I led the first tour of the Festival for Social Sciences around Belfast today. Despite the rain and cold, we did a range of sites. Thanks to Raymond O’Regan, the historian of the First Presbyterian Church for his hospitality and…
Saturday (6.11.21) marks the start of a series of walking tours as part of this year’s Festival of Social Science run by Queen University Belfast and Ulster University throughout November 2021. The Festival is run by the Economic and Social…
In Botanic Gardens, in Belfast’s Queen’s Quarter, stands the Gift of Life sculpture commemorating those who have given people a chance to live through organ donation. The candle-shaped memorial was placed in the Gardens in June 2016 and gifted to…
This display covers two important documents that underpin the eventual partition of Ireland in 1921, creating the Irish Free State, which later became the Republic of Ireland and what became Northern Ireland. The Solemn League and Covenant were signed on…
This cabinet tells the story of the 1798 United Irishmen rebellion. The United Irishmen were a group of mainly middle-class Presbyterian merchants who undertook violent revolution to establish an independent Irish republic free of British control. They took their inspiration…
The Girona was one of the 130 ships that sailed in the Spanish Armada that aimed to land a Spanish Army in England in 1588 to depose Protestant Queen Elisabeth 1 and restore England to the Catholic faith. The Armada…
This cabinet contains the Clonemore Shrine. It is the earliest example of Christian metalwork in Ireland dating from the seventh century AD and found in a field near Clonmore, County Armagh in 1990. It is a reliquary for the storage…
This sandstone chair is believed to be the only surviving example of an inauguration chair that was used to coronate new Gaelic chieftains when they inherited their titles, responsibilities and lands in the medieval to the early modern period. This…
This cabinet contains two examples of Bronze age gold jewellery; the Corrard Torc and Inch Bulla. Both date from around 3,000 years ago and are fine examples of Celtic metalwork. The Torc (above) was found at Corrard, County Fermanagh in…
The Malone Hoard is a collection of 19 stone age axe heads that were found at during the construction of Danesfort House in Malone, a district of south Belfast. These items are made from porcelanite, a hard black stone found…
