These stunning historical photos show streets, landmarks, markets, and everyday life of Northern Ireland in the late 19th century. It was the time when the desire for an autonomous Ireland took on even more intensity and violence. The Irish Nationalist Party tried to balance power in the House of Commons, but the problem got worse especially after The Great Famine of 1845-51. British politicians also recognized that a resolution to problems in Ireland was paramount.
These photographs were captured by Irish photographer Robert John Welch. Welch specialized in outdoor photography and took thousands of photographs of the towns and scenery of Ireland. He was a skilled craftsman and his studies of Ireland and Irish life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries are today justly famous. A permanent exhibition at the Ulster Museum features twenty enlarged photographs of his works on the subject of travel and transport. Welch was a member of the Royal Irish Academy as well as serving as president of both the Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club and the Conchological Society of Great Britain & Ireland.
