North Mayo town sparkles in new series on RTÉ

RTÉ’s Ireland's Hidden Treasures comes to a captivating close this Sunday with its third episode.

Take one last whirlwind tour of the National Library and National Museum of Ireland, and fly across the country to the Glenview Folk Museum in Co. Leitrim, the Museum of Time in Waterford city, and the Jackie Clarke Collection in Ballina, north Mayo.

The Jackie Clarke Collection is one of Ireland’s most impressive private collections.

Anne Marie Forbes, acting manager of the museum, describes what the collection actually entails: “It is the most important private collection of Irish history material in public hands, comprising over 100,000 items spanning 400 years.

"It includes artefacts associated with Theobald Wolfe Tone and letters from Michael Collins, Douglas Hyde, Michael Davitt and O’Donovan Rossa. It also contains rare books, proclamations, posters, works by Sir John Lavery, personal items from Leaders of the 1916 Rising, and so much more.”

“This is genuine hidden history,” continued Anne Marie, “an entirely new display of primary sources, many assumed to be lost over the years. Instead they were collected by Jackie Clarke, who was the owner of Clarke’s Salmon Smokery, two streets over from the museum. In 2005 his widow, Anne, donated the collection to the people of Ballina.”

For the episode of Ireland's Hidden Treasures, Anne Marie takes viewers behind the scenes at the old bank building that houses the collections, and reveales rare hidden treasures such as the cockade from Wolfe Tone’s hat and an extremely rare Proclamation of the Irish Republic from 1917, unearthed accidentally by Jackie when browsing old secondhand books in Dublin.

Ireland's Hidden Treasures is a celebration of Ireland's enduring legacy and a tribute to those who dedicate their lives to preserving it. It was created to reignite the appreciation for Ireland's national treasures and the stories they hold.

Episode three, featuring the Jackie Clarke Collection, airs on Sunday, May 5, at 6.30 p.m. on RTÉ One. You can catch up on the first two episodes in the series on the RTÉ Player.