1916 Rising Experience

This immersive experience features a replica GPO façade and a series of tunneled-through contemporary building interiors that allow visitors to experience the claustrophobic fighting conditions endured by the rebels.

Once again Cavan County Museum’s latest exhibition helps bring history to life in a way that enthralls both young and old. The 1916 Rising Experience and Exhibition will complement the hugely popular, award-winning WWI Trench Experience, allowing visitors to walk in the shoes of the young people of Ireland 100 years ago and see the choices they faced.

Visitors to the museum can now take a ‘walk through time’ and choose a route which will ultimately lead to World War One or to the GPO. They can explore the shared theme of loss and its impact. This is physically achieved through both experiences ending in the dedicated reflective space of the museums ‘Peace Garden’. 

The WWI Experience and 1916 Experience lifts history off the page and will allow visitors to engage with two very diverse strands of Irish history and explore the common theme of the loss that inevitably accompanies conflict. Guided tours of the WWI Trench Experience and the 1916 Rising Experience are available.

Cavan County Museum continues to develop and enhance its visitor experience year on year. The museum is gaining in reputation, increasing in visitor numbers and is now regarded as one of the best in the country, a must-see attraction. Since the opening of the WWI Trench Experience, visitor numbers at the museum have grown by 40%.  The new ‘1916 Rising Exhibition’ can only contribute to this success.

Since 2004 Cavan County Museum has worked extensively to promote Peace and Reconciliation through a cross-border project entitled, ‘Connecting People, Places and Heritage’. In 2012, as part of the museum’s long term goal to engage with the ‘Decade of Commemoration’ and to promote Peace Building, it developed an exhibition on the ‘The Ulster Covenant’.