Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

The refurbished Ulster Museum’s planned Troubles exhibition is much smaller than expected. Is it a case of ‘don’t mention the war’?

THIS WEEK, the Ulster Museum – known locally as “the culture bunker”, because of its brooding Brutalist concrete exterior – reopened after a £17 million refurbishment. The iconic building appears to have undergone a glossy television-style makeover: the dark warren of the original galleries has been replaced with open spaces, unadorned white walls, glass walkways and polished steel. There’s a distinct emphasis on instant visual impact – “Window on our World”, a four-storey display tower, aims to provide a snapshot of the collections, with dinosaur skeletons, a vintage car and an Irish high cross. And the new interactive zones allow visitors to handle the skull of a two-headed calf, or try on Victorian corsets and crinolines.