Museum will open August Bank Holiday with lots of activities for children

Newry and Mourne Museum will be open to the public 29 August, Bank Holiday Monday from 10.00am until 4.30pm, with activities for younger guests.

Staff will host two shield arts and crafts workshops for children aged 5 to 11. Inspired by Council’s logo children will learn more about heraldry, the medieval system of identification used during battle, which developed into the art form used in creating family coats of arms and crests. They will get the chance to create a new family crest (or use the old one) and make their own shield and fridge magnets.

These sessions at, 10.30am until 12pm and at 1.30 until 3pm, are free of charge, but numbers are limited and pre-booking of places is advisable. An adult must accompany children. If you wish to book or you require more information, please email Declan.Carroll@nmandd.org.

For visitors who wish to take a stroll through the galleries, the Museum provides FREE audio guides in English, Irish, French German which provide more information on the Castle and the exhibits. A tour aimed at children in the age range 7-12 is now available in English and Irish.

The Museum is housed at Bagenal’s Castle, a 16-century fortified house, one of Newry’s oldest buildings. The castle’s early history, closely connected with the Nine Years War, the Flight of the Earls and the Ulster Plantation, places Newry at the centre of a seminal period in Irish history. The main exhibitions in the Museum include prehistoric material, Newry as a merchant town, the working life of the area and modern experiences of living in a Border area.

You can visit the temporary exhibition ‘War Declared: the local impact of World War II’, which looks at the impact of the conflict on Newry and Mourne. The exhibition also considers the effect of the war on the local economy, especially in the context of a Border community, and the legacy of war in the area in the later 1940s and 1950s. This exhibition will close on 10 September.

Visitors can also see the new temporary exhibition ‘The Legacy: Newry 1920 - 1930’, which examines how the Newry and Mourne area was affected by the events that shaped modern Ireland, from the War of Independence, the Treaty negotiations, Partition, the Civil War and of course being on the northern side of the border after the Boundary Commission report in 1925.

For opening hours, information on events, upcoming exhibitions and other services please telephone 0330 137 4422.