The book Sir Crawford McCullagh, Belfast’s Dick Whittington, is a biography of The Rt Hon Sir Crawford McCullagh, 1st Baronet (1868-1948) who was a draper, unionist councillor on Belfast City Council and held the position of Lord Mayor for a record 17…
Dr William Drennan was born in the manse of First Presbyterian Church, Rosemary Street, Belfast, in May 1754 where his father was minister. William then studied medicine in Glasgow and Edinburgh and briefly practised as a gynaecologist. He is credited…
Brian Griffin’s book the Bulkies is a social history of the Belfast city constabulary that operated as a municipal police force from 1800 to 1865. It focuses on the policeman as a ‘working man’, explores the crimes he had to…
Located on Great Victoria Street, near Shaftsbury Square, this building was originally constructed as the Belfast Ophthalmic Institution in the 1860s. The building was designed in the gothic style by architect William Joseph Barre for Lady Johnson, in memory of her…
Brian M. Walker’s book is an excellent chronological institutional history of St George’s church located on High Street, Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was written to mark the church’s 200th anniversary in 2016. The book starts by considering the previous structures…
The aerodrome was located in the south of the city off the Malone Road on the site now occupied by the Taughsmonagh housing estate. The land for the site was purchased by the council in the early 1920s and flights…
The hospital first opened in 1797 as the Belfast Fever Hospital and General Dispensary, located in Factory Row. It then moved to West Street two years later and finally to Frederick Street in 1817. It was originally a four-story building…
John Killen’s A History of the Linen Hall Library 1788-1988 is a solid and worthy chronological narrative of the first two centuries of the Linen Hall Library (LHL). He starts by setting out how the library came of the intellectual…
Lyn Gallagher’s The Albert Memorial Clock is a short pamphlet on the design, building and restoration of the building after which her publication is named. It was written to mark the completion of restoration work on the Albert Memorial Clock…
J.C. Beckett’s Belfast, The Making of a City is an anthology of 12 essays by different historians on the social, political, economic and cultural development of Belfast during the Victorian and Edwardian periods. The nineteenth-century marked the period when the…
