Friar's Bush Cemetery
Belfast's oldest Christian burial site, Friar's Bush Cemetery was closed in 1869 due to overcrowding caused by the Great Irish Famine.
FRIAR'S BUSH Ancient Cemetery, Adrienne's Tour
I'm on the busy Stranmillis Road and I'm at the ancient Friar's Bush Cemetery. The cemetery is unfortunatley normally closed but it can be accessed by appontment made with Belfast City Council. This morning Adrienne a top horticulturalist from Botanic Gardens has been lent to us, to give us the guided cemetery tour. I think you will agree that she knows her stuff. I hope you enjoy this wee look at this 'step back in time secret garden'.
Friar’s Bush Graveyard is thought to be Belfast’s oldest Christian burial ground, possibly dating back to pre-Christian times. It also contains the mass grave of hundreds of victims of Belfast’s cholera epidemics.
Although burials no longer take place in the cemetery, it is a recognised historical site and open for viewing by appointment only. Enter the graveyard through the arched gothic gate lodge, built by the Marquis of Donegall in 1828.
There’s a special plaque inserted into the ground near the entrance. It was presented by the Irish government in 1995 and recognises Friar’s Bush as Belfast’s official famine site.
You can view the cemetery from the Discover Nature Centre, inside the Ulster Museum which is located next to the graveyard.
History
Legend has it that St Patrick built a church and blessed a well on the site of Friar's Bush Graveyard, while an order of friars is also said to have been established there. Two important stones found within the cemetery grounds also seem to support this theory.
The first is the famous Friar's stone, which features three crudely cut crosses and the date AD 485. There is some doubt however over the authenticity of the stone. The second is a badly worn stone pillar with a hole near its head which, many believe, is proof that it may have been part of an early church. The name 'Friar’s Bush' comes from an old hawthorn tree in the centre of the cemetery known as 'the friar’s bush' – although exactly who the friar was is unclear!
During the 18th century, Catholics gathered in secret in the graveyard to celebrate mass under the bush (the celebration of Catholic mass was banned under harsh penal laws at the time). A friar is also said to have been hanged on the site in the 1720s. At that time, the graveyard was described as an unenclosed circular mound used for burials of all denominations.
In 1828, the Marquis of Donegall provided land to extend the cemetery. The site was also enclosed with am eight foot high wall at this time, probably to deter bodysnatchers who sold newly buried bodies to anatomists for profit.
After it was consecrated in 1829, the cemetery was used exclusively by Roman Catholics.
The site also contains the mass graves of hundreds of people who lost their lives during the cholera epidemic of the 1830s and the famine of the 1840s. They were buried under a mound, known as ‘Plaguey Hill’, located just inside the site's main gates.
By the mid 1800s, Friar's Bush was becoming overcrowded and only families with burial rights were allowed to be interred in the graveyard. The site was maintained by the Roman Catholic Church until 2000 when it was taken over by the council.
Andrew Joseph McKenna Newspaperman Friar's Bush Cemetery
Andrew Joseph McKenna, the 'headless man'. He was a successful Catholic newspaperman but this did not stop the local Proetestant boys from removing his head way back in the 1800s!
A Cavan man who launched his Northern Star newspaper in 1868. He died in 1872. Apparently he was a fine orator as well.
Further
Northern Star
The Northern Star voiced strong support for the Volunteer movement, also championing parliamentary reform and the union of the people. According to Wolf Tone, it also aimed to give fair coverage of the events in revolutionary France, and to support the emancipation of the Roman Catholics through the creation of an independent Republic of Ireland.
The first edition of the Northern Star was published on January 4, 1792. Samuel Neilson acted as editor on an annual salary of £100. Seven numbers were printed by John Tisdall, and succeeding issues by John Rabb. The principle contributors were the Rev James Porter from Greyabbey, (This is the same guy who was hung for being a United Irishman and now lies in Greyabbey graveyard. I have dine a video about his grave there! )
William Sampson, a lawyer from Co Londonderry, the Rev Sinclair Kelburn, minister at the Rosemary Street Church, Belfast, Thomas Russell, librarian of Linen Hall Library, and the Rev William Steel Dickson, Presbyterian minister of Portaferry. ( I found his grave in Clifton Street cemetery! )
As the ideas fostered by the French revolutionaries filtered through to Ulster, the Society of United Irishmen increased in strength and the political tone of the paper became more extreme. Several of the proprietors were placed under arrest and eventually the Monaghan militia raided the printing office at Wilson’s Court, smashing the presses and throwing the type out the window.
In 1868, Andrew Joseph McKenna started printing the thrice weekly Northern Star from premises at 36 Arthur Street. The first number appeared on Thursday, February 6, 1868, and the last at the end of November 1872. He also published the Weekly Observer.
