Ian Miller

By Patricia Marsh, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland The 1918-19 influenza pandemic struck in three concurrent waves throughout the world. Ireland was no exception.  As many as 23,000 Irish people may have died from influenza and there were approximately 7,500 deaths in Ulster.[1] By 1918, Belfast was Ireland’s most industrial city and, as elsewhere […]

by Michael Robinson, University of Liverpool The conditions of modern warfare calling large numbers of men into action, the tremendous endurance, physical and mental, required, and the widely destructive effect of modern artillery fire will undoubtedly make their influence felt in a future war, and we shall have to deal with a larger percentage of

by Ian Miller, Ulster University No matter how apparently flourishing a city may be, its merchants thriving and its artisans well employed, it cannot be said to be happy or prosperous when sickness is prevalent; when its deaths-rate is excessive; when, in fact, its very prosperity is founded on the life blood of its people…we

By Tom Thorpe, Independent In August 1913, Dr H.W. Baillie, Belfast’s Medical Superintendent Officer of Health delivered his report on the city’s public health for the previous year. During 1912, Belfast reported its second lowest death rate ever but he noted that around 650 children had died from the seven ‘zymotic’ (infectious) diseases such as

by Ian Miller, Ulster University In 1881, a disagreement erupted between the Board of Guardians and a Belfast man named Thomas Strain. Since 1864, the Guardians had been tasked with vaccinating infants and children against smallpox. The government had made vaccination compulsory, but Thomas was adamant that his child would not be jabbed without his

by Emeritus Professor Greta Jones, Ulster University At the time of writing, we are now in the middle of a COVID epidemic. A hundred years ago, another epidemic affected the lives (and deaths) of millions of people in the world. This was tuberculosis, a disease caused by a bacteria which, like COVID, spread from person

by Nigel Farrell, Ulster University I feel persuaded that epidemic diseases are not the necessary heritage of mankind. Like other terrestrial phenomena, they have certain causes or precursors. It is frequently a difficult problem to ascertain what these are, although it is a matter of the utmost importance to do so; for without a knowledge

by Ian Miller, Ulster University In 1872, an alarmed lady wrote to the Freeman’s Journal reporting that: Taking shelter in a cottage, near Banbridge, County Down, some time ago, during a shower of rain, and noticing the teapot on the hob, I observed that tea stewed in that way did a great deal of harm. The woman

By Michael Kinsella, Ulster University Scotland’s nineteenth-century chartered asylums had philanthropic roots and developed very differently from the Irish district asylum system. They were not designated as pauper institutions and due to their charitable foundations were profoundly influenced by their relationship with the ‘urban Scottish middle class’.[1] They were also progressive by the standards of

By Rebecca Watterson, Ulster University In 1829, the Belfast District Lunatic Asylum opened following the 1821 Lunacy (Ireland) Act which provided the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland with the ability to establish funded district asylums for the lunatic poor.[1] In January 1826, ‘wanted’ adverts were placed in the Belfast Newsletter by surgeon Robert Mcluney seeking a

by Rebecca Watterson, Ulster University Linen’s Rapid Expansion in Belfast Nineteenth century Belfast became known as ‘Linenopolis’.[1] It was linen that drove the rapid population growth of Belfast from 25,000 in 1808 to 70,000 by 1841 and then 385,000 by 1911.[2] By the beginning of the twentieth century, Belfast was the linen capital of the

by Ian Miller, Ulster University. In 1841, Belfast’s population was just 75,308. By 1911, this had risen to 386,947. The promise of regular paid work in the city’s industries, and lack of industrialisation elsewhere in Ireland, encouraged migration to the north’s industrial capital. Cotton spinning peaked in the 1820s when around 3,500 people were employed