Nora Niland

Nora Niland (21 March 1912 – 29 December 1988) She oversaw the expansion of the library when it moved into three buildings on Stephen Street in the 1950s. She opened the Sligo County Museum in 1955, and added works by Jack B. Yeats to the collection in 1957. She helped to organize the first International Yeats Summer School in Sligo in 1959, and was a founding member of the Yeats Society Sligo.

Upon her retirement she returned to live in Ballinastack. She died at St. James's Hospital, Dublin, in 1988, at the age of 76. and often with donations.

In 1998, on the tenth anniversary of her death, the gallery was moved to what had been the Model School on the Mall, Sligo and renamed in her honour as ‘The Model and Niland Gallery’. In 2009 it was renamed again to ‘The Model: Home of the Niland Collection’ (though this decision was criticized ). In 2023, there was an exhibit titled "Nora Niland: A Collector's Eye" held at the gallery. The 2023 exhibit included a new portrait of Niland. The Yeats Society Sligo hosts an annual Nora Niland Lecture.