The Butter Museum

The Kerrygold wrapper from years past, as seen in the collection on the Museum gallery floor.

It’s very tempting to think they were Bébhinn, as that’s where the printers normally affixed their little trademark on the wrapper. But that would be the first time we’ve ever noted the ‘Irish Agricultural Wholesale Soc.’ - as we’ve just discovered who they are - as being printers

That’s great Nancy, thank you very much :). regards, BM

Happy New Year with the Castlelyons (Co. Cork) wrapper. A red and blue on white paper, utilising the scroll effect as seen on many other designs. A lovely symbol on the lower right hand side. The L(?).A.W.S. (printers?) are a new one for us. Any info gratefully received 😊 BM

The Cratchits’ Christmas dinner in Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, as illustrated by E. A. Abbey (1876). It’s one of the few images to show the Cratchits’ Christmas goose.
Merry Christmas everyone from the Butter Museum 😊

The humble butter box. Made of Swedish pine, and came in flat packs to be assembled onsite: the original Ikea. This particular example is creamery registration number 113: Coachford, Co. Cork

The Millvale creamery butter wrapper. It never ceases to delight how the designers managed to incorporate such deeply symbolic iconography into such a small space (a piece of square parchment paper, the size of which encloses a pound of butter), and with such grace. BM

A final (snow) flurry of visually stunning butter wrappers this morning: Baileboro, Carrigeen, North Clare, Millvale 🧈😊 BM

An example of two butter prints (or stamps) from the Museum’s collection. They were used to impress a unique design on the butter and were found especially useful by members of the community who were illiterate, but able to recognise the particular brand from the design.

Tell us (if and) when you are coming again @ursaborealis.bsky.social, even if it’s not on a weekend and we’ll try to look after you 😊 BM

Following on from the other day, another four beautifully original butter wrappers: Freshford, Outrath, Greybridge and Golden Vein. Enjoy! 😊 BM

Thank god the Butter Museum is over here. I'd hate to leave the vintage wrappers behind at that other place.

This is where we get the cream for our butter demonstrations @ursaborealis.bsky.social. It’s ’beautiful and thick’, as my mother calls me ☺️ BM

Like a diesel engine in the morning, getting going now 😊 BM

@thebuttermuseum.bsky.social they're not active, but I have a vague hope that one day they may start reposting their butter wrappers of Ireland. Anyway, it's butter. And a museum. And those two things are a great combination.

Exterior shot of The Butter Museum. It has remarkable bright orange doors and a beautiful symmetry that could feature in a Coen Brothers Film

A butter commode!!! Wooden Swedish-made butter box originally used to transport butter, and later fitted with a porcelain pot so it could be used as a commode.

Bog butter!!! A small wooden cask filled with butter that was stored in a bog for a thousand years!!!

A stack of vintage butter wrappers wrapped around blocks and displayed atop a tall yellow stand that resembles a stick of Irish grass-fed butter (as evidenced by its rich yellow color that comes from the high level of beta-kerotene found in Irish butter due to their diet of rich Irish grass).

Some highlights from my weekend in Cork City. (1/2) #Im @thebuttermuseum.bsky.social

It wouldn't be an Irish cultural site without a Séamus Heaney poem. The poem "Churning Day" printed on a wall behind a butter churn.

Framed poster featuring a drawing of an Irish wolfhound above the slogan, "Buy Irish Free State Butter".

Vintage Kerrygold butter wrapper

Another stack of butter wrappers, including one from the woefully under-represented Town of Monaghan.

More Cork City highlights. (2/2) @thebuttermuseum.bsky.social #Im

I do feel truly fortunate. Especially having had the opportunity to spend some time with a keg of bog butter!! Also. @thebuttermuseum.bsky.social has a station where you can use a rubber stamp and ink pad to stamp your own butter wrappers!!

Thanks Siobhan! 🧈

If you have any power with the @thebuttermuseum.bsky.social prostrate yourself before them after showing them this and beg them to return here.

Then Bluesky will be truly complete.

For the best buttery content, @thebuttermuseum.bsky.social 🥰

Hello Bluesky! We joined here a while ago and we will now regale you lovely people with butter wrappers, artefacts and all things butter and Cork. Here, enjoy a selection of our more ‘original’ - in a visual design sense - butter wrappers 😊🧈: Blackabbey, Caherciveen, West Clare, and Kildimo. BM

Butter wrappers: Lee Valley

Some happy scenes from Culture Night last Friday ☺️ BM

Our doors are open to visitors, free admission, this evening until 8pm 😊. We would be delighted to see you on this Culture Night. Enjoy 😊 BM

#CultureNight
@corkcityarts

This week, leading up to Culture Night on Friday, we are honouring the memory of a colleague, Don Humphreys. Don loved Culture Night; interacting with visitors, regaling them with folk and fairy stories galore and reminding them that “every single day you learn something new” ❤️

Butter wrappers: Lombardstown

Butter wrappers: Blackabbey Co-Op, Co. Limerick