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00:00piano plays softly
00:30I've long been a fan of history
00:36trying to find ways of understanding ourselves and our place in the world
00:40but not just in books
00:42the story of our past is also written in stone
00:46in the streets and buildings where people have lived
00:49and in the markers of their final resting place
00:52their Langhem
01:00Belfast was once Ireland's largest city
01:02it boasted the biggest shipyard and ropeworks in the world
01:06and much of its fortune was built on the linen industry
01:10as the city grew economically
01:14so too did its population
01:16and the need for more burial space
01:19Graveyards like this reveal so much
01:27of the rich, the poor, the great and the good
01:31but I'm interested in a particular group of people
01:34whose lives are intricately entwined
01:37in the very fabric of this city
01:39I'm in search of the Ulster Scots
01:44who had a hand in building Belfast
01:46businessmen
01:48industrialists
01:49and the ordinary citizens
01:51and the events that shaped their lives
01:53One of the older graveyards in Belfast
01:58is at Knockbreda Parish Church
02:00which opened its grounds for burials after 1737
02:04Its collection of funerary monuments
02:07is among the finest in Ulster
02:09This is the Langhem
02:12of a man once said to be the richest in Belfast
02:15A hugely successful businessman
02:18he made his money in shipping and the Caribbean
02:21He was very important to the economic and political life of the city
02:25but he also tried to establish a slave trading company here
02:29Here are deposited the remains of Waddell Cunningham Esquire
02:34Integrity as a merchant
02:36Generosity as a patron
02:38Hospitality as a friend
02:40Grateful remembrance
02:41Does he warrant all of that?
02:44Well, as a merchant he was dedicated to himself of course
02:47to making money
02:48which he did
02:50He was born in Khalid
02:51County Andrum
02:52up near where the International Airport is today
02:55and he made money in the Caribbean
02:57He made his money by privateering
03:00He was allowed to catch the French ships
03:02because Britain was fighting France at the time
03:04and if he took them
03:05he was allowed to sell their cargo
03:08which was chiefly sugar and coffee
03:11and sugar at that time
03:13was really the oil of today
03:15What was his influence in Belfast?
03:17He became head of the ballast board
03:19which was to be the harbour of commissioners
03:22and therefore he was very interested in deepening the harbour
03:27Belfast does not have a natural harbour
03:30If Waddell Cunningham had not deepened the harbour
03:33Belfast would never have become a port the way it is today
03:37In our 21st century view
03:43Waddell Cunningham was a complex figure
03:46He supported slavery
03:47and what he believed were its potential economic benefits to the city
03:51But he also sat on the board of the Belfast Charitable Society
03:55with a group of other businessmen
03:57most of them Ulster Scots
03:59like Waddell Cunningham himself
04:00Motivated by their Presbyterian sense of duty
04:04they believed in giving something back to society
04:07They used their own money to ease the poverty of their neighbours
04:10giving work and education to the city's poor
04:13The society was based here in the heart of Belfast
04:20in the beautiful old Georgian building Clifton House
04:23Amongst other things
04:25they were responsible for the first clean water supply to the city
04:28which flowed through wooden pipes
04:31The Belfast Charitable Society was set up in 1752
04:38and the population of Belfast was about 15,000
04:41but it was a rapidly growing, you know, early industrial town
04:44there were lots of beggars in the street
04:46coming in from the surrounding countryside
04:48There was no hospital for the sick poor at that time
04:52So the great and the good
04:53the Marquess of Donegal
04:54the local Church of Ireland rector
04:57the sovereign or the mayor of the town
04:59various early bunkers in the town came together
05:02at a meeting in a pub called the George and North Street
05:05and they founded the Belfast Charitable Society
05:07They had to rely on donations
05:09You can see the donor boards all around Clifton House here
05:12of money granted for the relief of the poor
05:15And it was in this building in the 1780s
05:19that two businessmen
05:20Thomas McCabe who was a jeweller in the town
05:23a United Irishman and Robert Joy established the cotton industry
05:27and cotton was to become a boom industry at the end of the 18th century
05:31giving way to linen later on
05:32So you could say that Ulster's industrial revolution started at a meeting in this room
05:39the boardroom in Clifton House at the end of the 18th century
05:43So this room saw a lot of different things during that time
05:46Well this room saw so much
05:48every major visitor to the town
05:50Wulftown was in this room
05:52Henry John McCracken was in this room
05:54and of course the first known liberated slave
05:59Olaudah Equiano stood at that fireplace here
06:03in the boardroom in 1792
06:06and spoke about slavery and the need for the aristocracy to work against it
06:11And so radical was Belfast in those early 1790s
06:15as they embraced the idea of liberty and equality
06:18that local United Irishmen like Samuel Neeson refused to use sugar
06:22which was being refined locally
06:24because it came from these slave driven plantations in the West Indies
06:29I notice many pictures of men in the charitable society
06:34What about women?
