General Collections highlights

A Century Later: LGBT – A Hidden History

The story of the LGBT community in Northern Ireland over the last 100 years. So much of this history is hidden, often to be found in police records, hospital records and some diaries. It is also very much a living ...

In Our Time – Creating Arts Within Reach

Creating Arts Within Reach

Belfast has seen a remarkable expansion in community arts activity over the last forty years, since the 1970s, putting it at the forefront of the movement within the UK and Ireland to change the way art is seen. It ha...

(Another) Beat Lantern Parade

Will the Beat Initiative be able to bring a large number of people in the community together to perform artistically on a cold winter's evening on the streets of Belfast? Northern Visions went along to the Beat Ini...

Afghanistan: Chronotopia

A discussion between Belfast Exposed and Simon Norfolk on his wonderful exhibition of photographs, a personal vision of a war-ravaged landscape (2004). “I was reminded of the story of Schliemann’s discovery of the ...

Heritage Collections highlights

JB Vallely

Art in Armagh

JB Vallely was born in Armagh in 1941 and apart from a couple of years at the Belfast Art College and Edinburgh, has lived all his life in the city. He was always determined to express himself through painting. “Wh...

Dealing with the Past

Lives affected by the Troubles

Interviews from those whose lives were affected by the Troubles. Alan McBride Alan lost his wife and father-in-law in the Shankill bomb in October 1993, murdered by the IRA. “I’ve been hurt and damaged, I’ve...

Ruth Taillon

Women’s rights and social work

Growing up in post WWII Canada, Ruth left home at an early age: “I left home at a very early age following the hippy trail. I was very interested in music and it was exciting at the time. I quickly got involved with t...

War Stories – The Despatch Rider & The Wren

Memories of WW2.

Interview with husband and wife John and Margaret Gordon. During WW2, John served first in an anti-aircraft artillery role, then as a despatch rider. A veteran of the Dunkirk evacuation, this modest ex-soldier was ...