Research to Practice: Activating Global Histories at Florence Court.

May 2025 Northern Ireland Assembly debated decolonisation of museum collections and the repatriation of artefacts. The debate highlighted the conflicting interpretations and stakeholder expectations that heritage workers must navigate; it stressed the importance of dialogue as part of ethical practice; and it demonstrated that collections are sites of difficult histories, contested and representing uncomfortable truths. Linking directly to that debate, this IAA project will begin to extend and test the impact of Crooke’s forthcoming monograph “Empire Objects: Material Legacies of an Irish Big Houseâ€, which is partially disseminated. The book explores object biographies shaped by imperial contexts connected with the Earls of Enniskillen. Key examples include Tipu Sultan’s ring (British Museum); a 150-year-old starfish from Mauritius (Natural history Museum); a King William III mustard pot (Florence Court); a silver nutmeg grater used on Napoleonic campaigns (Inniskillings Museum); and 300 shells from Mauritius (Sheffield Museum). This project brings this research to frontline staff and volunteers at Florence Court, exploring how they might begin to navigate the challenges of interpreting these histories for public audiences. Through academic reports and studies, the National Trust has engaged with the stories of colonialism (Fowler 2021; Giblin et al 2019; Huxtable et al 2020). However, its impact on everyday interpretation at property level remains uneven. A key stakeholder in communicating new historical knowledge is frontline staff. These individuals, paid and volunteer, play a central role in shaping how histories are presented in practice within existing institutional frameworks – both in what is shared and what remains unsaid. Barriers include uneven access to site-specific research and varying levels of confidence or support, alongside the influence of personal perspectives, which this project will begin to surface and address. The proposed IAA project is designed to extend the reach of this research, by working with those who directly shape the public experience of Florence Court. At a senior level, interpretation is shaped by Regional Curators, but in practice it is tour guides and volunteers, with daily contact with the public, who shape the visitor experience (Graves 2020; Khater 2026). Central to the project, is an exploratory programme of structured workshops with frontline staff including Welcome and Service Team staff; Operations staff; House and Collections Officers; Storytellers, Tour Guides, and Volunteers (drawing from Florence Court, Castle Coole and Crom as there is often some sharing of staff responsibilities/volunteer roles across the sites). Through these workshops, the project will support staff in testing how research insights might inform interpretation and identifying and exploring barriers to engaging with these histories for both staff and audiences.