A new museum planned for Belfast will challenge visitors to recognise and confront their most closely held beliefs. The hope is that the Museum of Citizenship will address the complexity of perspectives and cultural traditions in Northern Ireland, by exploring issues of tolerance and co-operation in the workplace and in the community.

It is envisaged that the museum will combine interactive computer workstations and the latest touch-screen technology to question visitors on their attitudes towards everything from racism to citizenship. Visitors will express opinions and explore their own preconceptions and the results will be instantly tabulated. In this way, the museum will also act as a research mechanism that can track changes in public opinion.

The Belfast Council of Trade Unions proposed such a centre after a visit to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. To secure EU funding for the project, a Southern partner was needed to create a cross-Border dimension, so the Irish Trade Union Trust (ITUT), the social solidarity arm of SIPTU, came on board. Eddie Glackin, director of the ITUT, says phase one of the project has dealt primarily with building political support.

Glackin is hopeful that the project will move off the drawing board within 12 months and that the museum will be open by the end of 2001. Crumlin Road Jail is under consideration as the venue.

Working on a budget of between £10 million and £15 million (depending on the eventual site), investment will be sourced primarily from the corporate sector - public and private - but also from the Irish and British governments, the EU and American charitable foundations.

Apart from dealing with the issue of conflict resolution in the North, the Museum of Citizenship will have an added Irish dimension in light of the growing number of asylum-seekers in the Republic, a British dimension highlighted by the recent Stephen Lawrence case and a European dimension in view of current events in south-eastern Europe.