Ulster Folk and Transport Museum

Ulster Folk and Transport Museum Review

Devoted to the province's social history, the excellent Ulster Folk and Transport Museum vividly brings Northern Ireland's past to life. Even more visitors will be heading here through 2012 as the museum is participating in the Belfast commemorations of the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic by hosting a huge exhibition entitiled "TITANICa: The People's Story." As for the permanent displays, the Folk Museum first invites you to visit Ballycultra—a typical Ulster town of the early 1900s—which comes alive thanks to costumed guides who practice such regional skills as lace making, sampler making, spinning, weaving, wood turning, forgework, printing, open-hearth cooking, carpentry, basket making, and needlework. The setting is evocative: a score of reconstructed buildings moved here from around the region, including a traditional weaver's dwelling, terraces of Victorian town houses, an 18th-century country church, a village flax mill, a farmhouse, and a rural school. Across the main road (by footbridge) is the beautifully designed Transport Museum, where exhibits include locally built airplanes and motorcycles, as well as the iconoclastic car produced by former General Motors whiz kid John DeLorean in his Belfast factory in 1982. The museum is on the 70 acres of Cultra Manor, encircled by a larger park and recreation area.

As for "TITANICa: The People's Story," this ?1-million photographic and artifact exhibition explores the liner's history and reflects the significance of the centenary. More than 500 original artifacts are on display as well as letters, brochures, and postcards, and there's even a first-class chamber pot from the great liner itself. A trail links the permanent transportation galleries to the special People's Story show temporarily set up in the outdoor Folk Museum. The show promises that visitors can explore the living history experience of the Titanic and its times through people's daily routines with the main spotlight thrown on hearing stories in the period before, during, and after the maiden voyage of the doomed ocean liner.