The museum itself was far smaller than I thought it'd be. It was a total of three rooms. One downstairs, which was slightly larger than my apartment (which is fairly normal-sized for Ireland); and two upstairs, which were slightly less than half of the room downstairs.
Downstairs was a look at traditional butter making, complete with a six minute video showing how it was done. There were also many artefacts relating to the various stages of butter making. The other video in this room was about the modern butter industry. The Irish Dairy Board, oversees much of the butter production in Ireland & helped establish the Dairy Science programme at UCC. Yes, you can get a degree in dairy science.
Upstairs is what interested me more: history! In one room they talked about ancient butter making. And how butter has been discovered in bogs: "butter often rancid seasoned with garlic" -- apparently this was either an acquired taste or a ritual, it's unclear which. The other discussed the butter trade in Cork. Apparently most of the world (including the US, South America, Australia, India, etc) got their butter from Cork...until refrigeration forced the Butter Market to lose business and close by the 1930s.
So, was it worth my €2.50? I think so. I mean, I did have the whole museum to myself since it's not tourist season -- & it was raining. But, really, I could've learned most of what the museum had to offer online: http://www.activate.ie/sites/corkcitylib/commercial/cork_butter_museum.htm. Sadly, there were no butter samples, no hands-on activities, no real gift shop either. But, it did make for an interesting afternoon. :)
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