Return to the museum

Responses

This Exhibition aims to provide a platform for conversation and debate about our recent past. It seeks to explore not only our political history, but also the important social, economic, and cultural changes that were taking place here and around the world.

Get in Touch
Gallery Testimonial Wall

We are very aware that this is a challenging subject to deal with. For younger generations this is history, but for most people it is their lived experience and evokes personal memories, both positive and negative. The legacy of the events of this time is still painfully felt in the present for those most directly affected.

Museums approach the past through their collections. Exhibitions can be very effective, but they are also limited by space and the objects and stories that are available to us. We are working to overcome these limitations through active collecting.

Need Support?

WAVE Trauma Centres provide care and support for people affected by the Troubles in Northern Ireland. If you feel you would like someone to talk to there are centres in Belfast, Armagh, Omagh, Ballymoney and Derry Londonderry offering outreach support, therapy and advice.


The Victims & Survivors Service deliver funding and support to victims and survivors of the Troubles, on behalf of The Executive Office. Visit their website for more information.

Network

The Conflict and Legacy Interpretive Network was established by the Bloody Sunday Trust/Museum of Free Derry, National Museums NI and Healing Through Remembering. The aim was to create a network of museums and heritage organisations specifically covering, or with a defined interest in presenting, conflict and legacy in an ethical way primarily for the social and economic benefit of the communities whose stories are being told and for the wider community.

As you explore this site, what do you feel is missing? Can you help us to broaden the story we tell through sharing your objects, photographs or experiences? If so, we would be interested to hear from you.

Testimonials

Testimonial T&B 1
'Patrick Rooney was the first child to be killed during the Troubles, he was nine and a half years old and he was my brother. During riots on 14th August 1969, we were all in a back room of our flat trying to get shelter from heavy gunfire outside. My mother was injured on the left cheek by a bullet, then my father shouted that he had been shot and Patrick, who had been hiding in a corner of the room, slumped to the ground. My father thought he had fainted at hearing this, but when Patrick was lifted onto the bed we saw that he had been shot in the back of the head. The shot came from a machine gun mounted on an RUC vehicle. Patrick was taken to hospital but died in the early hours of the morning.'
Testimonial 12 T&B
'My name is Henry Cochrane. I was born on 11th September 1958 in north Belfast. I am the middle child of 12 children and had a normal, happy childhood; playing in the streets and parks, as any child would do. In March 1973, myself and five friends were listening to the Top 20 on a pocket radio. At 7.00pm the charts were over and I put the radio back in my pocket. I heard a loud noise and at first I thought it was a car back-firing, but then a car pulled up on the footpath across the road and started to shoot at us indiscriminately. I was shot once in the side and the bullet came out my back, having went through my pocket radio. As a result I now suffer from PTSD and chronic pain. Since the shooting every day is a challenge. My life will never be the same. My pocket radio, with the bullet hole in it, still worked.'
Testimonial T&B 14
'In December 197I, I was a 12-year-old boy, whose father owned McGurk’s, a Catholic bar in Belfast. It was bombed by the UVF, killing 15 people, including my mother, sister and uncle. I was extremely lucky, the only survivor of the attack who wasn’t buried alive. When the bomb exploded, I was in the bathroom, the only part of the entire building which didn’t collapse. I managed to clamber over the mountain of debris to safety, where local women comforted me until the ambulances arrived. I told them not to worry about my mammy and my 14-year-old sister, Maria, because they had gone out to confession at the local church. I kept looking up the street, in the direction of St Patrick’s, expecting to see them arrive back to this scene of horror. But I never saw them again; they must have returned home just a few moments before the bomb went off. If only they had been delayed by another five minutes. . .'
Testimonial T&B 1
'Patrick Rooney was the first child to be killed during the Troubles, he was nine and a half years old and he was my brother. During riots on 14th August 1969, we were all in a back room of our flat trying to get shelter from heavy gunfire outside. My mother was injured on the left cheek by a bullet, then my father shouted that he had been shot and Patrick, who had been hiding in a corner of the room, slumped to the ground. My father thought he had fainted at hearing this, but when Patrick was lifted onto the bed we saw that he had been shot in the back of the head. The shot came from a machine gun mounted on an RUC vehicle. Patrick was taken to hospital but died in the early hours of the morning.'