Butter Museum churning for 25 years

A museum in one of Cork city’s most historic areas has marked its 25th anniversary.

The Butter Museum, located beside the Cork Butter Exchange in Shandon has welcomed and informed visitors about the importance of the butter trade to Cork city’s local economy and the counties of Munster, and its value to the national economy since the 1700s to modern times.

An Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, visited the Butter Museum to celebrate its establishment 25 years ago. During his visit, he made presentations of specially commissioned Butter Stamps to 2 former Butter Museum chairmen, former general secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Michael Dowling and Cobh dairy farmer, David Bird, in recognition of their extraordinary commitment to the development of the Butter Museum over 2 decades.

Since 1997, the Butter Museum has welcomed almost a quarter of a million visitors from home and abroad and attracted positive critiques including from the The New York Times.

The museum collection ranges from thousand year old bog butter, held courtesy of the National Museum of Ireland, to a representative selection of traditional butter making equipment to a fine collection of co-op butter wrappers from the regional but now consolidated dairy manufacturers. Video, audio, image and text enhance the visitor’s engagement with the collection and the world of which it speaks.