Madam, - I refer to Mr Brendan Langley's letter re the condition of the Transport Museum in Howth (July 28th). My colleagues and I could not agree more with what he says.
The museum is located in buildings that had to be adapted to their present use. Yes, the vehicles are jammed in, parked where they will fit rather than being grouped according to type.
And yes again, they are dusty because the doors of the building do not fit properly and despite monthly washing, the exhibits collect more dust within a few days. He is right yet again when he complains that only one member of staff was on duty when he visited the museum. We are deeply conscious of all these and many more deficiencies.
What Mr Langley may not know is that this museum was established entirely by voluntary effort and that none of the priceless vehicles it contains would have survived but for more than 50 years' hard graft by ordinary working people.
These same people have also learned the hard way that this kind of heritage is far outside the pale of official Irish culture and is as little appreciated today as it was when so much of our railway heritage was scrapped or exported nearly 50 years ago.
The Transport Museum Society is a registered charity which has to beg for its very survival and continues to solve problems that no funded organisation in this country has ever faced.
Our voluntary workforce consists of 12 people who do everything from administration to staffing to cleaning the toilets. Only three of these volunteers are available for door duty and this explains how Mr Langley encountered a single member of staff. These same three also wash the vehicles whenever they can and get to perform several other pleasant tasks as well.
When they have time to spare, they even manage - often at their own expense - to do some of the restoration work that Mr Langley rightly points out as being necessary. Mr Langley will be very welcome if he comes to do some of the work himself.
Or he might be luckier than us in getting an explanation about the lack of support from some Government minister. - Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL CORCORAN, President - Transport Museum Society of Ireland, Heritage Depot, Howth Demesne, Dublin 13.