Forty years of history on display in the Linen Hall Political Collection including Gusty Spence’s reading material and the IRA comm that ended the 1981 Hunger Strikes 

The great and the good assembled in an upstairs room of Belfast's oldest library lasts week to celebrate and pay homage to the world famous Northern Ireland Political Collection.

Exactly 40 years ago, the 300,000 piece collection had its humble beginnings with a civil rights leaflet in a Belfast bar and since then the collection has travelled the globe enthralling and wowing audiences across three continents.

Safely displayed back at its Fountain Street home, the collection sent the same shivers down the spines of all those gathered in Linenhall Library last week to celebrate the landmark 40th anniversary of the invaluable collection.

Saluting every librarian past and present who "set-up, fought for and nurtured the collection", its current librarian, Yvonne Murphy said the vast display had been fired by the passion to tell the complete story of the north's "tumultuous" past.

Yvonne was herself one of the young librarians who "boldly went where no librarian had gone before", crossing the barricades to collect every piece of the Troubles they could get their eager hands on.

From those early leaflets, posters, badges and stickers of four decades ago has emerged a unique international resource unmatched anywhere in the world.

The historical items - which include Gusty Spence's reading material while in the Crumlin Gaol and the Republican "comm" which ended the Hunger Strikes in 1981 -  chart the often painful history of the 30 year conflict. From the Civil Rights marches of 1969, through internment, into the ceasefire of 1975, the jails crisis, the Anglo-Irish Agreement, collusion, the infamous strip searches to the 1994 ceasefire and the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, all is covered in this fascinating collection.

Open to library members and the general public, the world famous collection even caught the eye of Holywood heartthrob Brad Pitt when he was researching his role for the 1997 blockbuster The Devil's Own.

 But the collection has expanded impressively since then, notably three years ago when current Belfast Mayor Tom Hartley donated more than 3,000 items from his personal Troubles collection.

"A conflict generates a colossal amount of information and it is amazing to see it all safeguarded in the city's most iconic library," Tom said.

"The librarians of this unique collection are the guardians of something very precious for the city and every single item needs to be protected accordingly.

"What is perhaps most unique about this vast political archive is that it is open and accessible to everyone, regardless of their background or agenda.

"It offers so much about us, about where we have come from and the past four decades of Irish history and it's an honour to be here to celebrate its 40th birthday."

Looking forward to another 40 years, Yvonne Murphy said she enjoyed every minute of her privileged position.

"There is no other collection anywhere in the world of a local conflict and I am deeply honoured to be chief guardian of our pieces of history," she told our reporter.

"So many have contributed and so many have come to view it and we are all looking forward to what the next four decades will bring.

"This huge collection tells our community's story over forty years but it's not just about visual sign posts it's a collective memory of what is at times a very deep hurt.

"Most importantly of all it's a complete story and that is what our 40th anniversary celebrations were all about."

Running alongside the launch of the Northern Ireland Political Collection birthday celebrations is the award-winning Troubled Images Exhibition, another world famous collection of art inspired by the traumatic events of the Troubles.

"Political though not necessarily party political", the collection includes 70 of the most memorable posters of the last 40 years as well as "startling" images including one from former Loyalist prisoner Michael Stone's collection.