IT was the decade that Nelson Mandela was freed and elected South Africa president, the first Gulf War was raging, Harry Potter took over bookshelves and the Euro debuted, while Northern Ireland was wading through the fourth decade of the Troubles.
Northern Ireland in the nineties will be revisited with an exhibition and oral history project at the Linen Hall in Belfast city centre from today until the end of the month.
`We Lived It', captures "the day-to-day reality of living in the midst of the conflict", from daily searches, bomb alerts to no-go areas.
Among the items on display will be key rings, badges, and t-shirts branded with slogans and logos from the nineties and a small section of a wall from the Maze prison in Co Antrim.
Troubles-themed artwork by local artists Sean Hillen and F.E. McWilliam is on loan from Newry and Mourne Museum and the F.E. McWilliam Gallery, including a piece from `Women of Belfast', created in response to the1972 Abercorn bombing.
Visitors can also listen via MP3 players to an oral history archive.
A `Divided Society - Reminiscence' workshop is being held on Monday August 21 at 1pm. The free event will be an opportunity for visitors to put forward their own memories.
Divided Society Education and Outreach Officer Rachel Brady described it as a "thought-provoking exhibition based on the Linen Hall's Troubles collection which now numbers over 350,000 items".
