"Faces from the Past” – Merchant Seamen from the Cooley Peninsula in the early 20th century.

Exhibit on show until September 22nd.

While researching his grandfather's sea service during the First World War, David Snook discovered the unique and valuable archive of CR10 index cards in the Southampton Civic Archives.

The extremely valuable aspect of these records is the photo of the person attached. These wartime cards matched RS2 Identity books with the same photo attached and issued to the seamen to be used as a type of seafarer's passport. These records of serving merchant seamen for the years 1918 to 1921, not only listed British, but nearly every Irish seafarer at sea in those terrible years.

David has generously decided to group them into areas and put them on display around our coast. He has selected nearly 70 from the 23,000 records of Irish seamen for the Cooley Peninsula area exhibition.

From July to September of 2010 Dundalk Museum held a much larger exhibit (including the Seamen below) you can view a video of the exhibit Here Download the accompanying booklet for the exhibit Here

This exhibit will prove to be a valuable resource for many families interested in their Family Tree and the lives of their relatives of yesteryear on the Cooley Peninsula!

Download the full list of names Here - (The addresses of the Seamen are also listed as well as Next of Kin for some).

Surnames of Seamen included in the exhibit are Eccleston, Hanlon, Henry, Keenan, Larkin, McAlister, McKevitt, O'Hanlon, O'Hare, Rice, Alcorn, Fearon, Anderson, Bannon, Boyle, Brennan, Cole, Conlon, Costello, Cowan, Crawley, Donnelly, Doran, Gallagher, Grant, Halligan, Hardy, Johnson, Kennedy, Lee, Lemner, Magee, Maginness, Major, Mateer,McCourt, McDermott, McGarrity, McGrane, McKenna, McShane, Mullen, Murphy, O'Rourke, Small, Suter, Terron, Toal, Vennard, White and Quinn.

For more information on the archive please visit the Irish Mariners website Here

Further information can be found on our Facebook page Here

Permanent Exhibit

Display of historical maps from The Irish Historical Towns Atlas No. 23 “Carlingford”

This superb Atlas will be of great interest to all who are interested in the history of Carlingford, Cartography and Topography as well as those with a penchant for historical illustrations.

Carlingford details the growth of this port and fishing town at the gateway to south Ulster and north Leinster on Carlingford Lough. From its Anglo-Norman foundation, the picturesque town attracted many artists and traveller.

Twenty maps and views are included on loose sheets along with thematic maps and contemporary vignettes throughout the text section. A topographical gazetteer details c. 450 sites that contributed to the urban growth of the town.

Recently published by the Royal Irish Academy you can read more about the Atlas Here