EPIC THE IR­ISH EM­I­GRA­TION MU­SEUM

Hot Press - - Dublin’s Historic Docklands - CHQ, Cus­tom House Quay, Dublin Tel: (01) 906 0861 epic­chq.com / irish­fam­i­ly­his­to­rycen­tre.com

Since open­ing its doors in 2016, the award-win­ning EPIC: The Ir­ish Em­i­gra­tion Mu­seum has quickly be­come one of the most pop­u­lar vis­i­tor at­trac­tions in the cap­i­tal – a must-visit for tourists and lo­cals alike. Look­ing to dis­cover what it is to be truly Ir­ish? Look no fur­ther.

The mu­seum’s state-of-the-art, fully in­ter­ac­tive ex­hi­bi­tions ex­plore the sto­ries of ad­ven­ture and tragedy that have shaped the nar­ra­tive of Ir­ish em­i­gra­tion. EPIC is also the rst dig­i­tal-only mu­seum in the world. Its hi-tech ex­hibits, the most ad­vanced use of tech­nol­ogy in a mu­seum set­ting in Ire­land, pro­vide a thor­oughly im­mer­sive and won­der­fully en­joy­able look into Ir­ish his­tory.

Over the cen­turies, an es­ti­mated 10 mil­lion-plus peo­ple have left Ire­land’s shores. Some left as a re­sult of famine, oth­ers re­li­gious per­se­cu­tion, and more again as eco­nomic mi­grants. Many de­parted from the banks of the River Lif­fey at Cus­tom House Quay just out­side the mu­seum. EPIC pre­serves these sto­ries and traces the in uence and far-reach­ing im­pact that the Ir­ish di­as­pora has sub­se­quently ex­erted on the world be­yond the Emer­ald Isle.

“EPIC’s pur­pose is to tell un­told, epic sto­ries in a unique, highly en­ter­tain­ing and in­for­ma­tive way,” EPIC’s Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor, Mervyn Greene, says. “It pro­vides the op­por­tu­nity to cel­e­brate and en­hance the con­nec­tiv­ity be­tween Ire­land and those who left, but bene tted from be­ing Ir­ish. It also en­ables those with no con­nec­tion to Ire­land or its di­as­pora to have the op­por­tu­nity to un­der­stand the story of the Ir­ish peo­ple, and why em­i­gra­tion looms so large in the Ir­ish con­scious­ness, both in the past and to­day.”

In­side the mu­seum, 20 in­ter­ac­tive gal­leries guide you through 1,500 years of Ir­ish his­tory. Here you will learn about the ex­tra­or­di­nary in uence of the Ir­ish

abroad in pol­i­tics, busi­ness, science, sport and the arts; how the tech­nol­ogy of to­day has com­pletely changed the em­i­grant ex­pe­ri­ence; and how the legacy of Ir­ish em­i­gra­tion has helped spread and shape Ir­ish cul­ture and tra­di­tions not just in other coun­tries and so­ci­eties but also back in Ire­land.

Vis­i­tors can in­ter­act and en­gage with the mu­seum’s touch screen tech­nol­ogy, gaining won­der­ful in­sights into the ex­pe­ri­ence of Ir­ish em­i­grants through the re­mark­able medium of the let­ters they sent home. You can also nd out how Ir­ish mu­sic has in uenced ev­ery­thing from pop to rock, while putting your feet to work, fol­low­ing in the steps of the world-fa­mous River­dance.

Other high­lights in­clude the Rogue’s Gallery of the good, the bad and the in­fa­mous; and the Whis­per­ing Li­brary, wherein you can lis­ten out for some words of wis­dom from Ire­land’s most fa­mous au­thors. The mu­seum also houses the

Ir­ish Fam­ily His­tory Cen­tre, with a team of ge­neaol­ogy ex­perts ready and will­ing to help vis­i­tors ex­plore their roots.

EPIC pro­vides a great fam­ily ex­pe­ri­ence, with fre­quent events for young chil­dren and talk­ing points for cu­ri­ous teenagers. It is fully ac­ces­si­ble through­out. Mul­ti­lan­guage au­dio guides are avail­able in French, Ger­man, Ir­ish, Ital­ian, Man­darin, Pol­ish and Span­ish, and the free au­dio app can be down­loaded from the App Store or Google Play.

There are guided tours for groups, and through­out the mu­seum, friendly

EPIC guides are on hand to bring the sto­ries to life and ex­plain their his­tor­i­cal signi cance. Top­ping it all off, there are also ex­cel­lent gifts and sou­venirs avail­able for pur­chase.

Quite sim­ply, EPIC is a bril­liant ex­pe­ri­ence not to be missed.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Ireland

© PressReader. All rights reserved.