Nora Niland was Librarian

Librarian

A librarian is an information professional trained in library and information science, which is the organization and management of information services or materials for those with information needs...

 and founder

Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...

 of the Sligo

Sligo

Sligo is the county town of County Sligo in Ireland. The town is a borough and has a charter and a town mayor. It is sometimes referred to as a city, and sometimes as a town, and is the second largest urban area in Connacht...

 municipal art collection.

Niland was born the eighth child of the six sons and three daughters of John Niland and Elizabeth Loughlin of Ballinastack, Tuam

Tuam

Tuam is a town in County Galway, Ireland. The name is pronounced choo-um . It is situated west of the midlands of Ireland, and north of Galway city.-History:...

, County Galway

County Galway

County Galway is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the city of Galway. Galway County Council is the local authority for the county. There are several strongly Irish-speaking areas in the west of the county...

. In 1945 she became Sligo county librarian.

The Niland Collection

The Niland Collection is the name of Sligo's Municipal Art Collection. Named after Nora Niland, the County Librarian that began the collection in the 1950s. It has grown to over 300 works and is cared for by, and displayed at, The Model in Sligo, Ireland.

The Collection was begun by Nora borrowing five works by Jack Butler Yeats

Jack Butler Yeats

John "Jack" Butler Yeats was an Irish artist. His early style was that of an illustrator; he only began to work regularly in oils in 1906. His early pictures are simple lyrical depictions of landscapes and figures, predominantly from the west of Ireland—especially of his boyhood home of...

to exhibit for the duration of the first Yeats Summer School in 1959. These works consisted of three large oil paintings, Communicating with Prisoners, The Funeral of Harry Boland, and The Island Funeral, along with two smaller watercolours, Market Day and The Star Gazer.

Final years

Niland never married. Upon her retirement she returned to live in Ballinastack. She died at St. James's Hospital, Dublin, in 1988. On the tenth anniversary of her death the gallery was renamed in her honor and moved to what had been the Model School on the Mall, Sligo.

External links

• www.themodel.ie/the-niland-collection