Caroline's oral history was taken in 1983 by Anthony Buckley.
To date, we have been unable to locate a copyright holder for this recording despite every reasonable effort having been made to trace them. If you have any information regarding this please contact picture.library@nationalmuseumsni.org
🍃 Life is like the Seasons by Caroline Watson, 1983.
Caroline's poem will guide you through the colours of Autumn, the snow-topped pine trees of Winter, finishing with a promise of a soft, green Spring - the season we are all yearning for.
#SoundArchive #UlsterFolkMuseum
Have you ever heard of an #EasterCakeDance? 🎂💃
During the Easter festivities, some families enjoyed dancing outdoors if the weather was nice. This sometimes took the form of a contest where a large, specially baked cake was the prize. This Easter dance contest was called a “cake dance”.
A cardboard Easter egg. The decoration is a creepy looking face in the middle of what might have intended to be a yolk, or a sun. The creepy face is smiling.
A photograph showing the cardboard Easter egg's two halves. The inside is cardboard with bits of lace paper around the seam.
From all of us at the Folk Museum (and also the grown-up Teletubby baby), happy Easter!
🥚: A cardboard Easter egg from Sloan's Draper's shop in Kilkeel, HOYFM.159.1982B.
A woman decoractes an egg for easter, gluing little red flowers on top for texture. She sits at a table full of craft items.
A woman, smiling, stands behind a young girl whose hand made Easter bonnet she is helping adjust. The bonnet has big bright flowers made of crepe paper. A younger child stans to the right, also wearing a bright Easter bonnet with crepe flowers.
The two girls in the previous photo with their easter bonnets pose for a photograph, while their parents smile on at them.
🥚 #Easter was generally perceived as a hopeful and joyous time of the year. Along with the longer days and brighter nights it brought a sense of the ‘new’.
Read more about Easter Traditions → bit.ly/3QggJ4M
Pictured - A Nostalgic Easter; Quilling, Making Easter Bonnets
A beautiful postcard from 1906 showing two hands shaking in friendship. The hands are surrounded by clover and delicate blue bunches of flowers. It has been defaced by the Digital Media team on Canva, a photo editing software, so that one hand now reads 'Ulster Folk Museum', the other reads 'Buckinghamshire Archives', and in the middle where the hands meet it says 'having cool postcards'.
A postcard showing a young couple dressed in early 1900s clothing. The caption reads: Onions: tears without grief. He - 'I was to blame'. She - 'No, no. 'Twas I.'
A postcard showing a young couple dressed in early 1900s clothing. They are in a river, with the man holding the woman above water. The caption reads: Beans: Sustaining. 'have no fear, I will support you'.
Were these postcards the original memes?! We have a full greengrocer's worth in our collection that were sent to different people!
Last week 60 amazing volunteers planted 1000 native trees @ulsterfolkmuseum.org 🌳
Thanks to everyone who was involved
& also @tcvnational.bsky.social, Woodland Trust & National Museums NI. Happy to see oak, hazel, alder, cherry & rowan saplings in our woodland ahead of international day of forests🌱
Caroline's oral history was taken in 1983 by Anthony Buckley. To date, we have been unable to locate a copyright holder for this recording despite every reasonable effort having been made to trace them. If you have any information regarding this please contact picture.library@nationalmuseumsni.org
🌱 Untitled (Springtime in Ireland) by Caroline Watson, 1983.
In our Sound Archive, we're honoured to have a recording of Caroline Watson reciting her poetry.
This one was inspired by #spring in Ireland. As our days are getting warmer, brighter & longer, we're delighted to share this gem with you 🌸
🏆 Congratulations to Jessie Buckley for winning Best Actress at the #Oscars!
No Hamnet spoilers, but we were excited to spot a straw knot during an emotional scene.
We asked our talented Visitor Guide Margaret to see if she could help us recreate this Oscar-worthy knot.
#HarvestKnot #HamnetKnot
Irish lace has a rich history spanning nearly 4 centuries. The skills and artistry of the women who made lace live on in examples of Irish lace in collections across the world.
This #InternationalWomen’sDay, explore our lace collection with Valerie Wilson, Curator of Textiles → bit.ly/Irish_Lace
A delicate lace handkerchief with a border of lace, incorporating plant designs including clover.
This handkerchief tells of a small but significant act of Mother Mary Smith to uplift Irish women in the 1800s.
The handkerchief has a border of Youghal needlepoint lace. Youghal lace was developed by Mother Smith of Presentation Convent, Youghal, to provide employment for women in the local area.
Born 175 years apart, we brought together two folk bards from County Down through our Library and Archives. Experience folk singer-songwriter Joshua Burnside (b.1989) and Robert Huddleston (b.1814) through music and storytelling in ‘The Folk Bards of Ulster’. www.ulsterfolkmuseum.org/stories/folk...