06:36The most important woman involved in the charitable society
06:39was not a member of the board
06:40She was an ardent poiler really in the vineyard
06:44and her name was Mary Anne McCracken
06:47She was of course the sister of perhaps the more famous
06:49Henry John McCracken, United Irishman
06:52executed for his part in the rebellion in Belfast
06:54in the long hot summer of 1798
06:57and she devoted her life to good causes
06:59opposing slavery, supporting liberalism
07:02opposing bigotry in politics and public life
07:05and cherishing those values of the 1790s
07:10Mary Anne's final resting place is here in Clifton Street
07:17in the first graveyard in modern Ulster
07:19not to be established by a religious denomination
07:22Opened by the Belfast Charitable Society in 1797
07:27it contains over 8,000 graves from unionist politicians
07:32to members of prominent Presbyterian industrial families
07:35a place filled with stories that speak of our complex histories
07:40Mary Anne McCracken lies alongside her brother Henry Joy
07:45one of the leading members of the United Irishmen
07:51This is the grave of Henry Joy McCracken
07:54His sister Mary Anne is here too
07:57Yeah
07:57Was she as equal?
07:58Oh most definitely she was as equal
08:00Unfortunately she's sort of forgotten about
08:03you know alongside Henry Joy
08:04but Mary Anne definitely was a force to be reckoned with in her own right
08:08What did she do?
08:09Well she was really one of Belfast's key reformers and philanthropists
08:13she championed many causes for women, for children, for workers
08:18she was very much to the fore in the anti-slavery movement
08:21and she played a massive and significant role in the work of Belfast Charitable Society
08:25and running the Powerhouse
08:26What practical things did she do?
08:29She set up a ladies committee at the Powerhouse
08:31and through the ladies committee they established a wide programme of education
08:35and they made sure that the residents within the Powerhouse
08:38could use their own natural skills and they trained them up so that they could improve their own lives
08:43Women in society in those days weren't regarded as the decision makers
08:47how did she manage to achieve what she did?
08:49I think she did it well one because she came from a strong family
08:53she was well educated she was very progressive very liberal herself
08:56but as well as that I think as a woman again it was her tenacity and her character
09:01that drove her forward to do what she chose to do so for example
09:06when they found out that Henry Joy had had a legitimate child
09:09Mary Ann adopted the child much going against what her own family and friends thought they should do
09:15She lived to a ripe old age was she active right to the end?
