(Attendees at the Shackleton Autumn School over the years will have fond memories of our much missed Shackleton Museum manager, Margaret Walsh. The following appreciation was written by Frank Taaffe, founder of the Shackleton Museum and the Shackleton Autumn School)

Margaret Walsh: An Appreciation

Margaret Walsh 1963-2023.

The news of Margaret Walsh’s sad death was an unexpected blow to her family and friends and those of us associated with the Athy Heritage Centre/Shackleton Museum where Margaret was Manager for the 19 years or so. I interviewed Margaret and several other candidates for that position, not having met her or known her previously. She was a very private person but at the same time she was someone who endeared herself to the Museum visitors and especially those who came each year to the annual Shackleton Autumn School. That event held over an October weekend since 2001 was I believe in its fourth year when Margaret joined the Heritage Centre. For the years that followed Margaret became the contact person for the Irish and overseas visitors who travelled to Athy for the Autumn School. The high regard those visitors had for Margaret was borne out by many messages of sympathy received from America, Norway and our near neighbour the UK following her death.
Margaret, who was ill for the past two years, tried valiantly to keep to the high work standards she had set for herself in previous years. Her work in securing official Museum status for Athy Heritage Centre in 2016 was of the highest quality and enabled the Heritage Centre to move ahead of many other local centres/museums.
It is tragic that Margaret passed away the same week as the building contractor moved into Athy’s Town Hall to start the long-awaited development of the Shackleton Museum. Margaret was part of the team that worked so hard over several years to secure the successful transition of the local Heritage Centre to become a museum of national, if not, international importance.
The Shackleton Museum when opened will represent the third stage of a development which started with the opening of a one room local museum which was manned voluntarily for three hours every Sunday. Forty years have now passed since that first Sunday opening. The subsequent opening of the Heritage Centre in the Town Hall by Minister Charlie McCreevy in June 1998 followed on the appointment of the Centre’s first Manager in November of the previous year. Mark McLoughlin from Kildare town was the Centre’s first Manager and he remained in that position until January 2001. Margaret O’Riordan was next to take up the role as Heritage Centre Manager and it was during her tenure that the Shackleton Autumn School was started. Margaret O’Riordan left to join the staff of University College Galway in early 2004 and following interviews the same year Margaret Walsh from Monasterevin took over as Manager.
Managing the Heritage Centre with limited funds and very few staff was a difficult job. However, Margaret and her staff together with the Board members, all of whom were and still are volunteers, did an excellent job over many years. The success which is today marked by the multi-million euro redevelopment of the Town Hall building owes much to the work of everyone involved in the Heritage Centre project over many years.
Margaret Walsh’s contribution and dedication was acknowledged and recognised by the staff members, Board members, volunteers and Shackleton Autumn School attendees who attended her funeral Mass in Monasterevin and later walked with the funeral cortege to Margaret’s last place of rest with her deceased parents.
Margaret was the public face of the Shackleton Autumn School and she built a rapport with the many visitors to the annual October event which was reflected in the many messages of sympathy received from abroad and throughout Ireland following her death. Once such message from Northern Ireland read:- ‘For almost 20 years we have been regular attenders at the Shackleton Autumn School and Margaret was always our friendly gateway to the weekend. She dealt with all our queries and bookings in a calm, efficient, friendly and familiar manner and always made us so welcome when we arrived for the weekend.’ Another annual visitor writing from England wrote to me. ‘The Autumn School will not seem the same without Margaret; she was a special lady.’
Margaret fell ill approximately two years ago but being the private person she was she sought to continue working. Just the day before the 2023 Shackleton Autumn School was to start, she received an urgent call to return to hospital but despite her worsening condition she insisted on attending for work the following day with the opening of the Autumn School. The next day at the Autumn School dinner I shared a table with Margaret and there was little hint of what lay ahead as we talked of the Museum redevelopment work which was to start the following week.
Margaret would not live to see the commencement of the work. She had played her part as did many others in fulfilling a dream which in time to come will make Athy and the Shackleton Museum an important part of the worldwide polar network.

Margaret will be sadly missed by us all. Ar dhéis Dé go raibh a anam.