History

Authorised by the Ulster Folk Museum Act (Northern Ireland) 1958, the museum was created to preserve a rural way of life in danger of disappearing forever due to increasing urbanisation and industrialisation in Northern Ireland. The 136-acre (55 ha) site the museum occupies was formally the estate of Sir Robert Kennedy and was acquired in 1961. The museum opened to the public for the first time three years later in 1964.^[4]

Exhibits

The Folk Museum houses a variety of old buildings and dwellings which have been collected from various parts of Ireland and rebuilt in the grounds of the museum, brick by brick. The site is devoted to illustrating the rural way of life in the early 20th century, and visitors can stroll through a recreation of the period's countryside complete with farms, cottages, crops, livestock, and visit a typical Ulster town of the time called "Ballycultra", featuring shops, churches, and both terraced and larger housing and a Tea room. Regular activities include open hearth cooking, printing, needlework, and traditional Irish crafts demonstrations. All these new developments have aided UFM in developing a new visitor base and have gained the site international recognition.

The museum is the holder of Northern Ireland's main film, photographic, television and sound archives. The museum holds the BBC Northern Ireland archive of radio and television programmes, and also possesses over 2,000 hours of sound material broadcast between 1972 and 2002 by the Irish language radio station RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, from its studios in Derrybeg, County Donegal. The museum also maintains an archive of Ulster dialects, and a large library containing over 15,000 books and periodicals. The archives and library are open to the public during office hours.

History

The Transport Museum has its origins in Belfast Corporation's preserved collection of historic transport items, which were temporarily exhibited in the 1950s in a former engine shed near Queen's Quay station. This collection was subsequently expanded and moved to new premises on Witham Street, opening on 1 April 1962. In 1967, the Transport Museum was removed from Belfast Corporation ownership when it was merged with the Ulster Folk Museum. An additional 40 acres (16 ha) of land was purchased at Cultra and the first new gallery was opened in May 1976, although most of the collection remained at Witham Street for the time being. In the 1990s, new larger galleries were constructed at Cultra and the rest of the collection was then moved. These were the railway and road galleries, which opened in 1993 and 1996 respectively.^[4][5][6]

Exhibits

The Transport Museum houses an extensive transport collection, and endeavours to tell the story of transport in Ireland, from its early history to the modern era. It is the largest railway collection in Ireland.^[7]

The Irish Railway Collection tells the story of over 150 years of railway history. Steam locomotives, passenger carriages and goods wagons are combined with extensive railway memorabilia, interactive displays and visitor facilities. One of the collection's main attractions is Great Southern Railways Class 800 locomotive No. 800 Maeḋḃ, one of the three largest and most powerful steam locomotives ever to be built and run in Ireland.^[8]

The new Road Transport Galleries boast a large collection of vehicles ranging from cycles and motorcycles to trams, buses, and cars. One of its most famous attractions is a DMC DeLorean car, the model made famous by Back to the Future, and manufactured by the DeLorean Motor Company in Belfast. Recent additions to the collection include a full set of Stanley Woods racing memorabilia, and two of his bikes. Also on display is a Rex McCandless vehicle and an early Formula 1 racing car. In October of 2023 a collection of 7 racing motorbikes from local racers, including Joey Dunlop, was opened in the Driven gallery of the museum, as examples of the long history of road racing in Northern Ireland.^[9]

The museum boasts a permanent Titanic exhibition, documenting the construction, voyage, and eventual sinking of the ill-fated vessel. The ship has long been associated with Northern Ireland, as it was constructed in the Harland and Wolff shipyards, just a few miles from the museum. The newly refurbished Titanic exhibition, tying in with the Folk museum's 'Titanic Trail' is titled TITANICa.^[10] Also on the nautical theme, there is the 120 ton steel schooner Result.

The aircraft on display is the Shorts manufactured Short SC.1, an experimental vertical take-off aeroplane, only two of which were ever produced. The example in the museum, XG905, crashed in 1963, ending up upside down and killing its pilot. It was, however, repaired and flown again before eventually being preserved by the museum.^[11]

Railway and tramway vehicles

Other museums

• Beamish Museum – County Durham, England
• Black Country Living Museum – Dudley, England
• List of transport museums
• Ulster Museum – Belfast
• St Fagans National History Museum – Museum of Welsh Life, Cardiff, Wales.