09:18Oh very much so I mean we have records that show 17 days before she turned 89
09:23Mary Ann was walking from Clifton House down to where is now the Albert clock
09:27to give out anti-slavery leaflets to people who were emigrating to America
09:31We want to continue on her works so we have very recently established the Mary Ann McCracken foundation
09:38which is really about trying to help people who are actually on the brink of poverty
09:42because again we believe that's something that Mary Ann would have done herself
09:50Mary Ann McCracken's extraordinary life owes much to the Ulster Scots tradition in which she was reared
09:56in which philanthropy and social justice were so strong
10:01but besides families of social standing who enjoyed lives of ease
10:05this cemetery is also a lang hymn for many of Belfast's poor
10:12Anne McGehan who was recorded as being a pauper was buried here in 1831 in unmarked poor ground
10:20it was shortly after the society began to keep records and her age was recorded as 109 years old
10:26which was quite a feat for the 1830s
10:31pressure continued to grow on burial space in the city
10:35this was partly alleviated by one of the most influential clergymen in 19th century Ulster
10:41the Reverend Henry Cook known as the Presbyterian Pope
10:46he was a controversial figure with no fear of theological or political debate
10:50and so beloved of his congregation that they built May Street Presbyterian Church especially for him
11:00well he first came to to fame as a defender of conservative orthodox religion and he did that in
11:07his own church in the 1820s and became a great defender of conservative Protestant orthodoxy
11:14he was seen primarily as the man that's brought Presbyterians back to reformation principles
11:22and as a result of what happened in his campaign in the 1820s the Presbyterian Church in Ireland as
11:28we know it today was formed in 1840 so as a Presbyterian he's crucially important in terms
11:34of leading that religious reform and revival what kind of preacher or person was he he was one of the
11:42great orators of the 19th century he was widely in demand for opening churches for giving political
11:50speeches and people were so excited and listening to him they actually took their shoes off their feet
11:55and banged them together whenever he was giving his speeches in the synod how did his politics
12:00and religion sit alongside each other cook became a great Presbyterian hero but more than that he
12:06became a great Protestant hero and he comes to political prominence in the 1830s in particular
12:13where he is opposing the rise of Irish Catholic democracy under Daniel O'Connell who's trying to
12:21make Catholics more politically powerful and also he begins to question whether Ireland should be
12:26part of the United Kingdom and Cook becomes the great hero of Protestantism in general bringing
12:34together Presbyterians in the Church of Ireland and a great supporter of the active union but he's also
12:41important because he makes a practical impact upon Belfast, May Street Church and of course Balmoral Cemetery
12:48which he set up in the early 1850s and so as a consequence of that the black man statue in the
12:54centre of Belfast is a symbol of how important he is not just to Presbyterians but to Protestants more generally
13:05Henry Cook was one of a group who chose a small plot of land in Stockman's Lane in South Belfast as
13:11the site for the new burial ground the place that is also his own Langham Balmoral Cemetery
13:20Balmoral was the first Presbyterian graveyard not to be attached to a meeting house but the stories of
13:26all those buried here individuals and families provide great insights into the impact of Ulster
13:33Scots on 19th century Belfast Tom what have you learned about the Presbyterians from this graveyard well
13:40what I came across when I opened those gates in this cemetery a vista of a very dynamic 19th century
13:48church opened up before me and it opened up in terms of congregations it opened up in terms of new
13:55churches it opened up in terms of education so in Belfast by the end of the 19th century Presbyterians
14:02had 66 congregations in this city what range of people would we find in here well you've got a lot of
14:08senior ministers of the Presbyterian church for instance Hugh Hannah who was a minister in Berry
14:13Street and then built his own church at St Enix then you have Bat the architect then you have John
14:19Robb you're old enough to remember Robb's store in the centre of Belfast you've got Kelly's Coal Boats
14:25then there's John Piper and John Piper is the founder of Belfast High School you've got a British
14:31army general who was an Irish speaker then there's the Reverend Glasgow and he's one of the very first
14:37Presbyterian missionaries to India and he ends up as a missionary in Gujarat and he becomes so
14:44proficient in the language of the local language that he translates the Bible into Gujarati and the
14:49Psalms after years spent in India he comes back to Ireland and he becomes professor of oriental languages
14:58so he is a reminder of a period in the Presbyterian church where they really look into the bigger
15:05worlds and you see it here in this summit
15:12so here we have the plot of John Edgar he was a minister if anyone captures the dynamic nature of
15:20Belfast Presbyterianism in the 19th century he does so he started off with a small congregation
15:27they met in commercial court off Donegal Street and then he builds a new church in Alfred Place
15:36as that church grows he builds a second church he then becomes a professor and has to leave his
