£8.5m museum plans delayed

Council officials are due to consider the draft business case with officials from ILEX during May. The partners behind the new maritime museum at Ebrington hope to submit a funding application to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) in June 2012.

Foyle MLA Colum Eastwood queried why the business case for the museum “is only being developed now, given that building should have commenced in the final quarter of the 2011/12 financial year.”

First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness explained that a feasibility study for the Maritime Museum which will also house a Derry City Council archive and genealogy facility was completed over almost two years ago in November 2010.

“In 2011, Derry City Council identified funding to procure consultants to commence a full business case. A draft of this business case is due for consideration by Council officials in consultation with relevant partners in May 2012,” the Ministers stated.

“In March, Derry City Council secured a Stage 1 pass of £1.5m from Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB) Tourism Development Scheme. The project partners have also worked closely with Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and a funding application will be submitted to HLF in June 2012 to secure part of the outstanding funding requirement.

“ILEX has also identified resource of £2m from within its capital programme to support the development of the project, subject to business case approval. Securing the necessary funding remains a key priority for all partners, before the project can commence.”

The proposed museum will feature most aspects of Londonderry’s seafaring history.

The medieval and early modern period from Colmcille’s establishment of the original Christian settlement on the Foyle, through the arrival of the Spanish Armada, the Flight of the Earls, the Plantation of Ulster and the Siege of Derry, will be covered.

Emigration from the port of Londonderry and the rich military and naval history of the Ebrington Barracks site will also be featured. This will take in the Battle of the Atlantic - during which HMS Ferret played such an important role - up to and including the surrender of the German U-Boat fleet at Lisahally.

The mooted museum will also take visitors right up to the post-war period when Ebrington under the name HMS Sea-Eagle and other monikers played a pivotal role as an anti-submarine warfare school.