Local Museums

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Thursday 5th March 2026 Westminster Hall

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Lewell. I thank the hon. Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) for leading the debate. She has done it again: she has brought an excellent debate to Westminster Hall. Whenever she speaks, she always draws a crowd, so well done to her—we can see the number of people here.

Local museums are terribly crucial for society. Far beyond the displaying of artefacts, they safeguard a community’s history, traditions and collective memory— I know that my community is so proud of ours. Northern Ireland in general, but specifically my constituency of Strangford, is steeped in culture and history. For being only 104 years old, we have made our mark in ensuring that future generations understand their roots.

There is currently a debate in the main Chamber about Commonwealth troops in the first world war. We have a museum at Conlig where we commemorate the battle of the Somme in particular, with the artefacts and all that goes with that. It opened in 1994, and was built with the help of grants to commemorate the involvement of the 36th (Ulster) Division, the 16th (Irish) Division and the 10th (Irish) Division. Since 2000, the museum has expanded to cover the second world war and other modern international conflicts. The museum has an extensive collection of materials from the great war, and in the last number of years has grown its collection of world war two artefacts, including with a large oral history archive.

I am very proud of what we have there. It is a much loved centre for all sorts of school and educational visits. I loved history at school—it was the only subject that I managed to do well in, to be honest. The fact of the matter is that children love history as well, and we should be teaching them all about it.

I should also mention the constituency of my right hon. Friend the Member for Belfast East (Gavin Robinson), which has the Ulster Folk Museum, the Ulster Transport Museum and a museum to commemorate the Titanic. The Titanic Museum is where my staff member Ashley got married last year. She has now been married some 16 months and is still smiling, and that sounds pretty good.

The Ulster Folk Museum brings Ulster’s rural and urban history to life, set over a large site with reconstructed buildings, streets and countryside scenes. There is even a section where people can watch proper Ulster soda bread being made. I do not know whether anyone knows what Ulster soda is, but there is nothing as nice as an Ulster soda that has been baked and cooked there and then, with a big dollop of butter on top. It really makes me feel that life is a good place to be. There is also the St Patrick Centre in Downpatrick, and the Schomberg Society in Kilkeel, which was formed in 1998 by a group of Ulster-Scots enthusiasts, of which I am one. There, we celebrate the culture, heritage, language and traditions from the kingdom of Mourne and beyond.

Museums partner directly with schools to align visits and activities with the national and local curriculum. This often piques the interest of young people, and gives them a vision of the industry offered. For me, that is mostly what museums are about: the young people of today learning for tomorrow. We can learn from history, and learn what history can teach us, and thereby hopefully not make the same mistakes that have been made many a time. It is also a fun way to learn—it is not sitting in a classroom, reading endless pages of history—and it is visual and interactive, giving children the opportunity to learn in a different way.

Many museums rely solely on grants and donations, and today’s debate is a fantastic opportunity to remind the Government and the Minister in particular—it is lovely to see him in his place—of the need for long-term sustainability. Whether it be a museum here in London, a locally run museum in Belfast, the Somme Museum in Newtownards or anywhere else, they all deserve the opportunity to remain. I hope we can do more to protect them and properly fund them.