The building that this interesting museum currently occupies started out as that most feared of Victorian institutions: a workhouse. Ostensibly charitable homes for the destitute, in reality workhouses were little more than places of slave labor, where death from accidents and disease were common. Thoughtful exhibits tell that story in sober detail, broadening it out to cover the history of poverty, famine, and working class life in the 19th century. Other displays include the Atlantic Memorial Exhibition, which covers the significant role the City of Derry played in World War II (although the Republic of Ireland was neutral in the war, Northern Ireland, as part of the United Kingdom, was not). The most interesting items on display here include the remains of a Spitfire aircraft, downed during a practice dogfight in 1942. It was excavated from a bog in Moneydarragh, County Donegal in 2010, and is, to date, the only such aircraft lost in Ireland to have been recovered.