Exploring Donegall Street

Historical Belfast

For this episode I’ve decided to re-trace some of my steps from last year.
Early in 2023, while chatting with Eoin Brannigan – Editor In Chief at the Belfast Telegraph – we came up with a plan for a series of articles to feature in the newspaper. The series was directly inspired by Donal Fallon’s brilliant Three Castles Burning book A History of Dublin in Twelve Streets. “Do you think this could be done for Belfast?” Eoin asked me. “Absolutely!” I replied, and so I got to work on it straight away by selecting an initial list of 10 streets to go away and research. The idea was not to provide a dull chronological historical description of each street, rather it was to unearth interesting and lesser-known stories of people & events associated with each street and then attempt to weave them together. The end product, it was hoped, would offer a history of Belfast from the streets – an alternative history, if you like. For me it became a voyage of discovery with every passing street, and I’m pleased to say that the voyage isn’t over because the Belfast Telegraph has committed me to another 10 articles starting later this month. Each of these articles will be repurposed as bonus podcast episodes for subscribers on Patreon – so if you haven’t checked out the Historical Belfast Patreon yet now is the time to do so!

But for now, we’re going back to the start - back to the very first article that I wrote which kicked off the series. Part of the fun of these articles was seeing how the editors would choose the titles after I’d submitted them. For this one on Donegall Street they opted for ‘Bleak Street’, and here’s why.
First World War Historical Walking Tour (Sunday 14th July)

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