Not that we needed an excuse to hop into the motor for a full-on day trip, following an eternity of national lockdowns and restrictions, but on hearing of the opening of Ireland’s brand new Museum of Time in the vibrant city of Waterford, The Watch Press were out the door at daybreak and hitting the road for a five hundred mile round trip, and what would be an unforgettable day.

Even here in Ireland, it’s not a commonly known fact that back at the tail end of the seventeenth century, plans were afoot to establish a colony of Swiss watchmakers in the tiny Irish coastal town of Passage, near Waterford, in the south east of the country.

Given the working title of New Geneva, the project was devised to install a commune of around 1,000 artisans, many of whom were involved in watch and clock making and who, having been quashed in the brief Geneva Revolution of 1782 in their bid for representation in the political establishment, had become alienated in their homeplace, and weary of life under their French and Bernese rulers, among the local population, in the hope that with their staunch religious beliefs and strong work ethic, they might restore a bit of order and civility among the unruly and restless natives.

Ultimately however, despite some of the Swiss actually making it this far, the New Geneva talent transplant never took a firm hold, and along with its demise went the chance for Ireland to establish its place as a creative hub of high class horlogerie. It came so very close to happening that what would become an infamous encampment called Geneva Barracks was built for the purpose.

However, apart from a sombre wall plaque which serves as a reminder of the site’s darker legacy as a prison feared for its brutal regime and inhumane conditions, until today all that remains of what might have been New Geneva is but another footnote in the annals of Irish history.

We say until today, because as of now, and only a few kilometres from the site of New Geneva, for the first time Ireland has its own showcase dedicated to the history, the science, the beauty and the craft of telling the time. The nearby city of Waterford is home to the Irish Museum of Time, and with our visit arranged just a few days after its opening, we can report that not only was it a brilliant and unforgettable experience for us, it really is an unmissable destination for anyone with so much as a passing interest in horology.

In the idyllic setting of a beautifully restored church only a stone’s throw from the city centre, the Irish Museum of Time opened its doors for the first time in June 2021. It is a wonderful, insightful and educational attraction, and for those who have worked tirelessly to bring it all to fruition, a feat of which they can all be entirely justified in feeling a great sense of pride.

Six years in the making, and ultimately delayed thanks to the ubiquitous covid lockdowns, the museum is an impressive project indeed, and a true labour of love. It is an initiative which has been driven forward both by the energy and dedication of a team of passionate people, and also through the key support from the exhibition’s principal private benefactors, who between them have assembled a remarkable collection of exhibits, which are distributed across the building’s two floors, with additional resources coming via Waterford City & County Council.

As curator and Director of Waterford Museum of Treasures, Eamonn McEneaney is a man well aware of the importance of time. His morning was filled with phone calls and interruptions such as on-site maintenance people wanting “a wee minute”, yet he managed to take us on a breathless morning-long tour of four of the five museums which make up the Waterford Treasures, which are located almost adjacent to each other in the city’s Viking Triangle.

Museum Director Eamonn McEneaney showing us the interactive map of Ireland telling the history of watchmaking around the country through the ages

Supported by a knowledgeable and welcoming team at the complex of museums, Eamonn is a true guardian of the city’s historical legacy, and a visionary who had to stand up against a sometimes seemingly immovable wall of bureaucracy, in his quest to curate some of Ireland’s most significant historical artefacts and documents, and keep them within this island and on display to its people.

His enthusiasm is contagious, and at every opportunity he reminds us of the huge contributions of the benefactors David Boles, Colman Curran and Elizabeth Clooney, whose generous donations of timepieces of all shapes and sizes gave life to the Irish Museum of Time concept. He recalls seeing Mr Boles and Mr Curran sitting together discussing the merits and suitable locations for each of the individual pieces within the two story building. It seems that despite actually owning these beautiful historic timepieces, not every example met their exacting criteria and some were pronounced not “good enough” for the museum.

Contributors Colman Curran (L) and David Boles (C) with Museum Director Eamonn McEneaney

Waterford is in fact Ireland’s oldest city, and the Irish Museum of Time forms one strand of a quintet of spectacular standalone museums in an area known as the Viking Triangle. The tagline “1000 years in 1000 paces” is no exaggeration. With more than 600 items arranged across two floors within the former neo-Gothic Methodist church which was built in the 1880s, surely there could be no finer nor more suitable a location in which to display a horological collection that traces Ireland’s links with timekeeping and its connectedness to clock- and watchmaking through the centuries.

