Taking direction at the Battle of the Boyne centre

Today is July 12th, a great day to visit the Battle of the Boyne visitor centre in Co Meath. It's already proving very popular - even if it is badly signposted, writes Rosita Boland.

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE the importance of ancillary services at a visitor centre. It's a few days before the Battle of the Boyne centre in Co Meath experiences its first actual Battle of the Boyne anniversary, and there are plenty of people here having a look at the State's newest interpretative centre. When I ask some of these visitors what has impressed them most about the centre, at least six different people reply, "the toilets".

"Facilities are really important," explains Maeve Cummins, who is from Five Oaks in Co Meath.

"At the end of the day, people need to be fed and watered and all that," says her husband, Tom Cummins. "No matter what else there is to see in a place."

Bertie Ahern's last official job was to jointly open the Battle of the Boyne visitor centre on May 6th with the North's then first minister Ian Paisley. It was an unusually high-profile opening for an Office of Public Works (OPW) centre, with at least 1,500 invited guests present.

The OPW is aiming for 100,000 visitors for the centre's first year of business. It already look likely to exceed that figure. Since it opened in May, a little over two months ago, 17,886 visitors have come to the centre.

However, today at least four of them have arrived by mistake. Friends Teresa O'Driscoll and Ann Duggan, both from Cork city, are travelling around with old friends now living in Toronto, Gordon and Alma Reeves.

"We were actually trying to find Newgrange," Alma explains. "But we got lost and ended up here because the area is so badly signposted."

"When we got here, we said we might as well go in now since we are here," Duggan says.

One of the elements of the centre is a clever explanatory laser map of the battle, which depicts where the troops were deployed and how they moved around. This gets high praise from the four, as do the gardens, still under development.

"It would be a nice place for a wedding," Duggan suggests. "They have such nice gardens and the toilets are lovely."

Archie and Liz Pollock from Bangor, Co Down, decided to stop off and visit the centre on their way to Dublin.

"I'm a member of the Orange Order," Archie states, explaining why they wanted to visit. "There are only a few people who have read up on the history of the Battle of the Boyne, including my own order. I'll be recommending this place to others by way of a quick history lesson."

Liz likes the way Oldbridge House has been restored. "The place is a good blend of old and new."

Archie has something on his mind. "I wonder, though," he says. "I wonder why was the sudden interest in building this centre so soon after the Troubles - as some people have called it, but which I refer to as a rebellion. All through the rebellion, I didn't think anyone was interested in King William. It would have been more useful to have opened the place 50 years ago."

Bill Murphy from Dunleer, Co Louth, is here with his sons Óisín (1) and Fíonn (3) and niece Margie Kaley (14). Kaley confesses that she walked straight past the walls of text in the centre because they didn't engage her.

"We hadn't covered the battle in history yet, so I knew very little about it. I loved the laser map, though. It showed how the armies moved around and where they went.

"They could have made a lot more of the fact that we're actually on a site here where it all happened," Murphy offers. He thinks the centre and gardens have been too sanitised. "We could be - we probably are - walking over areas where people were killed. You have to cross the river to get here, and you know that it's the same river the soldiers had to ford.

"It's all very well talking about how you can use computers and lasers and technology in museums, but there is nothing to compare with the power of being on the actual site. Are people here today really aware of the fact that part of the battle took place here? I don't think so."

Bad signposting and time wasted finding the location is the gripe of Aileen and Michael Pollard from Omagh in Co Tyrone.

"I'm very disappointed in the signposting. We knew the place was somewhere around here, and we still had difficulty finding it, so I don't know how people find it who are total strangers to the area."

Both the Pollards are amateur historians. "History is our hobby. We're here purely as historians, to see what kind of job they've made of it." Michael and Joan Gilhooley from Wexford also had trouble finding the centre. "It's poorly signposted, there's no doubt about it," Joan declares.

"I think they made a good job of the place, though," Michael says. "It was worth it to the taxpayer. It should have been done a lot earlier, of course, but politically, we weren't in a position to open it."

Joan talks about the way historical links are made with the present.

"We all remember Bertie and Paisley opening the place. They made their link with history doing that. I think it's almost like the Battle of the Boyne had a happy ending."

Tom Hope, Tony Haddrell and Jim Leary are three friends from Rugby, in England. They've been through the centre, and are now sitting in the cafe, finishing lunch. They came over for a long weekend, for a motorbike series, and are heading back later today.

When they hear I'm from The Irish Times, Hope asks, "What is The Irish Times's political agenda on the Battle of the Boyne? Do you approve or disapprove of the centre? Why are you here today? What's the slant of this article?"

I explain again, as I've done already when introducing myself, that the centre has only recently opened, and that I'm here to find out visitor opinion on it.

Then he repeats the question about my newspaper's political agenda on the centre. I tell him there is none.

Hope has another question. Why haven't I asked each of them what nationality and religion they are?

"Well, she already knows we live in England, because we told her," Leary interjects. "We're all Catholic," Hope goes on to announce, in the manner of one producing a large rabbit from a small hat. "I bet that surprises you."

Haddrell corrects him. "Actually, one of us is Protestant." There is a small, rather uncomfortable silence around the table, where the air seems to have turned a little colder since I sat down, at their invitation, some few minutes earlier.

Complaints about signposting. Praise for the toilet facilities. Appreciation of an interpretative centre being located on the site where history occurred. Recognition of the symbolic importance of opening the centre. One visitor whose name for the Troubles is a rebellion.

Another who considers the fact that the centre was jointly opened by leaders from both sides of the border is a positive link with history.

And another visitor who believes his religion should be the subject of a question.

It's only open two months, but the Battle of the Boyne centre is already attracting a wide range of visitors.