As part of the AHRC ‘Poverty and Public Health in Belfast, 1800-1973′ Project, we commissioned a short film to address themes of poverty and social exclusion in the city from the past to the present.
Presented by Belfast novelist Glenn Patterson, this film is now available for viewing at:
https://vimeo.com/202078870/76477118c2
The film has been produced for the project at QUB by Dr Olwen Purdue and made by Subterraneanfish
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Robyn Atcheson has been the PhD Student attached to our project since 2012. We are 
delighted that Robyn has now completed her PhD and that she has been awarded a doctoral degree by the Board of Examiners.
Her dissertation is on ‘Poverty, poor relief and public health in Belfast c. 1800 – 1851′
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New Publication
We’re happy to announce a new publication arising from the project:
Olwen Purdue, ‘Surviving the industrial city: the female poor and the workhouse in late nineteenth-century Belfast’, Urban History, 44:1 (Feb. 2017)
Abstract:
In common with many British cities, but unlike the rest of Ireland, late nineteenth-century Belfast experienced rapid industrialization and physical expansion. Women formed a significant proportion of the city’s workforce, attracted by the employment opportunities represented in the burgeoning textile industry. Many of them were economically vulnerable, however, and could find themselves destitute for a number of reasons. This article sets Belfast’s Poor Law workhouse in the landscape of welfare in the city, exploring how its use reflected the development of the city and the ways in which the female poor engaged with it in order to survive.
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