15:42congregation but then he buys an old Baptist Hall on Academy Street and he starts another congregation
15:49there and out of Academy Street come three congregations out of his original church
15:54and Alfred Place comes another three congregations he is also responsible for getting the land that
16:01the Presbyterian College is built on so what you see in 19th century Belfast is particularly at the
16:08center core is a very upwardly mobile Presbyterian community but let me show you another stone which
16:15I think also is a part of that dynamic church in 19th century Belfast so here we are at the grave of
16:23Isabella Todd now the odd thing about the Presbyterian history of Belfast is you don't see their women
16:30and yet these women like Isabella Todd play such a crucial role in the politics of the city so Isabella
16:38was born Scotland came to Belfast in her 20s but was always interested in what we would today know as
16:46social work are engaging around a whole series of issues affecting women she also started the suffrage
16:53movement on this island and campaigned for the right of women to vote she was very interested in
17:00education and along with Margaret Byers who later you know her school became known as Victoria College
17:09campaigned for women to be able to take university exams so here you see us again that sort of that
17:16dynamic nature of Presbyterianism
17:18Victoria College is one of the longest established girls schools in the British Isles
17:30founded as the ladies collegiate school it went on to become a radical progressive groundbreaking
17:36institution in the history of women's education here Margaret Byers its founder was like her friend
17:44Isabella Todd a great campaigner for women in Ulster and Ireland in the late 19th century
17:52at the age of 19 she married a Presbyterian minister the Reverend John Byers and went with
17:59them to China to do missionary work but on the journey out John took seriously ill and Margaret
18:05realizing that he wouldn't survive decided they should return home
18:09on that way back eight days before they reach New York John tragically dies and then Margaret returns
18:18to Ulster and at this point she's only she's only 20 she's still incredibly young and then she takes
18:24up a post a teaching post at the ladies collegiate school in Cookstown which is I suppose the start
18:30of her career then in in teaching and in education but she took up this teaching job and she wasn't happy
18:36in it and she seemed to have had lots of friends in Belfast and quite influential people some
18:42influential Presbyterian ministers and they seem to have obviously encouraged her and the decision
18:47was then taken that she would move to Belfast in 1859 and set up her own school and that's no mean
18:53fate to decide I'm just going to uproot and I'm going to go and set up my school and she's still
18:59only in her twenties at this point in time what happens next well in the 1870s as the school was
19:04growing and the numbers were increasing there was a decision taken that there needed to be purpose
19:10built premises for the school and a site was chosen the architects young and Mackenzie designed the
19:17building and it was here in lower crescent where the purpose-built premises of the ladies collegiate
19:23school were built that then becomes Victoria College when in Queen Victoria's jubilee year by
19:29royal command the name was changed and again that's an example of the prominence that the school had
19:34attained by that point to build the premises was quite a risk there was a big loan of seven thousand
19:40pounds which in today's money was probably well over half a million pounds to to build the premises so
19:47again a lot of faith and a big risk that you'd be able to continue to get girls to come to pay the
19:53fees and that the school would again continue to develop and and be financially secure how big an
19:59influence was Margaret bars and the school on Belfast she's incredibly important for a whole generation
20:06of middle-class women being educated being allowed to develop the talents and academic abilities that they
20:15had been able to get university degrees and she has secured then that for a number of these women they
20:24can go on into professional jobs so really in terms of influence for girls education Margaret Byers is the
20:31leading pioneer in Ireland at this time
20:33Margaret Byers is on Belfast Falls Road in the city cemetery her headstone shows that despite
20:46everything she achieved the society in which she lived still defined women by traditional rules
20:54when I look at this inscription it's hard to believe that this exceptional woman is referred to as just
21:00widow rather than the pioneering woman that she really was
21:10the land for the city cemetery was purchased by the Belfast corporation from the wealthy business family
21:16the Sinclairs open to all faiths and classes it was the first municipal bearing place for the still
21:24growing Victorian town it would be a testament to the status wealth and growth of the city
21:32the author peter mccabe is fascinated by the history surrounding the city cemetery and the ulster scots
21:38stories to be discovered here well the cemetery itself done opened in 1869 after a lot of the older
21:46graveyards became full the original shape of the cemetery was in the shape of a bell and it was designed
21:52by a man called william gay from bradford but the place has expanded greatly since it originally opened
21:58in 1869 and now there's more than 225 000 folks buried here in the city cemetery
