The marine life of the Falkland Islands
The marine life of the remote Falkland Islands is still poorly known, as the majority of previous research has focused on offshore fisheries. Since 2006 the Falkland Islands based Shallow Marine Surveys Group (SMSG) has been conducting scuba diving surveys to document the habitats and species of the shallow marine zone and provide information for its management.

Robert Bell
Born in 1864, he was a riveter at Harland & Wolff’s shipyard in Belfast for forty years. As a boy, he became fascinated with the fossils and minerals found in rocks, and geology became his life-long hobby. He was an expert on the zeolite minerals found in the Antrim basalts and he was made a Life Member of the Mineralogical Society of London in 1910.

Surveying Northern Ireland's Marine Life
National Museums have a long history of marine survey work in Northern Ireland. Staff from the museum now continue this work, joining forces with staff from Northern Ireland Environment Agency in a dive team which surveys the Northern Ireland coast. The information provided helps protect Northern Ireland’s diverse and spectacular underwater habitats.

Flights of Fancy
The Ulster Museum’s bird collection contains more than 10,000 specimens and includes mounted birds, skeletons, skins and clutches of eggs. Most of the specimens were collected in Ireland during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries by local natural history enthusiasts. Some of these specimens are very rare and many are historically important.

Gallaher's Tobacco
Thomas Gallaher began as one man handrolling and selling tobacco products. He became known as the ‘Tobacco King’ and owned the largest tobacco factory in the world in Belfast on York Street.

Native, Visitor or Invader?
Many non-native species are already established in Ireland. Others are likely to arrive in the near future. While not all non-native species are damaging to our native wildlife, invasive non-native or ‘alien’ species are one of the biggest threats to Ireland’s native biodiversity.

Fine Minerals
Minerals are the substances that make up the rocks of the Earth’s crust. Scientists have identified over 3,000 minerals. Most of these are rare and look insignificant. Just around twenty common minerals make up most of the Earth’s crust. Occasionally some minerals form crystals large enough to be seen. These crystals occur in many different shapes and colours and they can form beautiful and attractive objects.

Masks
The earliest known representation of a mask comes from the wall painting on the Trois Freres cave in the Ariege region of France, which is dated to c 40, 000 BC. The painting appears to depict an upright standing man wearing a horned mask and this figure has been named 'the Sorcerer'.

The Arts and Crafts of Africa
The Ulster Museum's collection of art and crafts of Africa is the result of trading, missionary, military and diplomatic activities, as well as the activities of private individuals during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Belleek Pottery Collection
The Belleek collection at the Ulster Museum is not as vast as some private collections but numbering nearly 200 items, it does contain pieces that do not as far as we know exist anywhere else. This tour gives highlights of the Ulster Museum Belleek collection including unusual and unique pieces. Kim Mawhinney, Head of Art