NI War Memorial gains support from The National  Lottery Heritage Fund for redevelopment

The Northern Ireland War Memorial has received initial support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for a new project - Home Front Museum: Northern Ireland 1939-1945. It aims to redevelop the permanent museum exhibition in Talbot Street, Belfast and make it a more accessible, engaging space for visitors to explore the story of Northern Ireland’s key role in the Second World War.

This Heritage Fund grant will allow the organisation to plan for the future with a redesigned exhibition featuring the latest museum standard equipment and technology, ensuring that Northern Ireland’s wartime heritage continues to be properly interpreted and conserved for the benefit of future generations.

Since first opening to the public in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter in 2007, the Northern Ireland War Memorial’s current exhibition has welcomed tens of thousands of visitors to the free museum, including primary schoolchildren and community groups.

During that time the museum collection has continued to grow, with nearly 7,000 artefacts now on the premises, only a fraction of which can be currently displayed in the existing gallery. The museum hopes to continue expanding the collection to represent the whole of Northern Ireland’s wartime story, including collecting material from west of the River Bann and items relating to international forces stationed in the region such as Canadian and Belgian forces.

The museum has a growing oral history collection featuring over 400 recorded interviews with people sharing their experiences and memories of the Second World War. This is particularly important given the passing of time as the war moves from living memory. The collection features both personal stories and also descriptions of experiences such as the Blitz, the arrival of American forces, evacuees, smuggling across the border and rationing.

Development funding of £77,400 has been awarded by the Heritage Fund to help the Northern Ireland War Memorial progress their plans and later apply for a full grant of £889,260. The project will:

• improve the museum’s accessibility by reconfiguring the main entrance and toilet facilities
• invite people to input into the redesign of the Home Front exhibition, ensuring that it reflects the local experience of the Second World War in an inclusive, accessible way.
• continue building on the success of its oral history project by employing additional staff to help preserve recorded memories and stories of the Second World War
• deliver increased outreach as part of its popular education programme.

It also hopes to run a community archaeology project at a wartime defence heritage site.

Don Bigger, chairman of the Northern Ireland War Memorial, said: “We are extremely grateful to have received this initial support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

“Thanks to National Lottery players we can now move forward with our plans to redesign and refit our museum exhibition. Our vision is to be an engaging and welcoming museum that provides a window on Northern Ireland’s key role in the Second World War and the impact of the war on its people.

“A new exhibition will use our collection to tell the human stories that are at the heart of our commemorations this year for the 85th anniversary of the Belfast Blitz.

“The museum gallery will be redesigned in line with environmental best practice and the project will strengthen the organisation’s sustainability by allowing us to connect in new and innovative ways with our audiences from across Northern Ireland and further afield.”

Dr Paul Mullan, Northern Ireland director at The National lottery Heritage Fund said: “We’re pleased to support Northern Ireland’s only museum that focuses on the Second World War with funding to develop plans for its exhibition and share more first-hand accounts of how people here were affected by and contributed to the war.

“Its central location is an authentic place to tell the Belfast Blitz story and by making it more accessible the Northern Ireland War Memorial Museum will be able to engage the community and expand its education and outreach activity to reach new audiences.”