EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum
Spend a day
as an Irish Immigrant
Do you want an unforgettable experience in Dublin? Are you a traveler or just curious? You cannot miss this beautiful museum. It was awarded as the European Museum of the year in 2018 and it is the only museum to be totally interactive.
We decided to go there at 4.30 and it was a bad moment for decisions, because almost all the museums start closing at 5, fortunately the last entrance is permitted until 5pm. You need to have unless 90 minutes to spend here, your brain needs to be open for a new way of thinking. Going through all the 20 rooms you have to get rid of any prejudice, following the melody of the melancholy and the happiness of the people who went to different place, especially during the famine period.
The location is pretty unusual for a museum, you have to walk in the CHQ shopping Centre and find the desk. Maybe you have to queue, it depends on the time. We went at the front desk, this is one of the few attraction where you have to pay a fee, for students and underage people is 13£. Than we follow the lines on the floor and we went through another desk, a girl asked us to show the tickets and then she gave us our passport to bring in every room and print as a record of the journey.
Ready to start?
We took the lift to the basement floor, it is like going to the underground. I felt as the first time under Naples, in Italy but just the beginning. The first room is “AN OPEN ISLAND”, both walls have a big screen on, we had the impression of staying at the cinema and watching a 3d movies. There was a little description telling why the choice of landscapes as first room. The reason is the memory of lot of immigrants forced to leave. One of the best phrase we find out about this is “For those who left, Ireland is a beautiful, often mythologized, homeland.” We printed the passport and we kept going.
The second room is “LEAVING THE ISLAND”, in there is an iron huge boat in the middle and a some televisions showing pictures and videos of the departures.
. Going on the third room “ARRIVING IN A NEW WORLD”, this room is like a languages wall, all around there are black spaces with different phrases written in Spanish, German, French, Chinese and others. We managed to find that one in Italian and took a picture as a souvenir. We printed and we continued the visit.
The fourth room is “BELIEF”, entering in this room made us a little bit sad, on the main walls there is a video showing the most important people that left Ireland. You can heard the story of Annie Moore, John Boyle O Reilly, Isabella McDougall, Thomas Quinn, Donall Mac Amhlaigh, Anne Carey.
There are also some old luggages where you can sit on.
Fifth room “Hunger, Work, Community”, is related to the sixth “Conflict”. Those two are the most impressive rooms, the themes faced are really heavy, but they try to get this part not boring. Putting digital tables where you can choice just the battles you want to see and the curiosity about them.
Passing through the corridors we kept going in the room 7, “State and Society”. On the screen had come all the problems that the people had faced after their arrive in the foreign lands. We have deduced that some of the problem are still alive in our society, the past is not overcome.
We finish here the first part, it has being so powerful and emotive, at the same time extraordinary.it was the first time in a digital museum for us, going on and touching all the screen knowing more in every room was the best way of learning such as difficult themes.
The following rooms are dedicated to sport, room 8 to 10. The biggest is room 10, “Playing the World” interlay adapted to hurling. A uniquely Irish game, it is one of the world’s oldest field sports and has been played in some form in Ireland for more than 800 years. It is often compared to hockey but other than the fact that both games involve a stick and a ball there is no similarity. Some people have called it a mixture of hockey and war!
The eleventh room is something indescribable, the light stars going down and you are catapulted in a different unconscious place. You are completely in your body, on the screens coming on videos on what happens in your veins, all the journey of our blood. If you have a weak stomach skip this room. I am joking, in the middle of the rooms there are four columns highlighted by some light, symbolized the veins. At the end there are others screen about the major physics and doctors of Ireland.
Room 12, “Leading Change”, is inspirational. In this we found on the floor pieces of scratch paper of protest. In this years we don’t know about protest, we life in witness and we are scared of shout. I was addicted in supporting this kind of things and watching videos of protest through 50 years ago, it another story!
They thought everything when they started thinking about the museum, room 14 and 15 are about music, dance, eating and drinking. Are you a professional dancer? Take the chance of learn also the Irish typical dance, there is a model for the positions of the feet on the floor following the entire room. It was a challenge but unfortunately we fail. They have created also an modest Irish pub inside. We suppose that this people are insane, but at the end too funny. The visit is about the end, just four rooms missing.
Room 16 is dedicated to art but especially for children, there a huge space where they can sit and make a drawing with wax colors. We were child in that moment and we left a personalized drawing to the museum.
Room 17 and 18 are both about storytelling, following the voices of Oscar Wild, James Joyce, we found an enormous library with speaking book, it was like being in a magic old fairy tales. Just heading that sounds made us remind about our childhood. It is not just for child but for Peter Pan’s people.
Last room, “Celebration”, it is completely a party. There are a lot of screens showing the day of Saint Patrick in different cities, one time I’ve been in Ney York in that day and it was absolutely insane, really I can’t image how big the celebration here is.
We are really at the end now. It was time to print our last space of the passport and take all the memories in our houses.
It was really amazing, my description may give you just a little part of what you are going to see.
It is worth pay the fee, the result will be an exclusive experience in that young city that has also a heavy past. Enjoy the visit and take a coffee at the end in that strange location, you probably fell so far away from where you really are