A 90 minute, expertly guided walking tour through Belfast's industrial past with Dr. Rebecca Watterson

Explore the lives of the Millies - Belfast’s female linen workers, and the part they played in making Belfast one of the world’s leading linen-producing cities on this expertly guided walking tour from award-winning historian Dr. Becca Watterson.

Starting at 50 York Street (outside Hero) and continuing through the city centre via several interesting stopping points, the tour looks at the realities of mill work, including low pay, long hours, dangerous machinery, and the effects of flax dust and factory conditions on women’s health.

The tour also examines the growth of trade unionism and the work of figures such as Winifred Carney and Ellen Gordon and May Blood in organising Belfast’s textile workers into a labour force to be reckoned with.

Along the way, we will visit sites connected with the linen trade, workers’ protest and women’s labour, ending at the Monument to the Unknown Woman Worker.

About Dr. Rebecca Watterson

Rebecca is a historian of medicine and in particular the history of mental illness and it’s treatment.

In 2020 she was awarded the Birley Prize for the best Master’s thesis in social history and was subsequently awarded funding to develop an innovated PhD project on the history of lobotomies in 20th century Britain.

She is Education Officer at the Northern Ireland War Memorial Museum where she has been develops creative learning programmes for young people to help them engage with history alongside her many projects as an independent historian and researcher.

About The History Collective

The History Collective are a group of award-winning social historians and history communicators who work in Belfast and across Northern Ireland bringing history to life though expertly-guided tours, workshops, talks and courses.

The Collective aims to bridge the gap between academic historians and the public by providing enjoyable, entertaining and educational experiences and events which are academically credible and rigorously researched.

Description supplied by the event organiser.