News

The Epidemic Belfast team were delighted to receive an invite to speak at the Digital Festival for the History of Science (3 to 7 July 2023). Organised by the British Society for the History of Science, we ran a 2 hour session on our past, present and future activities.

Do you have memories of Ulster Women & Children Hospital, Templemore Avenue, Belfast? Then come and join us for tea and a chat. EastSide Visitor Centre, Belfast BT4 1HH. 4 February 2023, 10-12 and 1-3pm. Ulster University’s Epidemic Belfast team is collecting memories, oral histories and memorabilia to help preserve the history of this important

We’re delighted that Ireland’s Own published an article in June 2022 by Rebecca Watterson. ‘Linen Workers in Belfast: Lichen, Lungs & Loss of Limbs’ featured in the June 24, 2022 issue of Ireland’s Own, available HERE.

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

We’re delighted to be hosting events across the Halloween weekend at the Ulster Folk Museum, Cultra. The weekend will be packed full of intriguing, but often gruesome, stories about Northern Ireland’s medical history. For more information and tickets, visit https://visitbelfast.com/event/halloween-at-ulster-folk-museum/

The Epidemic Belfast team are delighted to be taking part in Féile an Phobail. On Monday 8th August, 1pm, we will count down our ten most intriguing, gruesome and harrowing findings. St Mary’s University College, Falls Road.

We’re delighted to be working with History Ireland on a new semi-regular medical history feature. In the first of these, published in July 2022, Ian Miller explores ‘tea mania’ and asylums in 19th-Century Belfast.

The Epidemic Belfast team were delighted to feature in a 2-page spread in the weekend edition of Belfast Telegraph (5 February 2022). A link to the article can be found here: https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/life/features/epidemic-belfast-podcast-takes-a-scalpel-to-our-medical-past-41413686.html.

After our successful launch, Ulster University has published this news article on our new podcast and medical history project. https://www.ulster.ac.uk/updates/2021/december/13089

On 27 October 2021, Epidemic Belfast contributors Rebecca Watterson, Ian Miller and Michael Kinsella organised an event entitled ‘Life and Death in the Asylum, c.1840-1970’ at the Riverside Theatre, Coleraine. In the nineteenth century, sufferers of mental illness were treated and managed en masse in the asylum. Across Ireland and Britain, the state funded an expansive system

In October 2021, Rebecca Watterson, Eugenie Scott and Ian Miller wrote an article for the Slugger O’Toole website, an award-winning news and opinion portal based in Northern Ireland. The article provides an overview of all of our podcast episodes and forthcoming articles relating to Belfast’s hidden medical history. You can read the article and learn more

On Friday 5 November, the Epidemic Belfast team will officially launch their project at the Sunflower Public House, Belfast, as part of their event for the ESRC Festival. The event will feature short, accessible talks on the most intriguing, harrowing and sometimes gruesome findings while researching the project. The event will also feature a quiz with