Visitors to the new museum first arrive at the area once occupied by a shop, the rent from which was used to maintain the alms house. Here, an audio-visual showcase explores how the Irish landscape was etched by death over six thousand years.
Moving into the alms house proper, visitors pass through six rooms taking them through 500 years of Irish death rituals from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries. Each room explores a different theme and a remarkable array of objects associated with death is on display.
The exhibition ends by urging people to remember death and to rejoice in life.
The Irish Wake Museum also offers a Solace & Sustenance Experience. Following a tour of the museum, visitors can make their way to Mrs Poole’s Parlour in the nearby Reg Bar. Tucked away in this cosy parlour, with the stories of local people who lived exceptional lives adorning the walls, visitors are treated to a flight of the award-winning Waterford Whisky’s Arcadian range, or alternatively a traditional pot of Irish Breakfast Tea.
The museum is the latest in the Waterford Treasures award-winning collective of museums at Waterford’s Viking Triangle. It joins the Medieval Museum, the Bishop’s Palace, the Irish Museum of Time, the Irish Silver Museum, Reginald’s Tower and the King of the Vikings experience.
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