Brown bear goes on display at Mayo museum as history repeats!

A bear is set to return to the historic estate of Turlough Park in Castlebar - more than 200 years after the infamous landlord, ‘Fighting Fitzgerald’, kept one here as a pet.

The brown bear is going on temporary display in the National Museum of Ireland as part of an ongoing exhibition, The Murmur of Bees - which explores bees and their important role in Ireland’s biodiversity.

Bears have long been associated with bees and honey and one of the ancient Irish names for a bear is milchobur (honey-lover).

The bear, which is from the Museum’s Natural History Collection in Dublin, was officially unveiled today (Monday).

The specimen looks set to impress visitors. The female bear from Alaska has pale brown fur and is mounted standing on her hind legs, with long claws outstretched towards the visitor.

Brown bears once roamed throughout Ireland. While they became extinct here thousands of years ago, some were occasionally brought to Ireland as exotic pets or circus performers and for blood sports.

In the late 18th century, George Robert Fitzgerald, also known as ‘Fighting Fitzgerald’, kept a pet bear at Turlough Park – the former ancestral home of the Fitzgerald family and now the site of the National Museum of Ireland.

A colourful and controversial figure, Fitzgerald reportedly chained his own father to the pet bear at one time. Fitzgerald was later convicted of conspiracy to murder his father’s attorney and was hanged in Castlebar in 1786.

Emma Murphy is a curator with the Natural History Division of the National Museum of Ireland. She outlined that bears are the most abundant and widespread carnivore found in the Irish fossil record.

“Fossils from Irish caves show that bears were present in Ireland for tens of thousands of years, from 40,000 years before present (BP) to 3,100 BP,” said Ms Murphy.

“They lived here at most times when the country was free of ice, repopulating the area many times. The most recent date of 3,100 BP means that there was a time when early human settlers and bears co-existed on this island.

Evidence of bears has been found in many counties including Aillwee Cave, Co. Clare; Castlepook Cave, Co. Cork; and Poll na mBéar, Co. Leitrim.”

Tiernan Gaffney, curator of The Murmur of Bees exhibition is based in Turlough Park working with the Irish Folklife Collection.

“Although still prevalent in Eastern Europe, bears have been extinct in Ireland and as a result, they rarely appear in Irish folklore, mythology, or place names. However small traces of their

presence still linger,” he explained. “As well as milchobur (honey lover), other Irish names for bears include beithir, rustóg, úrsóg and béar.”

The bear is on display on Level A of the exhibition galleries at the National Museum of Ireland in Turlough Park.

It follows the bee-related temporary displays of Harry Clarke’s drawing of St. Gobnait and Alice Maher’s Bee Dress, as part of The Murmur of Bees exhibition.

A programme of associated events will follow in early 2026.

No booking is required to visit the Museum and admission is free. Visit www.museum.ie for further information.