The first signs of spring @ulsterfolkmuseum.org
Lesser celandine, with its yellow flower & heart shaped leaves signifies “joys to come”. It’s one of the first pollinator food sources to emerge after winter!
Last spring we received 105 records of Ficaria verna. Let us know if you see it this year!
📷 Rowland Street/Tea Lane, June 1974
This terrace of six houses were built in the late 1820s on Rowland Street, off Sandy Row. They were dismantled and moved to the Folk Museum in 1976.
Join Victoria Millar, Senior Curator of History, for a talk on the Tea Lane Houses → bit.ly/4b3rgYa
What do you call a young cow? 🤔🐄
This map illustrates what people call cattle across Ulster.
It looks as though this map may not be fully complete - is the key unfinished? What names would fill in the gaps?
#UlsterFolkMusuem #DialectArchive #Maps #YoungCow
Our lovely Visitor Guide Suzanne is back! This time she's making a four-armed St. Brigid's Cross 😍
Read more about St. Brigid's Day and watch our longer tutorial video → bit.ly/49Pv3ZF
#StBrigidsDay #StBrigidsCross #StBrigid
💥🔨 Spend some time in the forge with our #HeritageBlacksmith Matthew Walton, as he shows us how to make a copper bowl and steel bottle opener.
Watch the full video → bit.ly/4r9BwnY
#Blacksmithing #HeritageSkills
Feeling the effects of Blue Monday?
Worry not - spring is close enough to touch 🫴🌱
Longer days, warmer nights, flowers blooming, and roosters crowing.
(Although, the roosters do that throughout winter, too.)
#BlueMonday
How many doors does your kitchen have? 🤔
This map from 1961 illustrates places in Ulster where people had one door into their kitchen, or two.
We can't quite figure out the meaning of semicircle in the key - do any of you have one and a half doors into your kitchen?
#UlsterDialect #Maps
🔥 Looking for a slow-paced #craft to keep you occupied by the fire this winter?
Join our talented Education Assistant Hannah Ferguson and learn about the art of making a #RagRug, and how to keep this tradition alive → bit.ly/HowTo-RagRug
Samhain Stories from the Sound Archive | EPISODE 4
Our fourth episode of spooky stories from the archives is all about the banshee, whose wails warned that death was near 😱
Have you heard the banshee's lonely cry?
#Halloween #Samhain #Folklore
Samhain Stories from the Sound Archive | EPISODE 3
Introducing the third episode of spooky stories from the archives - we're making a return to GHOST STORIES 👻
We've taken a deep dive into hours of oral history recordings to hear from voices past about the ghosts of Ulster.
#Halloween #Samhain
Samhain Stories from the Sound Archive | EPISODE 2
Introducing our second episode of #spooky stories from the Sound Archive, all about THE DEVIL 😈
We've taken a deep dive into hours of oral history recordings to hear from voices past, sharing their stories about the Devil...
#Halloween #Samhain
Samhain Stories from the Sound Archive | EPISODE 1
Introducing our new series on spooky stories from the archives, and our first episode is on GHOSTS 👻
We've taken a deep dive into hours of oral history recordings to hear from voices past about the ghosts of Ulster.
#Halloween #Samhain
A log with two fungi sprouting. They are two long, black, finger-shaped fungi.
A log with two fungi sprouting. They are two long, black, finger-shaped fungi. Beside the fungi, a hand is making a peace sign.
This past month has seen a flourishing of #fungi at the Folk Museum - including a sighting of Dead Man's Fingers, the most fiendishly-named fungi 🍄
Explore some of the fungi to keep your eyes peeled for on a hair-raising Hallowe'en walk → bit.ly/Fiendishfungi
#UlsterFolkMuseum #Halloween
Sparks flying, fire roaring, bells ringing - are we describing love or a day in the forge? 💥🔨
When it comes to Matthew's work as a blacksmith, it's both.
#HeritageSkills #Blacksmithing #HandForged
The Lace Collection 🤩
Hear more from Curator of Textiles @valeriewilson.bsky.social, at the Folk Museum's Textile Takeover this Saturday, 11th October → bit.ly/46I3U9u
#TextileTakeover #IrishLace #BobbinLace #CrotchetLace #CarrickmacrossLace #LimerickLace
Watch as our visitor guide Suzanne makes a harvest knot, also known as a compass weave plait, or our favourite - a love knot. ❤️
Watch the full video → bit.ly/4pxe6Jm
#UlsterFolkMuseum #Harvest #HarvestSeason #HarvestKnots #LoveKnot #History #IrishHistory
