The best way to understand Ireland’s rich cultural, political, geographical and social history is through one of the country’s many outstanding heritage centres, and the following are just a sample of what’s on offer…

TRY:

• Cobh –  The Queenstown Story is a fascinating multi-media exhibition, which retraces the steps of the two-and-a-half million people who emigrated from the port of Cobh in Cork. Incidentally, this was also the last port of call for the ill-fated Titanic and Lusitania. 
  
• Dublinia brings the capital’s turbulent history to life and allows visitors to step right back to medieval Dublin.
  
• The Ulster American Folk Park, County Tyrone, is an open-air museum telling the story of emigration from Ulster to America in the 18th and 19th Centuries and provides visitors with a "living history" experience on its outdoor site. Costumed demonstrators go about their everyday tasks in the traditional manner in authentically furnished Old and New World buildings.
  
• The Brú Ború Theatre at the foot of the Rock of Cashel is a celebration of native Irish song, dance, music, theatre and Celtic studies. 
  
• St. Patrick’s Trian is an exciting visitor complex located in the heart of Armagh City and incorporates three major exhibitions: The Armagh Story: traces Armagh’s historic Pagan monuments through to the coming of Saint Patrick to the modern day city; Patrick’s Testament: takes a closer look at our patron Saint; The Land of Lilliput: Jonathan Swift’s most famous book, “Gulliver’s Travels” is narrated by a 20-ft giant.
  
• Craggaunowen –  The Living Past tells the story of the arrival of the Celts to Ireland and shows how they lived, worked and died.
  
• The Famine Museum  at Strokestown Park, County Roscommon, is housed within a wonderful 18th Century Palladian house and is regarded as the single best, private archive on the Great Irish Famine in the world. 
  
• The Somme Heritage Centre examines Ireland’s role in the first world war and includes a “time-tunnel” to take you back to Ireland in the 1910s, as well as a “dug-out” explaining about life in the trenches plus a front-line trench from which visitors can look out over ‘No Man’s Land’. 
  
• The Ulster Folk and Transport Museum illustrates the way of life and the traditions of the people of the North of Ireland. The award-winning galleries of the Transport Museum display Ireland’s most comprehensive transport collections from horse-drawn carts to Irish built motor cars.