Monthly Archives: January 2019

Thomas McCabe was a goldsmith and cotton manufacturer who had a business in North Street. Together with Robert Joy and Captain McCracken he financed cotton spinning machinery for the Poor House to teach the children and women a skill. This proved so successful that McCabe, Joy and McCracken opened the first water powered mill in Ireland for Cotton Spinning in 1784. The United Irishmen were explicitly anti-slavery and many of them refused to eat sugar, molasses, rum and other products associated with the slave trade. Thomas McCabe was a radical from his early days, and denounced Waddell Cunningham’s scheme to establish [...]

The Belfast Charitable Society had been responsible for bringing water to Belfast from the 1790s. However, making water pipes from tree trunks, laying them and employing engineers to work out the most appropriate courses all came at a cost. On this day (17th January) 1807 it was recorded that the Water Rate Collectors had been sent out to those who have not paid their extra water money. It was stipulated that all arrears were to be paid and if this was not complied with, the offenders were to have their water supply cut off ‘without loss of time’ The collectors had [...]

In the mid-18th century gin was known as 'mothers ruin', and over a century later it was still frowned upon by the Belfast Charitable Society. #OnThisDay 1869 James Boyd, a resident, had brought gin into the Poor House for an old lady. When he was caught James argued it was for medical purposes. The Steward felt that the doctor had not "sanctioned this liberty" and having reported it to the Board, the Orderly was requested to admonish him and warn him against any further offences. In the previous century he would most likely have been put into the Black Hole for [...]