‘Old Ulster buildings in an open air park’ is proposed (1959)

To do this they would need not only the furnishings, but the structures themselves, said Mr G B Thompson, director of the museum.

This was the vision which was set out by Mr Thompson when he spoke to about 100 men and women from many parts of Northern Ireland who had been assisting the committee in the recording of Ulster's oral traditions.

In a “note book” which they submitted to the committee each year, these collectors had “recorded the traditions, songs, sayings and old beliefs of their particular areas”.

Among those at the conference was 83-year-old George Barnett from Draperstown, Co Londonderry, who had been interested in this work for about 60 years. A retired farmer, Mr Barnett was also a keen geologist and botanist.

School enterprise

Also present was Mr J Gunn, the principal of Draperstown Primary School, who was so keen on Ulster folk life that he had established a small folk museum in his school.

“The children are very keen collectors and take a very active interest in the museum,” he told the News-Letter.

“The nearest museum is in Belfast, so our own little school museum gives them an opportunity to see the ancient axe heads, spades and other implements used by their ancestors.”

Mr Thompson told the collectors that the work they were interested in was “not only of tremendous local importance, but of international importance”.

He said: “The work of trying to preserve folk life and traditions is going on throughout Western Europe and America, and not one single country should shirk the responsibility of doing its fair share.”

It was reported that the Ulster Folk Museum was anxious to gather together old implements, house furnishings and any other objects “which would assist in the recreation of something of the character of life in this country in the past”.

Old houses

Mr Thompson appealed to the collectors to be on the look-out for old materials which might assist the museum.

“Now the museum has been established, we can look for a far greater range of material – not only furnishings for houses, but old houses themselves,” he said.

Asking the collectors to inform him of any interesting old houses which were unoccupied or about to be demolished, Mr Thompson said: “They might all look the same, but old houses differ a great deal. They are more interesting and complex than they look on the surface.”

“There are quite a lot of interesting variations in old houses in different parts of the country, not only in the actual structures, but also in the various methods of thatching.”

Mr Thompson declared: “We are not collecting antiques for the mere sake of collecting them. A great many of the things are required by the museum which will have no great antique value whatsoever.”

He said that their aim was to demonstrate that the life of the province was “not as simple and uncomplicated as it might appear on the surface”.

He added: “It is fascinating and complex, and we are anxious to preserve it in its entirety.”

This was the underlying aim of the Folk Museum, said Mr Thompson, and the reason why it was essential that they get “the support, interest and cooperation of the Ulster people”.

“The museum is not only a museum for the Ulster people, it is a museum about them. For that reason the extent to which it is successful will depend to a great measure on the support it receives from Ulster people throughout the country.”

In an editorial under the headline, Getting together a Folk Museum, the News Letter declared: “Mr G B Thompson, who quite recently was appointed director of the Ulster Folk Museum, is getting on with his new pose in a spirit of enthusiasm that deserves a real success.

“He pictures a park in which some of the traditional types of Ulster buildings can be reconstructed, and he makes an appeal not only for the furnishings but for the structures themselves. The Folk Museum is an excellent object, because Ulster had a distinctive way of life which is passing away, and a distinctive type of dwelling which less and less is seen in the countryside.

“Time has been lost in forming the museum, for the process of change in the countryside has been quick and widespread since the end of the last war, and if the collectors are not swift about their work, soon there will be few or no relics of the past to assemble in a museum.”

The editorial continued: “The Minister of Finance, who has the Land Fund at his disposal, and so far has been called upon to pay only £200 for the Folk Museum, might be persuaded to buy a typical farm house with outbuildings as they stand, and to create the museum around it.”

“Some suitable buildings within a reasonable distance of Belfast must still be available. The typical farm building, thatched and one-storey, with its stone-flagged or earthen kitchen floor, and – if the farm could afford it – ‘the room’, used on high days and holidays and in which visitors were entertained on big occasions, is disappearing and is not being replaced.

The News Letter’s editorial concluded: “If we do not make the collection in the next few years the chance will have gone and we shall be sorry as we drive through the mechanised and suburban countryside, wondering what it was like in the ‘good old days’.”