Trailblazing Women of Belfast

A talk by Dr Robyn Atcheson about remarkable women in Belfast, followed by an optional walking tour.

SATURDAY 29TH & SUNDAY 30TH

11:00AM – 2:15PM

£15/£12

These events are now SOLD OUT.

In the nineteenth century, Belfast went from a small town to a booming, industrial city with a remarkably high proportion of women but what role did women have in shaping this new city?

Historian Dr Robyn Atcheson will introduce you to familiar and not-so-familiar women from the nineteenth century who dared to push back against the notions of respectable society and attempted to change the world, starting with Belfast.

You’ll meet a nonagenarian fighting to end the slave trade, women desperately trying to make childbirth safer for the poor, the first Irish suffragist and an unstoppable duo changing the education system for girls throughout the country.

You’ll also hear about the female workers of ‘Linenopolis’, the millies who worked in appalling conditions in order to support themselves and their families.

This talk and walking tour will look at how women engaged with politics at a time when their voices were being deliberately silenced and how they overcame class barriers in order to achieve small victories.

The talk will also look at the legacy of these women in the 20th and 21st centuries and how Belfast can better remember them and their activism.

Dr Robyn Atcheson is a social historian who specialises in nineteenth-century Belfast. She teaches and writes on Irish history, social history and women’s history as well as consulting on public history projects. She is currently working on a project about the Belfast workhouse. For more on her work, check out www.robynatcheson.com

The talk runs from 11:00am to 12:30pm, followed by an optional walking tour from 1:00pm to 2:15pm.

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