Clifton Street Cemetery and the Old Belfast Poor House
Introduction of the Clifton Street Cemetery by Joe Baker of the Glenravel Local Project (glenravel.com)
Cemetery Website cliftonstreetcemetery.com
Uploaded and Managed by TheNewlodge.com (thenewlodge.com)
Clifton Street Cemetery and the Old Belfast Poor House
Introduction of the Clifton Street Cemetery by Joe Baker of the Glenravel Local Project () Cemetery Website Uploaded and Managed by TheNewlodge.com.
This cemetery is located right in the centre of Belfast. It was opened in 1779. It is packed with Poor House graves and these are found, somewhat surprisingly alongside the graves of the rich.
Opened as a new burying ground for Belfast citizens, this graveyard also raised money for the Poor House by the sale of plots.
Clifton House & Clifton Street Cemetery, Belfast
A tour of Clifton House and the neighboring Clifton Street Cemetery. Clifton House opened its doors to the poor in the 1770 s and was run by the Belfast Charitable Society
Clifton Street Graveyard
Official historical site opened 1797 by the Belfast Charitable Society. Includes 19th century millionaires and famous personalities: Ritchie, Dunville, Drennan, Heron, Dickson. 7,000 Paupers who died from famine & cholera are buried in Strangers Ground. Henry Joy McCracken and his sister are also here. Many graves have been destroyed by vandals.
Clifton Street Cemetery RANT
Another wee rant form me here then.
This time I'm annoyed about the lack of public access to what could arguably be described as one of our top historic treasure sites in central Belfast.
Clifton Street Cemetery is packed with history. It is a wonderful reservoir of centuries of grave headstone information. Yet the cemetery remains closed to the general public. The high spiked gates are padlocked. Why? Because a small number of hooligans would wreck the crumbling graves or misuse the cemetery in any number of ways.
Thus the cemetery and all within is hidden away, locked up and largely forgotten. The only way to gain access is to phone the Belfast City Council and arrange for the very helpful and understanding wardens to deliver a key to the cemetery gates. I have done this but there has to be some better way to allow access for the public and our growing number of tourists?
There is a lot more to Belfast than the Titanic Exhibition, yet many of our real treasures are behind locked doors and gates, almost totally ignored and forgotten.
There must be some better way to go about this. To preserve what is there while at the same time affording interested people easy access to see it!
I have met and chatted with interested local men, living nearby, who could be recruited for say two hours each day as guides and guardians of this historic hidden garden but I'm sure Health and Safety and payment would prove to be an insurmountable problem! Oh dear!
Where there is a will there is a way!
Clifton House, 1774 Poor House, Belfast Charitable Society
I've come up the Donegall road and have stopped on Clifton street at historic Clifton House, home of the Belfast Charitable Society and once the Belfast Poor House. Clifton House is an 18th-century Grade A listed building located in Belfast. Originally built as a Poor House by the Belfast Charitable Institution in 1774. Today it is houses a heritage centre alongside a residential home and sheltered accommodation apartments.
The Belfast Charitable Society was founded in August 1752, with the aim of setting up a poorhouse and a charitable hospital infirmary. The Society was financed by subscriptions collected from leading inhabitants of the then town of Belfast, and a nationwide lottery. After over 20 years, land was donated by Arthur Chichester, the first Marquess of Donegall to the north of the town, and a plan was drawn up by Mr Cooley for a combined 36 person poorhouse and 24 bed infirmary, estimated at £3,000 to construct. In the centre of the final approved design were large assembly rooms. The foundation stone was laid on 7 August 1771, with the building opening on 17 September 1774
Quickly becoming full and continually operating at full capacity, the Society agreed in March 1800 to permit Dr William Haliday to try the first trials of inoculation and vaccination in Ireland. Subject to the condition of approval of their parents, poorhouse children were given vaccinations to protect them against diseases. The funds generated allowed the building to be extended, adding a lunatic ward. Doctor William Drennan, although never one of the Poor House's physicians, was a strong supporter of the Belfast Charitable Society, and gave sound medical advice, especially on the advantages of public inoculation against small pox to the Board. Drennan lodged in the house of Henry Joy McCracken and Mary Ann McCracken who had strong links to the Society. Edward Bunting (1773–1843), an Irish musician and folk music collector, asked the Committee to support him in organising a festival, the proceeds of which were donated to the Charitable Society.
A small sub-group of the Society's committee went to England in order to establish high-value trades which the poor should be trained in, and having studied the Lancashire cotton trade, came back to Belfast with the plan of training all inmates in the skills of the same industry. Hence training was set up on weaving, spinning, knitting, and net-making. The result was the foundation of Belfast's cotton industry.
The Belfast Poor House. Book a Tour-
'Step back in time and discover the rich history of the Belfast Poor House by taking a tour. Explore a building that was built when Belfast consisted of five streets, learn about the founding members of the Belfast Charitable Society who all played pivotal roles in the history of the city and discover the stories behind the unfortunate lowly inhabitants of Belfast who sought sanctuary in the Poor House.'
Weekly tours: A tour of Clifton House is held each Friday at 3.00pm. The tour costs £6.50. You can call, email or fill in the form below to reserve your place, or simply turn up on the day. Tours of Clifton Street Cemetery are also held occasionally. Check out our Facebook page or Twitter feed for details.
Special Irish Graveyard
this is a video i made of a really old graveyard in the county of waterford in Ireland, some graves date back to 1734 and some are graves from the irish famine
Clifton House In Belfast - Britain's Secret Homes
Clifton House is as grand on the inside as it is on the outside.
