Ten years ago it came to the attention of Mayo County Council that a 36-acre estate housing a listed building on the outskirts of Castlebar was to be put up for sale.
The council decided to move swiftly and attempt to buy the property, Turlough Park House and gardens, realising it had potential as an amenity which would attract tourists to the area.
As the county manager, Mr Des Mahon, recalls, money was less plentiful then, but he felt an investment in Turlough Park would pay off. The council successfully negotiated a deal with the owners, who were distant relatives of the original landlords of the estate in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Fitzgeralds of Waterford. The cost to the council was £250,000.
The local authority commissioned Tourist Development International to carry out a study of its potential, and in the mid1990s the National Museum of Ireland was approached with the suggestion that Turlough Park House would be the ideal location for its folklife collection, which was in cases and boxes, some of it for up to a century.
The museum agreed, and yesterday the Mayo dream came full circle with the opening of the Museum of Country Life in Castlebar, the first branch of the National Museum of Ireland outside Dublin.
When it was first announced, the philosophy behind the project caused some concern among academics who believed such museums should be linked to research centres at third-level institutions.
Mr Mahon said the project was "one great example of regional development when a national cultural project like this can be located in the regions".
In total, the county council has invested £3 million in the project, which has included landscaping the Turlough Park gardens, which are now among the "Great Gardens of Ireland". The balance of the £15 million required to complete the venture came from State and EU funds.
The director of the National Museum of Ireland, Dr Pat Wallace, said it would cost £1.25 million annually to run the museum, which has a full-time staff of 30 and huge potential administration costs, but admission will be free.
Given its location, is he concerned about whether people will travel to it? Dr Wallace acknowledges that getting in bodies will be a challenge, but he said the museum would work first with schools to encourage them to come on tours and then with tourism groups to encourage all other visitors.
"I am confident it will be a winner," he said. He expects it will attract up to 150,000 visitors annually. "I think it's very important that it's here, but it's very important that Dublin people and urban people in general come and visit it," he added.
Dating from 1865, Turlough Park House was designed by the celebrated Irish architects Woodward and Deane, who are best known for their buildings at Trinity College Dublin and Oxford. Coincidentally, they were also involved in design work for the National Museum's original home in Kildare Street, Dublin.
The house, along with a new four-storey, curved, stone-clad gallery which is set into and forms an end to the terraces of the gardens leading to an artificial turlough or lake, will house artefacts from rural Ireland of the 1850s to the 1950s.
The new exhibition area was designed by architects from the Office of Public Works and won an award from the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland this summer. Its exhibits include domestic furniture and appliances and old farming tools as well as traditional dress and footwear. Guided tours, beginning this week, are available daily. The museum's opening hours are Tuesday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. It is closed on Mondays.