The museum was officially opened on Friday 2nd. February 2007, the first anniversary of the death of Belfast Republican Eileen Hickey.

The collection of republican handicrafts had been started by Eileen in the Sean O'Neill craft shop in the Conway Mill complex in the early 1990's. The collection quickly outgrew the space allocated to it and the trustees of the Conway Mill kindly offered the use of the disused social club premises in the mill.

Over the next few years, a small group of dedicated volunteer workers undertook the task of converting the premises from a shambles into the fine building which is now home to Eileen's ever-expanding collection.

It was with an immense feeling of pride that the work, which Eileen's family had started, was finally completed and, in the presence of a large crowd, which included Eileen's family and many of her former comrades from Armagh prison, that Fr. Desmond Wilson and Noelle Ryan from Springhill Community House, officially declared the Irish Republican History Museum open to the public.

Housed within the collection is a large amount of artifacts and prison handicrafts, representing various phases of the struggle for Irish Freedom.