About the Director

Patrick F. Wallace

Dr Pat Wallace has been Director of the National Museum of Ireland since 1988. Before his appointment he was the archaeologist in charge of the Museum’s excavations at Wood Quay – Fishamble Street in Dublin. These were the largest Viking age urban excavations ever undertaken in western or northern Europe.

Dr Wallace’s work as an archaeologist of the Viking age and of urbanism has earned him an international reputation. He has been a member of both the Birka (Sweden) and Kaupang (Norway) reference committees.

As Director he has been responsible for the modernisation of the management, operation, exhibitions and services of the Museum. It now has four sites where it had two, staff numbers have doubled, and a series of new departments enable it to discharge its duties and play a significant role in the cultural life of the country.

Having witnessed the expansion of the Museum to Collins Barracks, Dublin and Castlebar, Co. Mayo, Dr Wallace has overseen the modernisation of the institution by introducing new departments of conservation, registration, education and marketing (including retail and café outlets). A Collections Resource Centre facilitating storage and study has also been acquired.

Dr Wallace’s academic publications centre mainly on the early-medieval urban archaeology of Dublin. He has written on buildings, docksides, timber construction, urban layouts, iron and lead corpuses as well as an international trade. He has written two monographs (The Viking Age Buildings of Dublin and Weights and Balances in Viking Dublin), edited books, published dozens of articles and has made many contributions on local and economic history as well as on rural life in more popular publications. Uniquely in the Museum’s history, he has published papers on aspects of each of the four divisions of the institution as well as on the Museum’s history. He is also well known for popularising heritage, history and the National Museum’s work on television and radio.