles on display, which include a Bren gun carrier and a Ferret scout car.  There is also a Wombat anti-tank gun.

Upstairs in the Keep, the visitor tours a chronological display telling the history of the two regiments.  This will take the visitor through the story of the wars against France, including the Battle of Waterloo, where both regiments played significant roles.  Then there comes Imperial service in far-flung corners of the Empire and then the First World War.  The Fusiliers raised ten service battalions and eight Victoria Crosses were awarded, the most to any Irish regiment.  The tour continues through the inter-war years to the Second World War, where the regiments fought in France, Burma, North Africa, Italy and Northern Germany.  The tour concludes with the Korean War, the Cold War and the end of Empire.

To further interest the visitor there is a magnificent display of regimental silver, three cabinets containing medals and a showcase and audiovisual unit on regimental music.  Other audiovisual displays include a dramatisation of an episode on the first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and a reconstruction of the evolution of the tank.  There is also a fascinating case showing, through the display of ten weapons, the evolution of the infantry rifle.  Figure reconstructions include a scene from the Battle of Waterloo, from Gallipoli in 1915, from Italy in 1944 and Korea in 1952.

Opening times:

May, June & Sept
Mon & Sat 2-5pm,
Tues - Fri 10-5pm

Oct-April
Mon 2-5pm,
Tues-Fri 10-5pm
Open Bank Holidays 10-5pm.

Prices:
Adult £2.50, Child £1.50, Family £6.50

Address:
The Castle, Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh BT74 7BB

Website: http://www.inniskilling.com/
Tel: (028) 6632 3142
Fax: (028) 6632 0359