06 May 2016
Ireland's first digital-only museum aims to become one of country's top attractions
BY Tom Anstey
A new interactive digital-only experience dedicated to the impact of Irish people overseas is about to open its doors in Dublin.
Dubbed EPIC Ireland, the high-tech exhibition, located in the historic vaults of Dublin’s CHQ Building, is the brainchild of former Coca-Cola CEO Neville Isdell.
Event Communications, which designed the Titanic Belfast experience, has created the EPIC Ireland story, which tells the tale of "10 million journeys", with 21 galleries organised into varying themes including migration, motivation, influence and connection.
Opening to the public tomorrow (7 May), the €15m (US$17m, £12m) visitor attraction will tell the story of why so many people left Ireland over the centuries, where they went, what they did, and the relationship between them and the Irish communities who stayed behind.
The exhibition will also celebrate Irish people who have influenced world culture through mediums such as music, art, medicine, science, literature and politics. Finally, visitors will learn about diaspora today and how emigrants maintain their identity and celebrate their Irish roots.
Epic Ireland says that it is the first digital-only museum in the world, with its collection stored in the cloud and accessed on screens. As part of the Diaspora Today section, blogs, tweets, social-media posts and emails have been collected from Irish people living abroad to be displayed to visitors to the attraction.
As part of the visitor experience, The Irish Family History Centre – operated by genealogical and historical research firm Eneclann – will introduce a way for visitors to search for their Irish ancestors, discover their own family story and explore Irish heritage, including a 15-minute consultation with a genealogy expert.
EPIC Ireland is expected to quickly become one of the country’s most-visited attractions, with 400,000 people expected to come through its doors within the first 12 months. If it follows the pattern of Titanic Belfast, which also predicted similar numbers, it could more than double that number as tourism numbers continue to surge on the Emerald Isle.
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