Lisburn Museum was established in 1979 and housed in the old market house and Assembly Rooms at the heart of Lisburn’s historic centre. It expanded into its present form in 1994 with the opening of the Irish Linen Centre in a multi-award-winning new building adjoining the original museum. The museum has one permanent exhibition ‘Flax to Fabric, the Story of Irish Linen’, which illustrates all the processes in making linen and includes a weaving workshop with working nineteenth-century Jacquard damask hand looms. The linen collection includes fine costumes, household linens, damasks and needle-worked linens from a past when Irish linen was known throughout the world. The museum otherwise presents an annual programme of local history, textile and fine art special exhibitions.