This week Belfast Charitable Society were delighted to meet with Dr Christopher Stange, Consulate General of Saint Vincent & The Grenadines, to discuss the ongoing work of the Charitable Society and the Mary Ann McCracken Foundation, as well as Dr Stange’s involvement with the Fairtrade movement.
Dr Stange is pictured with Paula Reynolds, Belfast Charitable Society […]
When Clifton House first opened as an interpretive centre in the early part of the new millennium a long term loan agreement was drawn up with National Museums NI. The loan was of three portraits to hang in the historic Board Room of the old Poor House to help tell the story of Belfast […]
This week marks ‘National Apprenticeship Week’ and we thought it would be fitting to look back at the activities of the Belfast Charitable Society, who were earlier pioneers of apprenticeship schemes in the Belfast area.
Between 1841 and 1846 there was never less than 100 children in the Poor House with a peak of 242 at […]
Dr William Drennan was the youngest son of Rev Thomas Drennan, minister of the First Presbyterian Church Belfast, and Anne Lennox. During this period Presbyterians were impacted by the Penal Codes, and as such many ‘sons of the manse’ attended university in Scotland. William Drennan studied arts in Glasgow (1772) and completed his medical studies […]
In 2019 the cast and crew of Antiques Road Trip visited Clifton House to hear the story of Mary Ann McCracken. The episode featuring Clifton House will air on 28th January at 16:30 on BBC One.
Don’t forget to tune in!
The reasons for individuals coming into the Poor House were numerous. On this day, 7th Jan 1819, Dr Magee requested the admission of John Gribben, aged 47, into the Poor House Hospital. John was a carman who was “robbed and much injured in his person about a week since on the road between this and […]
The Rev Dr Henry Cooke was one of the most influential Presbyterian ministers of the 19th century and personified the ‘victory’ of Old-Light over the more liberal New-Light Presbyterians, many of the latter from a previous generation were United Irishmen and members of the Belfast Charitable Society.
Like many influential Presbyterians in Belfast, Rev Dr Cooke […]
For over 265 years, Belfast Charitable Society has supported people through difficult times. From admission to the Poor House, its outdoor relief scheme or in more recent years through Clifton Residential and Clifton Care Home. As part of the charity’s ongoing philanthropic work it has recently provided funding towards an Early Intervention Family Support Programme […]
In 1882 George Benn, the generous philanthropist, historian and benefactor of Belfast Charitable Society (BCS) died, leaving the sum of £1,000 to the Charitable Society to set up the Benn Charity. This sum of money was to be used principally to provide a dinner or other entertainment for the residents of the Old Peoples Home […]
The Belfast Charitable Society And The Slave Trade
Today marks International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. The notion of slavery tends to bring us back to African slaves brought to America, however slavery continues as 21st Century problem. The Belfast Charitable Society of the 18th Century found themselves caught in the controversy surrounding this abhorrent […]
