Rebecca Watterson

Epidemic Belfast team kicking off the first collaboration between HSTM Network Ireland and Virtual HistSTM

We are delighted that two of the Epidemic Belfast team have been invited to present at a collaborative seminar hosted by Virtual HistSTM and HSTM Network Ireland. Hannah Brown and Rebecca Watterson will be discussing their experiences of Making Public History of Medicine in Northern Ireland as part of the Epidemic Belfast podcast. The seminar

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Belfast District Lunatic Asylum – Moral Treatment, Restraint and Hydrotherapy, 1829 – 1913

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

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Linen Mills in Nineteenth-Century Belfast: Lichen, Lungs and Loss of Limbs

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

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