Falls Community Council hosted an important cross-community visit to their new permanent exhibition about the conflict.
The Community Relations Council supports the organisation through its Core Funding Scheme.
Community participants were from organisations with whom Falls Council has built strong relationships over many years. The exhibition has been several years in the making.
This visitor experience, entitled The Falls – Where The Troubles Began, was always a key part of the development of the St Comgall’s community enterprise building on Divis Street in Belfast, which has restored the old school to an award-winning public event space and offices. The exhibition tells the story of the outbreak of the conflict on the streets that surrounded the St Comgall’s school and also recounts the development of the peace process in the area.
This project was funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and curated by Falls Community Council working with Redhead, using the principles developed for the Decade of Centenaries in the design. These include the values of starting from historical facts and acknowledging diverse perspectives. The exhibition features contributions from the Dúchas Oral History Archive, as well as film and photography courtesy of the Belfast Archive Project, BBC, NI Screen and RTÉ archives.
After attending the exhibition, the cross-community group came together to discuss the exhibition and give individual feedback. All said they would recommend it to family, friends and colleagues. In answer to a question about the impact of the exhibition these were some of the responses:
The multimedia historical narratives which challenged my perspective of events from the period.
The film and testimonies made the most impact. It visualised the era in a non historical way.
It brought to life parts of history that I didn’t know.
I am a visual learner so the film and headsets were great.
I lived through it and it changed my life for ever.
The exhibition can be booked through Visit Belfast or directly through St Comgall’s – Ionad Eileen Howell, Divis Street, Belfast BT14 3AQ.
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