Yearly Archives: 2021

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Christmas through the Centuries

2021-12-23T13:39:03+00:00

Every year Christmas seems to be getting bigger and bigger with decorations in the shops from September and the introduction of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales from North America. However, a Georgian Christmas was an equally, if not more elaborate affair, for those who had money, based around saints and feast days. The Georgian Christmas period began on St Nicholas’s Day (6th December) and continued on until Twelfth Night (6th January).  However, in the early years of the Poor House Hallowe’en, and not Christmas, was the main festival. It was not until the Victorian period that the Christmas holiday became [...]

Christmas through the Centuries2021-12-23T13:39:03+00:00

A Festive Tradition: The Benn Christmas Dinner 2021

2021-12-23T13:29:28+00:00

Today (15th December 2021) Clifton House hosted the Benn Dinner, a Christmas Tradition which started 139 years ago and has continued through two world wars, a Spanish Flu Epidemic and throughout the Troubles. And this year it prevailed again, despite Covid-19. In 1882 George Benn, the generous philanthropist, historian and benefactor of Belfast Charitable Society died, leaving the sum of £1,000 to the Charitable Society to set up the Benn Charity. This sum of money was to be used principally to provide a dinner or other entertainment for the residents of the Old Peoples Home at Christmas. George was also very [...]

A Festive Tradition: The Benn Christmas Dinner 20212021-12-23T13:29:28+00:00

International Day for the Abolition of Slavery: Belfast Charitable Society & Slavery

2021-12-23T12:54:45+00:00

Olaudah Equiano The Belfast Charitable Society And The Slave Trade Today marks International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. The notion of slavery tends to bring us back to African slaves brought to America, however slavery continues as 21st Century problem. The Belfast Charitable Society of the 18th Century found themselves caught in the controversy surrounding this abhorrent trade. Much of the conflict regarding the differing views of slavery happened outside of the Poor House, however, when the freed slave Olaudah Equiano visited Belfast in the early 1790s, he was invited to speak at the Poor House and several [...]

International Day for the Abolition of Slavery: Belfast Charitable Society & Slavery2021-12-23T12:54:45+00:00

#OnThisDay 1882: The last child leaves the Poor House

2021-11-30T09:49:08+00:00

From the 1870s children gradually began to leave the Poor House. Some of the children returned to their families, some went to the Presbyterian Orphan Society, others were apprenticed, and at least one went to the Industrial School. The school equipment in the Poor House was sold; the musical instruments went to the Malone Reformatory and the surplus clothing went to Mr Henderson’s Boys’ House with one of the boys. The school mistress was given £80 and some articles of furniture for her services to the children. By November 1882, provision had been made for the last children of the Poor [...]

#OnThisDay 1882: The last child leaves the Poor House2021-11-30T09:49:08+00:00

Mary Ann McCracken Foundation highlights the plight of women living in Afghanistan

2021-11-22T23:06:16+00:00

Mary Ann McCracken Foundation highlights the plight of women living in Afghanistan On Thursday 18th November, the Mary Ann McCracken Foundation hosted its inaugural annual lecture, focusing on the challenges facing Afghan women. Many of us have watched in horror as events in Afghanistan have unfolded. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee, fearing for their lives and escaping conflict. Speaking at the event was Dr Sima Nazari, a successful Afghan doctor who was forced to leave her home country following death threats from the Taliban. Sima shared the heart-breaking story of having to leave a job she [...]

Mary Ann McCracken Foundation highlights the plight of women living in Afghanistan2021-11-22T23:06:16+00:00

Social Enterprise Day 2021: Past & Present

2021-11-12T10:02:18+00:00

What is a social enterprise? A social enterprise is like any other business in that it works to deliver goods and services to make a profit. The difference is that they are driven by their social and environmental purposes and any profit made is reinvested towards achieving these purposes. Today, the government defines social enterprises as “businesses with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or in the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners.” The term social enterprise was first coined in 1953 and has [...]

Social Enterprise Day 2021: Past & Present2021-11-12T10:02:18+00:00

Black History Month 2021: Frederick Douglass, Mary Ann McCracken & the Belfast Ladies Anti-Slavery Association

2021-10-27T09:35:05+00:00

Frederick Douglass (c.1879) Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in Maryland in 1818 and after a failed attempt to escape bondage he successfully fled north to freedom in 1838. Frederick married and became involved in the abolitionist movement in the United States. However, there were some elements who doubted his story. Frederick went on to publish his autobiography in 1845 as a means to tell his full story. This put him at an even greater risk of recapture and so he sailed to the British Isles. Douglass became one of the most recognisable abolitionists. He spent three months touring [...]

Black History Month 2021: Frederick Douglass, Mary Ann McCracken & the Belfast Ladies Anti-Slavery Association2021-10-27T09:35:05+00:00

Black History Month 2021: Belfast and the Slave Trade

2021-10-27T09:00:07+00:00

As part of Black History Month this article explores the abolitionist and pro-slavery elements within the town of Belfast in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Waddell Cunningham Belfast had many wealthy merchants who owned land, estates and businesses in the West Indies in the 18th and 19th Centuries.  As was the practice at the time, these estates and businesses would have exploited slave labour to harvest crops such as sugar and tobacco.  Waddell Cunningham, a member of the Belfast Charitable Society is probably the most infamous advocate of slavery in Belfast as he attempted to open up the [...]

Black History Month 2021: Belfast and the Slave Trade2021-10-27T09:00:07+00:00

Black History Month 2021: Equiano and Belfast Charitable Society

2021-10-10T15:15:27+00:00

Each week as part of Black History Month Belfast Charitable Society will be exploring the multifaceted history of the charity from its connections with black abolitionists and enslaved people to the abolitionist and pro-slavery movements in Belfast. The second  in this series looks at Olaudah Equiano, one of the first black abolitionists to visit Ireland. Equiano himself had been born in Africa and kidnapped into slavery at the age of ten or eleven and was forced to become a sailor. It was said that an Irish man encouraged him to learn to read and write and ultimately he managed to save [...]

Black History Month 2021: Equiano and Belfast Charitable Society2021-10-10T15:15:27+00:00

Black History Month 2021: William John Brown and his escape from slavery

2021-10-08T14:17:13+00:00

In August 1830 William John Brown appeared before the magistrate at the Belfast Police Court. Mr Brown, an enslaved man from America, entered the courtroom accompanied by members of the Society of Friends. Newspaper reports describe him as looking crestfallen and physically frail- the fifty-year-old slowly took the stand and was said to have recounted his story in a feeble voice. William was enslaved as a young man in Virginia, but had worked his way out of bondage and received his papers of freedom. Now a free man he got married and had five children and settled in Baltimore, Maryland. However, [...]

Black History Month 2021: William John Brown and his escape from slavery2021-10-08T14:17:13+00:00
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