On Tuesday 1st December a striking new touring exhibition by Causeway Museum Service will open in Ballymoney Museum.

The exhibition features objects, photographs and archives from the Causeway Museum Service collections, alongside iconic images of the Causeway to interpret the reality of ‘working the Causeway Landscape’ in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. During this period, life in the Causeway and indeed other areas in Ireland were being recorded by early photographers for the Irish Railway companies to attract passengers.

Today these iconic images are still being used throughout the world in the presentation of Ireland. But was all as it seemed? The photographs were  carefully constructed, early photography was a time consuming and unreliable process without the aid of a digital camera.  Do the iconic images portray a realistic interpretation of what it was like to work as an agricultural labourer, mill worker or fisherman during this period? Is it a case of lamenting the loss of ‘the good old days’ with a slower, less industrialised and  more relaxed pace of life or was the hardship experienced by our grandparents and great grandparents a hundred years ago more severe than these early images can show? The Causeway Museum Service invites you to take a trip back in time and judge for yourself.

Ashleigh Kirkpatrick, Collections Access Officer for Causeway Museum Service commented ‘the iconic photographs taken by Welch portray a romantic ideal of life in the Irish countryside at the turn of last century. These images often provoke nostalgia for ‘the good old days’. This exhibition uses the objects and archives in our collections alongside the iconic images of the Causeway to provide an interpretation of the reality of ‘working the Causeway Landscape’. 

The exhibition will run until 30th January 2010, Mon – Sat 9.00am-5.00pm closes and 4.30 on Friday (and closed on public holidays). A family event day will take place in Ballymoney Museum on Saturday 12th December 2.00 – 4.00pm. The event includes traditional demonstrations of spinning, basket making, Irish lace, fly tying, corn dolly making, and story telling.