Based on articles by Albert Campbell. © The Glenravel Local History Project.
Historical PRANKSTER FAKE STONE Friar's Bush Cemetery
I'm at the famous aged Friar's Bush graveyard just off the Stranmillis Road in Belfast.
What about this little ancient mystery stone, in the cemetery? When it was first discovered cleverly placed beside an authentic old stone, it raised quite a few expectations, until it was found to be a mischievous ruse!
My knowledgeable guide Adrienne explains better than I can about this fake stone.
5 Terrifying & Haunted Locations In The UK That YOU Can Visit
The United Kingdom has thousands of years of history, so it is no surprise that that it is one of the most haunted places in the world. Combine with that the fact that we love to be scared. Our fascination with all things supernatural is well known from witches to ghosts and anything else that goes bump in the night. Here are five of the most haunted locations in the United Kingdom.
#creepymarathonmonth #unitedkingdom #paranormal
Topics:
5. Pendle Hill Lancashire England
4. Friars Bush Graveyard Belfast Ireland
3. Tintagel Cornwall England
2. Mary King’s Close Edinburgh Scotland
1. Llandaff Cardiff Wales
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Special Thank you to CO.AG for the music as usual! If you are looking for music for any video production, game, movie etc. He is the man to speak to so check out his channel or send him a personal message:
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Bike Belfast to Northwood!
説明
Clifton Street Cemetery and the Old Belfast Poor House
Introduction of the Clifton Street Cemetery by Joe Baker of the Glenravel Local Project () Cemetery Website Uploaded and Managed by TheNewlodge.com.
This cemetery is located right in the centre of Belfast. It was opened in 1779. It is packed with Poor House graves and these are found, somewhat surprisingly alongside the graves of the rich.
Opened as a new burying ground for Belfast citizens, this graveyard also raised money for the Poor House by the sale of plots.
Old Balmoral Cemetery Stockmans Lane Belfast
I'm at the Lisburn Road end of busy Stockmans Lane in Belfast. Just opposite the entrance to Musgrave Park hospital is the tranquail historic Balmoral cemetery.
Balmoral Cemetery is a cemetery in the Malone area of South Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was opened in 1855 by Presbyterian church men Rev. Henry Cooke and Rev. Joseph Mackenzie, on land owned by Mackenzie, after they had been refused burial by a Church of Ireland rector in another cemetery. The cemetery was controlled by a board of trustees which included three Presbyterian ministers. While most of the burials were for Presbyterians, other denominations were buried there.
Three Commonwealth soldiers (one each of British, Australian, and Canadian armies) of World War I are buried in the cemetery, their graves maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. In 1953, the cemetery was taken over by Belfast Corporation. the cemetery is no longer open for burials and remains locked due to fears of vandalism etc It can be accessed by applying to Belfast City Council.
Notables buried in Balmoral Cemetery
Colonel Hampden Clement Blamire Moody (1821 - 1869), Commander of the Royal Engineers in China and Belfast
Reverend Joseph Mackenzie (1811–1883), Presbyterian Minister and co-founder of the cemetery
Reverend Henry Cooke (1788–1868), Presbyterian Minister and co-founder of the cemetery
Dr Wilberforce Arnold (1838–1891), founder of the Presbyterian Orphan Society
William Batt (1840–1910), architect
Prof. John Creery Ferguson (1802–1865) Physician and Fetologist, Professor of Medicine, Queen's College, Belfast
Henry Cooke statue- Samuel Ferris Lynn (1834-1876) 1876
Bronze Belfast
This statue of Dr. Henry Cooke (1788-1868), leader of Belfast's Evangelical Presbyterians, replaced a work by Patrick McDowell, the so-called Black Man statue of the young Marquess of Belfast, which now resides in City Hall
Cooke was largely instrumental in weaning the Presbyterians of Ulster away from their old alliance with the Liberals and Catholics against the [Anglican] Establishment, and substituting a new alliance with the Unionist Episcopalians against the Catholics. He is depicted in clerical and academic dress; it was inaugurated on 24 April 1876 by a great demonstration of Orangemen from all parts of Ireland
St Mary's, oldest Catholic Church in Belfast 1784
I'm down near CastleCourt on Chapel Lane to visit the oldest Roman Catholic church in Belfast city. It is St Mary's Roman Catholic Church chapel Lane and it opened in 1784.
Who Built St Mary’s Church?
The Census in 1782 showed that there were 365 Catholics living in Belfast. At that time, there was no Catholic Church in the City. Catholic parishioners had been gathering at the mass rock at Stranmillis now Friar's Bush cemetery.
