10,000th visitor to Museum of Free Derry

The Museum of Free Derry, Londonderry, Northern Ireland, recently celebrated its 10,000th visitor this year, indicating just how popular the Bogside facility is becoming with local people and visitors alike.

Robbie Robertson, from Govanhill in Glasgow, was visiting the city with his wife Joyce when they decided to visit the museum in Glenfada Park.

When Robbie realised that he was the 10,000th person to come through the museum doors, he was bewildered but delighted to be awarded a special model of Free Derry Corner by the museum’s Education and Outreach Officer, John Kelly.

Adrian Kerr, Curator of the Museum of Free Derry, told the ‘Journal’: “Mr Robertson was very pleased to be our 10,000th visitor and be presented with the model of Free Derry Corner, and of course, it’s great for us to hit the10,000 mark so early in the year, as it was October last year before we did it!

“We’ve been open for about 15 months and that means that 20, 000 visitors have come through our doors and so we’re all very pleased. We always expected the place to be popular but it’s even more popular than we ever expected at this early stage.”

The Museum of Free Derry is an archive focussing on the civil rights era of the 1960s and the Free Derry/early troubles era of the 1970s; Opens Monday to Friday from 9.30am - 4.30pm (All year), Saturdays 1pm - 4pm (March-Sept), Sun 1pm - 4pm (June - Sept)