Nora Niland (26 March 1913 – 29 December 1988) was the County

Librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time, ...

of Sligo and the founder of the

Sligo Sligo ( ; ga, Sligeach , meaning 'abounding in shells') is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht. With a population of approximately 20,000 in 2016, it is the List of urban areas ...

municipal art collection. Niland was born in 1913, the eighth child of the six sons and three daughters of John Niland and Elizabeth Loughlin of Ballinastack, Tuam,

County Galway "Righteousness and Justice" , anthem = () , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Galway.svg , map_caption = Location in Ireland , area_footnotes = , area_total_km2 = ...

. In 1945 she became Sligo County Librarian.

Niland Collection

The Niland Collection is the name of Sligo's Municipal Art Collection. Named after Niland, who began the collection in the 1950s, it has since grown to over 300 works and is cared for by, and displayed at,

The Model "Das Model" ("The Model" in English) is a song recorded by the German group Kraftwerk in 1978, written by musicians Ralf Hütter and Karl Bartos, with artist Emil Schult collaborating on the lyrics. It is featured on the album, ''Die Mensch-M ...

in Sligo, Ireland. The collection was begun by Niland when she borrowed five works by

Jack Butler Yeats Jack Butler Yeats RHA (29 August 1871 – 28 March 1957) was an Irish art The history of Irish art starts around 3200 BC with Neolithic stone carvings at the Newgrange megalithic tomb, part of the Brú na Bóinne complex which still stands ...

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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Niland, Nora People from County Galway Irish librarians Irish women librarians 1913 births 1988 deaths