The Presbyterian and Church of Ireland communnities took up a special collection at their services – the Handsome Collection – and made a gift of the monies donated to build the first Catholic Church in Belfast – St Mary’s Chapel Lane. The generosity of the Presbyterian and Church of Ireland people of Belfast demonstrates the unprecedented religious tolerance of that time. Our still cherished and beautiful pulpit was donated to St Mary’s by the Vicar of Belfast, Canon Turner, of the Anglican Church in High Street in 1813.
It was on Sunday, 30th May 1784 that Mass was celebrated for the first time in the new church of St. Mary’s for the first time by Father Hugh O’Donnell, first Parish Priest of Belfast.
A sister church was built – St Mary’s on the Hill in Whiteabbey. And Father O’Donnell would mount his horse after saying Mass in Belfast and ride on horseback to Whiteabbey to say Mass there.
Italian Paintings
The two beautiful paintings hanging on either side of the altar in St Mary’s Church. On the left the painting depicts the death of St Joseph, and on the right the painting depicts the Annunciation.
italian1360
In 19th century Ireland there were not many artists and craftsmen. Italian artists emigrated to Ireland, and one such artist came to live in Belfast. He was a talented painter and muralist and had a studio close to Chapel Lane. He was commissioned to paint the works of art for the opening of the new church.
About six years ago the paintings were restored in situe by experts in art restoration, one of them from the Tate Gallery. The paintings could not be removed from the walls so all work was carried out on scaffolding. The painting of the Sacred Heart was restored at the same time – and the beauty of the paintings was revealed for all to admire. Some time ago, we had the honour to welcome to the church the granddaughter of the Italian artist.
Mary Ann McCracken Social Reformer Belfast Poor House
I've come up the Donegall road and have stopped off on Clifton street at historic Clifton House, home of the Belfast Charitable Society and once the Belfast Poor House in the late 1770 s and 1800 s. Clifton House is an 18th-century Grade A listed building located in Belfast. Originally built as a Poor House by the Belfast Charitable Institution in 1774. Today it is houses a heritage centre alongside a residential home and sheltered accommodation apartments.
Mary Ann McCracken, sister of famous United Irishmen leader, Presbyterian Henry Joy McCracken, was at the centre of the charitable work carried out at the Poor House for the poor and destitute of Belfast.
Born on July 8 1770, Mary Ann McCracken – known as Mary within the family – was the sixth child of Captain John McCracken, a Belfast shipowner and rope maker, and Ann Joy, daughter of Francis Joy, who had founded the Belfast News-Letter and General Advertiser in 1737. Mary Ann had a sister, Margaret, and four brothers: Francis, William, Henry Joy and John. She was very close to Henry and in later life she became the jealous guardian of her brother’s reputation. However Mary Ann ought to be remembered as an extremely impressive and formidable individual in her own right.
Mary Ann was only three years younger than her celebrated brother and, as a result, they were educated together at David Manson’s school, a co-educational establishment, where the ethos was to teach ‘by way of amusement’ and reward rather than punishment. Together, they imbibed the radicalism of William Godwin (1756-1836), Mary Wollstonecraft (1759- 1797) and Tom Paine (1737- 1809). Other members of the family did not espouse their radical politics. She fully supported Henry’s decision to join the Society of United Irishmen in March 1795, when it was on the cusp of becoming a clandestine revolutionary and military organisation.
After Henry’s death she defied family opposition and brought up his illegitimate daughter Maria Bodel in the family home.
Mary Ann was a successful businesswoman (in the muslin trade) and a great philanthropist. Throughout her long life she campaigned tirelessly for causes as varied as the welfare of women and children, the abolition of ‘the diabolical system of slavery’, prison reform and political equality for women. She had a particularly keen interest in the affairs of the Charitable Institution (better known today as Clifton House) which her uncles, Robert and Henry Joy, had helped to found in 1771.
Unlike her brother, Mary Ann enjoyed a long and useful life and died, aged 96, on July 26 1866, well into the Victorian era. She was buried in Clifton Street in the shadow of the poorhouse to which she had devoted so much of her time and energy. Her grave remained unmarked until her brother’s alleged remains were exhumed from St George’s church in High Street and placed in his sister’s grave in 1909, the headstone recording that she ‘wept by her brother’s scaffold’.
A blue plaque has been placed by the Ulster History Circle on the house at 62 Donegall Pass, Belfast, where she lived for much of her later life.
Belfast's First Wooden Water Pipe Supply Early 1800s
This is Georgian Clifton House formerly the Belfast Poor House. It has been running as a haven for the poor and destitute of Belfast since 1774. it is managed by the Belfast Charitable Society.
The first ever piped water in Belfast was at this building and was in wooden pipes. Early supply was a grid of wooden pipes, which progressively rotted from the inside. Wooden water pipes date back to the 18th century and were gradually replaced by cast iron pipe. Belfast City Fire Service have the whole history regarding Belfast's early water supply.
