Museum

The vision for the National Centre is clear in its commitment to honour all survivors and affected persons equally. This commitment involves working closely with all survivors and affected people to ensure that the National Centre reflects their knowledge and diverse experiences. The Centre will provide space and a voice for acknowledging both shared and unique experiences while highlighting pathways and connections among institutions, where appropriate.

The Steering Group has committed to the co-creation of the National Centre museum through collaboration and partnership between survivors, affected persons, and the National Museum of Ireland. To begin the collaboration process, the National Museum of Ireland has invited survivors and affected individuals to participate in Lived Experience Expert Panels. These panels are open to new members and will play a crucial role in guiding the development of the museum element of the National Centre.

If you are interested in joining the Museum’s Lived Experience Expert Panels, or have any questions or feedback, we welcome you to contact museum staff at ncrr@museum.ie.

When the National Centre opens, survivors and affected people will have a role in its governance and ongoing work. The detail of this will be discussed and developed with survivors and affected people.

The Steering Group recognises that the National Centre must be authentic, engaging and grounded in the real life knowledge and experiences of survivors and affected people. .

The National Museum of Ireland is working on a process to enable survivors and affected people to share their lived experience, should they choose to do so, within the context of the museum element of the National Centre.

This process will be trauma-informed, responsive to survivor feedback, and guided by examples of good practices in relevant museums worldwide. The National Museum is currently finalising its policies, strategies and approaches to this important process and will issue an invitation for further engagement once finalised. In the meantime, we welcome anyone who wishes to represent their story in the national collection to contact museum staff at ncrr@museum.ie.

The National Museum of Ireland is collecting items that survivors and affected people wish to contribute to the National Centre. The National Museum is currently finalising its policies and procedures for this important process and will issue a public call for materials once these are finalised.

In the meantime, we welcome anyone who wishes to donate their objects to the national collection to contact museum staff at ncrr@museum.ie.

The National Centre will meet all appropriate standards with respect to universal accessibility, with several internal lifts serving all floors and wheelchair accessibility throughout. There will be wheelchair accessible toilets in a number of locations, proximate and accessible to users of the archives, museum and shared spaces.

There will be dedicated times when the National Centre is only open to survivors and affected people. The National Centre will be a trauma-informed environment with staff from the museum and archive trained appropriately, as it relates to their role.

The vision for the National Centre is clear in its commitment to honour all survivors and affected people equally. The Museum will be inclusive of those who experienced family separation, illegal birth registration and boarded-out arrangements.