Posted online: Oct 21st, 2009

Call to restore historic HP Swan Collection to Inishowen

Historic artefacts being held in the National Museum, which are claimed to “belong to the people of Inishowen,” should be returned to their “rightful owners,” according  a local councillor.

Calling for the Harry Percival Swan Collection to be given back to the peninsula, Deputy Mayor of Buncrana, Cllr Peter McLaughlin said the return of the local historian’s artefacts to Inishowen would be a tourism boost for region as they were “part of its history.”

Cllr McLaughlin said a possible home for the collection would be the proposed new Artlink Gallery in Buncrana. The local arts organisation is currently looking at the possibility of acquiring a building or site in the town for this purpose.

Speaking to the “Inish Times,” Councillor McLaughlin said if all the relevant organisations worked together, they could help Artlink while also “tying other tourism attractions together.”

He said: “Artlink promote all types of art and have done a lot of fantastic work in Inishowen through the years.

“They’re looking for a site or building for a gallery and like everything else they also need funding. 

“H.P. Swan is an important part of Inishowen. He wrote many books about here and his travels. Swan Park is named after him and you also have the link to Swan’s Mill and the fact that they first brought electricity to Buncrana in 1923.

“His artefacts were donated to the people of Buncrana and are part of the history of Inishowen. If this was say in Kerry or somewhere else down the country these would be brought down and displayed. 

“But it costs money and there’s no adequate place to put them. Everything is linked together and if the County Museum, Artlink, Buncrana Town Council, Buncrana Town Council and other relevant authorities work together we could accommodate Artlink and also bring all these other attractions together. This could help Inishowen as a whole.

“We’ve always been looking to bring them down and it came down to funding but there’s no better time than now to bring them here.”

He said tourism in the peninsula could benefit greatly from the attraction.

“One of our main chances of survival in the current time is tourism. We live in a beautiful area and people come here for many different reasons. It’s about tying it all together. We need to build an identity for ourselves. I hesitate to say the word ‘brand’ but we need something like a tourism product.

“I was in Killarney and they were complaining about it being quiet – I counted about 20 buses of people parked.

“We can only achieve all this if we marry a number of things together and H.P. Swan’s artefacts could connect all that, give them something extra to see. While Artlink can promote the arts side of it, collectively we can all achieve what we’ve been looking for. When people come here they want things to see and do and it’s about bringing it all together collectively.

“These artefacts of H.P. Swan’s are all part of our history. It’s another aspect of the tourism product and it brings people to the area for another different reason. Some come for beauty, some come for sport, some come for many other things, there are a number of attractions of Inishowen.  H.P. Swan’s artefacts are important because while they can facilitate Artlink they can also facilitate other aspects of the peninsula as well.”

H.P. Swan travelled extensively and collected a number of antiquities and lore, which formed the basis if his articles and books. His best known works include “The Book of Inishowen,” “Romantic Inishowen,” “Twixt Foyle and Swilly” and “Voyage Around Africa.”

The artefacts were at onc stage held in the County Museum in Lifford.

Judith McCarthy, Donegal County Museum Curator told the “Inish Times” that due to a problem with the building a number of years ago the collection was taken to the National Museum. When the building was restored, the collection was not brought back as others took its place.

She added that the National Museum carry out a rigorous process of assessment to ensure a building adheres to a number of curating and conservation requirements before they allow a collection to be held there.