News & Press

2026

Three women standing side-by-side in front of cream and green exhibition graphics saying 'Under the Hawthorn Tree.' The woman on the left wears glasses and her hair is straight - she is holding a book by the same name, in Irish. The woman in the middle also wears glasses and shoulder length hair, also holding a copy of her book (she is the author). The woman on the right as short styled hair, she is wearing a neck scarf and cream blazer and she poses with an English cover of the same book.

Classic Irish novel, Under the Hawthorn Tree, brought to life at Ulster American Folk Park

31.03.2026

Under the Hawthorn Tree, a new, immersive exhibition inspired by one of Ireland’s most beloved children’s stories, has officially opened at the Ulster American Folk Park.

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News

Hidden History: Harland & Wolff Ship Plans Archive Fully Accessible for first time

31.03.2026

National Museums NI has unlocked the archive’s potential as an innovation and heritage resource for future generations

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Two grey aluminium sculptures on the façade of Ulster Museum

News

'Flying Figures' fly again as Ulster Museum installs iconic sculptures on its façade

24.03.2026

Elisabeth Frink’s much-loved Flying Figures - also known as the Airborne Men - have been installed on the outside of the museum building, marking their first appearance since being gifted to the museum by Ulster Bank in 2023.

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2025

Inside an old times US Post Office. Lots of wood and parcels on shelves, a white sign says US Post Office in black. A red material banner with Merry Christmas letters stitched on it is hung from each corner of a wooden counter stall.

News

From Ulster to America: The making of modern Christmas

22.12.2025

Ulster American Folk Park explores the origins of our festive traditions

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A group of older people who founded Ireland’s first urban Gaeltacht at Shaws Road in Belfast with two representatives from the Ulster Museum flanking them.

News

How Do You Create a Community? The Inspiring Story of Ireland’s First Urban Gaeltacht Comes to the Ulster Museum

12.12.2025

The Ulster Museum presents ‘How Do You Create a Community? The Inspiring Story of Belfast’s First Urban Gaeltacht’, an exhibition developed in partnership with Spórtlann na hÉireann’s GaelStair project, that explores one of the most remarkable linguistic and cultural revivals in modern European history.

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A group of 16 people, some seated, some standing, inside a museum store. The storage racks are in the background.

News

Makers selected for contemporary craft exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland and Ulster Museum

09.12.2025

New, contemporary craft works inspired by the collections of National Museums Scotland and National Museums NI will be displayed in a collaborative exhibition, opening at the National Museum of Scotland in summer 2027, then at the Ulster Museum in early 2028. 

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The main focus of the picture is on a report titled 'Trans-Inclusive Culture'. The book cover is coloured blue and pink-purple and is in the hands of a woman wearing silver rings and has pink nails, as she flicks through the document. You can make out a woman in a black and white dress sitting in the background of the picture..

News

National Museums NI joins partnership backed by Art Fund to advance trans inclusion

19.05.2025

The University of Leicester's Research Centre for Museums and Galleries (RCMG) has established a partnership supported by Art Fund – the national charity for art – with leading UK museums, galleries and heritage organisations to support a bold and ambitious step change in the capacity and confidence of the UK’s culture sector to advance trans inclusion.

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2024

Chief Executive of National Museums NI, Kathryn Thomson, dressed in a black jumpsuit, shakes hands with Princess Anne as she receives an awards. Princess Anne wears a tan coloured blazer, neck scarf and gloves.

News

National Museums NI recognised by Princess Royal Training Awards

29.11.2024

Now established as a prestigious and sought-after accolade, this year’s Princess Royal Training Awards attracted 127 applications from across the UK and Ireland with 52 winners - National Museums NI being one of them.

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Communities Minister Gordon Lyons & Kathryn Thomson, Chief Executive of National Museums NI

News

Communities Minister commends engineering heritage at museum visits

15.11.2024

Communities Minister Gordon Lyons has visited the Ulster Folk Museum and the Ulster Transport Museum. As part of the visits, Minister Lyons viewed the latest exhibit in the impressive transport collection.

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News

Voices of '74: Ulster Museum unveils powerful oral history project

25.10.2024

The online project draws on the importance of oral history to document the memories and experiences of the past, in order to encourage conversations about the future

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2023

The back of a person standing looking at a Peruzzi painting on a blue painted wall with down lighting

News

Christmas Gift to the Nation

12.12.2023

Rare painting by the Italian artist Peruzzi - the only surviving work by the artist in the UK - goes on display at the Ulster Museum. The Nativity dates back to the 16th century and was acquired by National Museums NI in 2022.

Three people dressed in dark clothes in a grassy area with trees in the background and two of them are standing near signs that promote an environmental and biodiversity message - 'meadow in progress' and 'let it bee'.

News

CEDaR unveils 10-year business plan to combat environmental and biodiversity crisis

4.12.2023

CEDaR is the Centre for Environmental Data and Recording and is a longstanding partnership between National Museums NI, DAERA, NIEA and the recording community in Northern Ireland.

Costumed guide at the Ulster Folk Museum holding a pitch fork on the farm during a learning programme for schools. Seven school children dressed in white t-shirts all have their backs to the camera, as they're interacting with the guide.

News

Ulster Folk Museum awarded the national Heritage Education Trust Sandford Award for the first time

10.11.2023

Ulster Folk Museum has been awarded the prestigious Sandford Award which recognises the high standard of our educational programme for schools.

2022-2019

Conservation Fellow at the National Gallery seated restoring Baldassare Tommaso Peruzzi's The Nativity.

News

Ulster Museum to be gifted Peruzzi’s The Nativity

24.12.2022

The incredibly rare sixteenth century work has been acquired by National Museums NI, in Christmas gift to the nation.

Attendees at an event held today at Ulster Museum.

News

Human Rights Day: Conflict textiles pieces acquired by National Museums NI

9.12.2022

Transnational textiles representing the personal experiences of those affected by conflict, including within Northern Ireland, taken into Ulster Museum's collection.

a man and two women beside a christmas tree

News

Art Unwrapped is back for its fifth consecutive year

9.12.2022

The annual ‘gift to the city’ will be on display at Ulster University’s new Belfast Campus.