22:11Belfast's sharp and salty side can be found here too in these modern markers
22:16Victorian graves reflected a person's position in society with ornate urns obelisks and angels
22:26or symbols with their own specific meaning like grieving women clasped hands or broken columns
22:34who've we got here dan this is captain francis lovell speed he served with the black watch scottish
22:40regiment and he died in 1888 and he's only 32 and this headstone was erected by the officers of the
22:48black watch and it features on the headstone his campaign medals and either side of that is a scottish
22:55thistle and his sword and his belt is also there this headstone might look vandalized but it actually
23:02was designed like this a broken column symbolizes a life cut short well dan this is the grave of james
23:12inglis along with his brother he founded the inglis bakery or ingles as they would say if it was in
23:17scotland and he formed it in elijah street here in belfast and this beautiful headstone was designed by
23:24rosamond prager the famous sculpturess and she designed it bearing in mind the business that the
23:30englishes were in in other words the bakery business the images here would be typical of the
23:35images they would have used in their marketing material so you'll see the image to the left
23:40that's the man in the with the sunrise in the background and it says in the morning so they
23:45seed and then to your right then it says and that evening withhold not thy hand and that depicts a
23:51woman and then gathering in the crops so it's a fantastic headstone i remember english from my
23:58childhood i remember that they had an advert for the biscuits that said english the biscuits the experts
24:03like best rosamond prager found her inspiration for james english's headstone in the book of ecclesiastes
24:12and beautifully evoked the natural world from that passage of scripture but other graves speak of a
24:18very different world an industrial world of ships and in particular steel this is frank workman
24:27uh the workman's originally from saltcoats in irishare and frank workman founded the workman clark
24:33shipyard it was known as the wee yard even though it wasn't actually that way because it produced
24:37more tonnage for a significant number of years than harlan wolf this headstone is at a slightly
24:44different angle from the rest of the headstones in this section and it's because it's angled
24:48deliberately to face where the wee yard was in the distance you can see the cranes of harlan wolf and
24:54working on clark would have been in that same area so even in death he could look over his charges but
25:00what i like about the headstone is it might look like limestone but it's actually made of steel
25:11belfast proud maritime history is on display everywhere in this cemetery edward harland the
25:17founder of harland and wolf chose it for his final resting place as did his successor the innovator and
25:24business genius who would make the company a global success my father and his brothers worked most
25:34of their lives in the belfast shipyards i'm keen to learn about william and margaret perry perry was
25:40the head of harland and wolf the greatest shipyard in the world but behind every great man there's a
25:46great woman by count william perry i would view as ireland's greatest ever industrialist i would also
25:55view him as being the napoleon of shipbuilding this is on a global scale he started in harland and wolf in
26:021862 the year the creation of that company as a gentleman apprentice he rose to drive that company to the
26:08heights that it reached more than any other single person you describe him as a napoleon yes tell me about
26:14his josephine his josephine was his wife margaret is very close confidant for life they worked as a
26:21team for all of their days they traveled everywhere together they were completely inseparable so what
26:27did margaret do margaret's crowning achievement was the building of the royal victoria hospital
26:33in belfast this came about when in 1896 and 1897 her husband william was lord mirror she was lady
26:41mirrors and they conceived this plan to build a modern hospital for belfast that it required the
26:48old general hospital had passed its best before date but also i like to think due to the regular
26:56fatalities and very severe accidents in the shipyard that they felt that this would be something very
27:02appropriate to give back how did she go about building this hospital so margaret canvassed the rich
27:08and influential friends for money and receive substantial sums from them and they indeed
27:14contributed much of their own money to this project as well and ultimately then that hospital was
27:19completed and opened in july 1903 completely financed it opened with no debt and with a fund to run the
27:25hospital as well margaret perry would also be the first woman justice of the peace in belfast
27:34and the first woman to receive the freedom of the city but once again just like margaret byers her
27:40part in the story of belfast isn't reflected on her tombstone
27:50on my journey through the graveyards of belfast i've seen many aspects of the ulster scots in this city
27:56men and women rich and poor preachers of their people i've learned of their achievements and i've come to
28:02understand belfast better not everyone makes it into the history books but in burying grounds all over
28:11ulster headstones marking the lang hem have many intriguing stories to tell i can't wait to hear some
28:19more
28:27so
28:29so
28:31so
28:33so
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