The Irish Museum of Time features contemporary architecture in a historic 18th century church

Among the displays, are the mechanical workings of faceless turret clocks, which marked the hours by the peal of their bells, timing the working day for those in distant fields, or perhaps for those, who due to their illiteracy, hands and numerals would have meant nothing. One can also witness the evolution of clock making stage by stage - the changing materials, for example how native walnut gave way to mahogany for cases, as supply issues and importation tax advantages enabled sourcing of woods from exotic locations. There are differing styles of course, as larger pieces designed for the Great Houses of Ireland were replaced by smaller examples for town houses; and dials, with brass replaced by painted dials, thus enhancing readability in dark hallways. And the Irish clockmakers’ penchant for generously proportioned 13.5 inch dials does not go unnoticed. For those who may have pondered over what might have been if the New Geneva concept had been realised, there are enough Irish-made pieces on show from that era such as, but not by any means limited to, John Donegan of Dublin and the McCabes in the North, to realise that actually, back then, Ireland already had a flourishing clock and watchmaking industry in its own right.

That so many important Irish timepieces and associated documents have survived intact, considering the tumultuous periods in our history is astounding, but survive they did, and the team at the museum have laid them out with every bit as much meticulous attention to detail given to their arrangement as was devoted to their creation.

On the ground floor, a virtual watchmaker greets visitors from his atelier, while surrounded by an assemblage of authentic tools of the trade. At a glance, you can see how little has changed in the last few hundred years, when we compare his workspace to the likes of Vianney Halter and his peers. Here, you will also find mostly Irish-made timekeepers, and some of the oldest in the world at that, including the aforementioned massive workings of turret clocks as well as incredibly elegant bracket and long case examples.

Upstairs, beneath the stunning hammer-beam roof, the collection opens up to include displays from all over the world, and also a dedicated marine chronometer exhibit and a selection of railway watches. At the rear, placed upon carrousels, groups of long cased pieces revolve slowly with distinguished gravitas, on a plinth beneath a magnificent stained-glass Rose window.

Artfully combining old technology with new, interactive displays reveal further information. Of particular note, a pocketwatch display containing pieces from every corner of Ireland enables the visitor to study and simultaneously highlight on a projected storyboard a timepiece made within their own town or county on the island of Ireland. Within this glass-cased story-teller, the museum keepers have provided an ingenious method of inspiring attendees to delve further into their own local horological history when their visit has ended. After all, having discovered a watch made close to their birthplace, anyone with a drop of Irish blood in their veins will without doubt have their interest piqued into further research.

And, herein lies the importance of this dedicated museum. Ireland’s place in watch and clockmaking has largely been forgotten. The Irish Swiss Institute of Horology is a distant memory, although in the brothers John and Stephen McGonigle, and up in Belfast Stephen McDonnell, we have our own national treasures of contemporary independent watchmaking. But this permanent exhibition is a reminder that if we are not careful, that artisanal craft of creating mechanical timepieces on this island could become extinct. Be in no doubt, the Irish Museum of Time is home to a historically significant collection of timepieces and artefacts, a small sample of which can be seen below, which are quite deserving of their own articles on this site, but there is hope too that it might also mark the beginning of a new era.

Perhaps while perusing the collection, older visitors might feel the nostalgic pull of days gone by, when every town had its own clockmaker, and a sense of pride in what has been created here in the past. And there is always the promise that just maybe, among those little noses that will be pressed against the glass cases, some of those young eyes looking upon these little mechanical marvels will feel a pull of a different kind, as their natural inquisitiveness stimulates a curiosity about what makes these wonderful old pieces work, and moves them towards taking up the mantle and training in the multi-faceted skills of modern watch and clockmaking for themselves.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to Eamonn, Rosemary, Clíona and the entire team at the Irish Museum of Time for the warmest of welcomes, and we look forward to visiting them and the wonderful city of Waterford again in the very near future.

We also look forward to bringing to our readers further articles on the collections at the Irish Museum of Time.

For information and bookings, visit the dedicated Irish Museum of Time website here.

And for more about the city’s complex of culture, visit the Waterford Treasures official website here.