This award winning heritage Museum, in Corofin County Clare, is housed in what was once St Catherines Church. This Church was built in 1718 by a first cousin of Queen Anne.
The main theme of the Museum is 'Irelands West 1800-1860' and it portrays a traumatic period of Irish history under such headings as 'Land Tenure', 'The Famine', 'Emigration', 'Education' and 'The Irish Language and Music'.
The circumstances that moulded the character of the people over one hundred years ago are interpreted in an absorbing story. Also on display is the Tau-Cross, a unique local ecclesiastical boundary marker from the 12th Century.
The flagship Genealogical Centre, founded in 1982, has the largest collection of genealogical material housed in any one place in Clare. It enables persons with Clare roots to trace their fore bearers. The Parish Registers from all of County Clare's 47 parishes forms the core of a unique database that includes a range of Civil Records comprising rentals, valuations, tithe assessments, estate maps and papers, census returns, obituaries and gravestone inscriptions.