Our Museums

NI Prison Service Collection

The history, significance and interpretive value of the Northern Ireland Prison Service Collection at the Ulster Museum

NI Prison Service Collection displayed on a table
The Northern Ireland (NI) Prison Service collection was acquired by the Ulster Museum in 2018 and forms the basis of the proposed research project.

The historical reach and importance of the collection offers the potential to add fresh insights on multiple contested histories and identities. Scoping of the collection reveals a multicity of themes that can be explored in relation to a conflicted society, and prison life more generally: agency, power relations, resistance, threat, violence, dialogue, surveillance, identity, duty, social organisation, recreation and everyday life, politicisation, protest, built environment and conflict, and the material culture of conflict.

It is anticipated that the research on the NI Prison Service Collection will involve several methodological approaches, such as collections research; semi-structured interviewing; focus groups and workshops designed to invoke engagement and fresh interpretation through an oral history approach. Candidates will have the opportunity to shape the research questions and research approach according to their own research interests.

Lead Supervisors

Dr Karen Logan
Dr Karen Logan (National Museums NI)
Dr Gráinne Kelly (Ulster University)
Dr Gráinne Kelly (Ulster University)
Dr Karen Logan
Dr Karen Logan (National Museums NI)
National Museums NI Logo, University of Ulster Logo, Arts and Humanities Research Council Logo

 

Blue rectangular riot shield with two handles and mesh section at the top

Explore the collection

In 2018, the Ulster Museum received a donation from the Northern Ireland Prison Service, comprising homemade tools and weapons, uniforms, prison artwork, maps and photographs, notices, contraband, objects modified to conceal contraband and body armour. The material relates predominantly, but not exclusively, to HMP Maze.