Milltown Cemetery. Belfast, Northern Ireland. Irish Republican Army plot. Grave of Bobby Sands
Milltown Cemetery. Belfast, Northern Ireland. Irish Republican Army plot. Grave of Bobby Sands
The Grave of Henry Joy McCracken United Irishman
APOLOGY - I was getting Wolfe Tone mixed up with another United Irishmen leader. Tone was indeed Prtestant but his father was Church of Ireland and a coach maker. Please pardon my stupid error!
I'm down at historic Clifton Street Cemetery in the heart of Belfast to visit the grave of Henry Joy McCracken (31 August 1767 – 17 July 1798) This man was like many others would be an enigma to many today. He was a Presbyterian, a Ulster Scots industrialist and a founding member of the Society of the United Irishmen.
History
Henry Joy McCracken was born in High street, Belfast into two of the city's most prominent Protestant industrial families. He was the son of Ulster Scot Presbyterian shipowner Captain John McCracken and Ann Joy, daughter of Francis Joy, of French Huguenot Protestant descent. The Joy family made their money in linen manufacture and founded the Belfast News Letter. Henry was the elder brother of political activist and social reformer Mary Ann McCracken, with whom he shared an interest in Irish traditional culture.
In 1792, he helped organise the Belfast Harp Festival which gathered aged harpists from around Ireland, and helped preserve the Irish airs by having them transcribed by Edward Bunting. Bunting, who lodged in the McCracken's Rosemary Lane home, was a classically trained musician.
McCracken became interested in radical politics from an early age and joined the Society of the United Irishmen in 1795 which quickly made him a target of the authorities. He regularly travelled throughout the country using his business as a cover for organising other United Irish societies, but was arrested in October 1796 and lodged in Kilmainham Jail in Dublin. While imprisoned with other leaders of the United Irishmen, McCracken fell seriously ill and was released on bail in December 1797.
Following the outbreak of the United Irishmen-led Rebellion in Leinster in May 1798, the Antrim organisation met on 3 June to decide on their response. The meeting ended inconclusively with a vote to wait for French aid being passed by a narrow margin. A new meeting of delegates was held in Templepatrick on 5 June where McCracken was elected general for Antrim and he quickly began planning military operations.
McCracken formulated a plan for all small towns in Antrim to be seized after which rebels would converge upon Antrim town on 7 June where the county's magistrates were to hold a crisis meeting. Although the plan met initial success and McCracken led the rebels in the attack on Antrim,The Roman Catholic DEFENDERS Group whom McCracken thought would assist were conspicuous by their absence. McCrackens United Irishmen were defeated and his army melted away. Although McCracken initially escaped, a chance encounter with men who recognized him from his cotton business led to his arrest. Although offered clemency if he testified against other United Irishmen leaders, McCracken refused to turn on his compatriots.
He was court-martialled and hanged at Corn Market, Belfast, on land his grandfather had donated to the city, on 17 July 1798, aged 30.
McCracken's remains are believed to have been reinterred by Francis Joseph Biggar in 1909 at Clifton Street Cemetery, Belfast, alongside his sister Mary Ann. His illegitimate daughter Maria (whose mother is speculated to have been Mary Bodell), was raised by her aunt Mary Ann McCracken.
Wee drive around Belfast in the sun
for no reason other than I was bored I took a video on my Lenovo P2 while driving around south Belfast ... it's on a basic windscreen mount which is why it's a bit bouncy :-(
My GoPro was in the boot... but as I said.. just for fun in the sun!
How Clifton House Made Belfast - Britain's Secret Homes
How Clifton House helped Belfast grow into an industrial powerhouse.
Art McCaig's funeral Belfast 17 Nov 08 - 4 of 6
Reaching City Cemetery where Art will be buried beside his wife Gonne Carmichael
Old UVF rifles discovered in Belfast Orange Hall
A cache of 10 vintage rifles has been uncovered in the Belfast Orange Hall at Clifton Street.
The weapons were found in a locker in a derelict part of the building as members were searching for artefacts for the heritage centre they have set up in the building.
Curator Ron McDowell explained they had traced the weapons as being part of a consignment of 25,000 guns smuggled into the country in 1914 on the Clyde Valley.
PSNI Cleanup at the bottom of the New Lodge Road
PSNI cleanup the bottom of the New Lodge Road after youth tried to close of the road with trollies and other debris. Petrol bombs had also been used at some points to try lure the police back into the area.
C S Lewis Parents Grave Belfast City Cemetery
Here lie the parents of famous Belfast author C S Lewis of Little Lea Strandtown Belfast
Belfast Streets Linked to Henry Joy McCracken's United Irishmen
In this very ad hoc video I come across a number of Belfast street sites/places/entries associated with Henry Joy McCracken and his associates in the Society of United Irishmen of the 1780s.
Remarkably, 'All attendees at the first meeting of the Belfast branch of the United Irishmen were Protestant. Two (Theobald Wolfe Tone and Thomas Russell) were Anglicans and the rest Presbyterian; most of whom were involved in the linen trade in Belfast. Along with Tone and Russell, the men involved were: William Sinclair, Henry Joy McCracken, Samuel Neilson, Henry Haslett, Gilbert McIlveen, William Simms, Robert Simms, Thomas McCabe and Thomas Pearce. After forming, the Society named chandler Samuel McTier as its first President.
Clifton House
Clifton House, formerly known as the Poor House, is a splendid 18th century building and Belfast's most historic building, now fully restored to its original Georgian elegance.
rufford abbey ghosts
rufford abbey ghosts and history