Workhouse Museum Review

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Workhouse Museum

Fodor's Review:

Across the River Foyle from the city walls, the Workhouse Museum was built in 1832 as an institution to alleviate poverty but became the end of the road for people who had tried in vain to make their lives better. During the famine years (1845-49), the city was the main emigration port for Northern Ireland, and many families came to Derry hoping to get on a boat. Instead, unable to afford the trip, they ended up applying for aid at the Workhouse, where hard labor earned a bed and food. Many families were separated once inside, and this was often the last time children saw their parents alive. From the beginning to the end of the famine, 1½ million people left Ireland and 1 million died. The museum details life in the Workhouse and has some thoughtful exhibits about famine in general.

Many of the descendants of those who left came back during World War II: thousands of U.S. servicemen arrived in the city in 1942 to turn it into a base for the Battle of the Atlantic. Exhibits on the top two floors of the Workhouse chronicle the story of that battle, from the Yanks' arrival in the January rain (which prompted one of them to ask if the city's barrage balloons were actually there to stop the place from sinking) through the end of the war, when 64 U-boats lined up in the harbor to surrender. By 1946 the city's biggest export was G.I. brides. There's a space for traveling exhibitions that change regularly; call for details.

  • Cost: Free
  • Open: Mon.-Thurs. and Sat. 10:30-4:30
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