One of Carlow County Museum’s key events in celebration of Heritage Week 2022, was a lecture on the history of Methodism in the county delivered by Rev. Susan Gallagher, on 15th August 2022.
Organised by Methodist Church Carlow Kilkenny Circuit, in collaboration with Carlow County Museum, the lecture was appropriately titled ‘Methodism: a methodical walk through over 200 years of Methodism in County Carlow’.
There have been Methodists in Carlow and surrounding areas since the mid-18th century with John Wesley, the English evangelist leader and founder of the Methodism movement, visiting Carlow on many occasions between 1765 and 1789.
In 2023 the Methodist Church on the Athy Road in Carlow Town will be celebrating 125 years since it opened for worship in 1898. Over the past two years in partnership with Carlow County Museum the Methodist community are conserving two of their historically important objects which will be displayed later this year in the Museum. Avril Hogan, Carlow Methodist Church, and Dermot Mulligan, Museum Curator, gave an update on these projects. Both have received grants through the Heritage Council’s Heritage Stewardship Funding 2022 and the Regional Museum Exhibitions Scheme 2021 from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
