The exhibition includes items accumulated since Hogans Pharmacy was established over 80 years ago, in 1940. Documents, including botany notes, chemistry notes and price lists in Pat Hogan’s distinctive handwriting, along with equipment such as suppository moulds, pill makers, a mortar and pestle, vintage weights, measures and scales, all form part of the exhibition, together with a number of display cards including ones for Old Spice, Salvador Dali Perfume, Dimotapp, Coty Fragrance and Vichy. Original furnishings from the shop, including a prescription desk and an antique set of drawers, are also included. A wide range of cameras from the 1950s to the 1990s, as well as signs for Selo Film, Kodak and Agfa Gevaert, are also included. Vintage cosmetic jars such as the Dorothy Gray range, along with perfume bottles and cosmetic compacts, are also on display.

When launching the collection, Senator Maria Byrne (a cousin of Marie McConn and Elenora Hogan), remembered her visits to the pharmacy during her childhood at 45, and subsequently 46 Upper William Street. She referred to the changes in the role of the pharmacist over the years and the Government’s commitment to the development of the profession’s role in the community in the future. Acknowledging the involvement of the Hogans in the Irish Pharmacy Union she referred to Mr Hogan’s membership of the first National Executive Committee of the IPU in the 1970s, and Marie McConn’s role as the first female President of the Union from 2000 to 2002.

The People’s Museum, a Limerick Civic Trust Project, is open daily (excluding Monday), from 10.00am to 4.00pm, and on Sunday from 12.00pm to 4.00pm.