Monthly Archives: May 2018

“In a Blue Velvet Dress”: The Inspiration behind an Irish Ghost Story

2018-05-14T09:48:21+00:00

Inscribed copy of the original 1973 edition of 'In a Blue Velvet Dress' On Friday 11th May Clifton House hosted a special 'Plots and Plotters' tour of Clifton House and Clifton Street Cemetery, looking at the radicals of Belfast in the late 1700s, in association with the Linen Hall Library to mark their 230th anniversary.  Prior to the tour commencing Monica Cash, deputy librarian, presented Clifton House with a book with a rather usual connection to what was then the Belfast Poor House. Martin Waddell, who has written under the pseudonym Catherine Sefton, had asked the library to donate an [...]

“In a Blue Velvet Dress”: The Inspiration behind an Irish Ghost Story2018-05-14T09:48:21+00:00

The Poor House & the Irish Potato Famine (May 1846)

2018-05-08T11:04:44+00:00

The devastation wrought by the Irish Potato Famine/ Great Hunger led to the hospitals and other charitable organisations in Belfast coming under immense pressure by May 1846. In order to cope with the demand these institutions came together to help relieve the sick and destitute. In early May 1846 it was decided that the Poor House Hospital would only take medical and surgical patients, which freed up beds in the General Hospital on Frederick Street (pictured), a short walk from the Poor House, for famine and fever victims. This helped to limit the spread of the contagious famine fever in the [...]

The Poor House & the Irish Potato Famine (May 1846)2018-05-08T11:04:44+00:00
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