Down High schoolteacher launches historical book

Down High schoolteacher launches historical book

7 December 2022

A DOWNPATRICK school teacher was at the recent launch of a new book which looks at an important part of the history of Belfast.

Mr Ken Dawson, history teacher and vice-principal of Down High School, was one of the contributors to a book marking the 270th anniversary of the founding of the Belfast Charitable Society.

The First Great Charity of this Town: Belfast Charitable Society and its Role in the Developing City is a collection of essays charting the society’s history, from its beginnings in the 18th century when it opened the poorhouse in Belfast in 1774, providing relief to the most vulnerable residents of the town.

The book has been edited by Professor Olwen Purdue, Professor of Modern Social History at Queen’s University and a former pupil at Down High

As well as editing the volume of essays, she has written a fulsome introduction on attitudes to poverty and the pioneering role played by the Charitable Society over the past 270 years, including the challenges faced today. 

Mr Dawson’s chapter looks at the divided loyalties within the Belfast Charitable Society during the Age of Revolution in the late 18th century and the competing visions of political loyalists and radicals who, despite their obvious differences around the time of the 1798 Rebellion, continued their philanthropic work without rancour. .

Other contributors to the book include Professor Christine Kinealy, Dr Jonathan Wright, Professor Raymond Gillespie, Assistant Professor Cathryn McWilliams and Sir Ronnie Weatherup, President of the Belfast Charitable Society.

The Great Charity of this Town is published by Irish Academic Press and can be purchased from good bookshops and online at £24.99.