Northern Ireland Travel Vlog
A travel vlog highlighting my experiences traveling through Northern Ireland from September 8th, 2018 to September 12th, 2018. In this vlog you'll see clips from the Ulster Museum, Game of Thrones Iron Islands Tour, Crumlin Road Gaol, Belfast City Hall and Friar's Bush Graveyard.
Game of Thrones Tour Information:
Crumlin Road Gaol:
Ulster Museum (free entrance):
Friar's Bush Graveyard:
Music by Yanivi
Milltown Cemetery
Opened in 1869, Milltown Cemetery became the main Catholic burial ground in Belfast and here is a wealth of history within the grounds.
Captured in a bubble at LaTe LaBs at Ulster Museum, Belfast
Belfast's Old Half Bap District, A Hidden History
Many of our older residents of inner Belfast do not know the new Belfast Cathedral Quarter area by any other name but the 'Half Bap'.
The Half Bap was generally the area that lay behind St Anne’s Cathedral. It had been nicknamed and known as the Half Bap for well over 100 years. Few people know how the name came about. Here is one possible explanation. Bad planning by the City Fathers back in the 1890’s when the area was being re-developed led to streets being demolished/built with little thought of how they might emerge to meet other streets. In the chaos of demolition and rebuilding many streets came to an abrupt end, leaving a large piece of waste ground at the end of three or four of the streets. By accident or design a mound of earth was allowed to take shape on this vacant ground. This fascilitated city traffic that quickly adapted and used it like an early roundabout.
It just so happened that the famous baker Barney Hughes, had just invented his famous bread “bap” at his nearby Donegall Street bakery. Quick witted locals immediately recognised the shape of the new roundabout looked like the top half of a “Barney’s Bap”(dome shaped) and so the roundabout and the district became known as “The Half Bap”. Over time the old mound shaped 'roundabout' was replaced with a rather flat and paved replacement but the name 'Half Bap' name stuck and remained a place name in local people's minds for generations to come.
Little Italy- In the 1880s due to rapid industrial growth many people from all over the world were drawn into Belfast. Many Italians settled in the cheap run down area of Little Patrick Street and the surrounding streets between the two ornate Catholic Churches, St Joseph’s and St, Patrick’s. This area was close to the Belfast docks which was the immigrants’ port of entry into Belfast. This area became known as 'Little Italy'. Italian family names like Scappaticci, Notarantonio , Morelli, Fusco, Forte, would eventually become well known right across Northern Ireland.
Belfast iTours South Belfast Introduction
Patrick Kielty's introduction to South Belfast iTour 1
Roselawn Funeral Home Footsteps in the graveyard
I was standing still under a tree in front of a tall gravestone. I was doing an EVP session, and while I was at a pause, the pigeons in the tree above me were disturbed by something. You hear them flutter, when all of a sudden I hear the leaves behind me rustling, crunching. I stand still listening, turning my head from left to right as my ears are following the steps. Then they just stop. I tag that I heard it with my own ears and then call out to my team.
Belfast City Cemetery - Jewish Section.flv
A tour of the Jewish Section of the Belfast Jewish Cemetery by Stanley Coppel
OLD, wedding photograph OAK, in Belvoir Forest
Is this possibly one of the oldest oaks in Ireland? I believe that some of the oaks in and around Belvoir forest Belfast are said to have been planted in the 1700s or even before.
Anyone?
Since making this video I have discovered with the help of Youtubber Sparkosone that this is not the oldest oak in Ireland or indeed Belvoir forest. I have located this actual ancient tree and am in the process of making a video about it.
OUTBURST 2015 BELFAST: The Gospel According to Jesus Queen of Heaven
OUTBURST QUEER ARTS FESTIVAL
Belfast 12th-21st Nov 2015
The Gospel According to JESUS QUEEN OF HEAVEN
Sunday 15th November
Black Box 3pm £6
Written and performed by legendary trans playwright, performer and poet, Jo Clifford, and Directed by Susan WorsfoldThe Gospel According to Jesus Queen of Heaven is a unique and extraordinary show that has won huge aclaim from the Edinburgh Fringe to Songs of Praise!
Join us for a revolutionary queer ritual in which bread is shared, wine is drunk and familiar stories are reimagined by a transgender Jesus. Humane, mischievous and loving, the world is also reimagined – as a far better, kinder and more tolerant place.
Jo’s original performance is presented for Outburst on screen, in a version of the show filmed at St. Marks Unitarian Church, Edinburgh. Jo will attend to introduce and elaborate on the themes and journey of the production.
A genuinely gorgeous event Jesus Queen of Heaven has a gentle power to penetrate and heal the hearts of believers and non-believers alike, leaving everyone “feeling blessed”
A show that demands to be seen
***** Broadway Baby
Moving and infinitely graceful...deserves
more than a star rating”
Lyn Gardner, The Guardian