Belfast City Hall Visitor Exhibition

On Saturday I had the good fortune to be able to spend an hour at Belfast City Hall, home to Belfast City Council (https://www.belfastcity.gov.uk), a building I have never been in before despite having studied in the city for two years and having grown up in a small town just nine miles away! In addition to being able to sign a book of condolence for former Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon, I was also able to visit the impressive exhibition showcasing the history of a divided city, but also one of the most wonderful cities on Earth.

The exhibition is based in 16 rooms on the ground floor of the building, and has themed rooms on a variety of subjects, such as famous Belfast people, language (I haven't heard the phrase 'lose the bap' in years!), the Home Rule and Easter Rising periods, and from a genealogy point of view also had some superb interactive tools from PRONI (www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni), such as a searchable version of the 1897 Belfast city directory, and the 1912 Ulster Covenant - both of which, I have to say, were incredibly easy to use, not least the 1897 directory!

If you can get to Belfast and can spare an hour, it will be well rewarded. And if you have a bit more time, there are also regular free guided tours of other parts of the building normally closed off to the public.

Some images...

 

For more on the exhibition, visit https://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/tourism-venues/cityhall/exhibition.aspx.

Chris

You can pre-order my new book, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 (out April). Also available, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.