Between 1846 and 1852, public health advocates published a series of well-publicized sanitary surveys of Belfast, projects that were clearly shaped by famine, epidemic disease, and population growth. Andrew G Malcolm’s Sanitary State of Belfast and the Rev. William O’Hanlon’s Walks Among the Poor of Belfast were the most prominent examples of this phenomenon. This presentation closely examines these surveys and their reception to detail what they tell us about the nature and limits of public health in famine-era Belfast.

Sean Farrell is Professor of History at Northern Illinois University, researching religion and popular politics in modern Ireland. He is author of Rituals and Riots: Sectarian Violence and Political Culture in Ulster, 1784-1886 (2000), and co-author with Mathieu Billings of The Irish in Illinois (2021). His latest book, Thomas Drew and the Making of Victorian Belfast (2023), uses the public career of a populist Orange cleric to re-evaluate aspects of the history of 19th-century Belfast. He is currently working on a synthetic essay on the challenge of sectarianism in 19th-century Ireland, and a research monograph on the ‘Blackstaff Nuisance’, a study of an environmental disaster in Victorian Belfast. He is a former President of the American Conference for Irish Studies and is a QUB AHSS Visiting Global Scholar for 2025.                                              

This seminar will be available in hybrid form, in-person and online via Teams. Please indicate your preference when registering