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      The Society, having been formed in 1752, completed the building of Clifton House in 1774. In that year the Society was incorporated by legislation of the Irish Parliament “for the better carrying into execution under proper regulations the charitable and humane design of maintaining the poor of the said town and parish”. The legislative framework continues in the Belfast Charitable Society Act of 1996, which states the objects of the Society as being to pursue charitable activities for the disadvantaged, including “the care of the elderly, the relief of poverty, homelessness, distress, infirmity and sickness and providing for the educational and other needs of such persons”. Many of the issues that exercised the Society when Mary Ann was involved find a resonance in the work of the Society today.

      The establishment of the Ladies’ Committee of the Society, of which Mary Ann served as secretary, was inspired by the visit of the social reformer Elizabeth Fry to Ireland in 1827, although Mary Ann was involved with the work of the Society before that date. The committee was concerned with the ‘female department’ and the conditions of female children, aged women, those confined in hospital and female apprentices. During this time there were over 100 elderly people and a similar number of children in Clifton House, with several sharing a bed. Education was an important component for Mary Ann and the Ladies’ Committee. A girls’ school already existed and in 1831 the Ladies’ Committee secured the establishment of an Infant School which catered for those aged two to seven. Training for employment was provided which included domestic work, needlework and shoemaking. Apprenticeship schemes included domestic servants and dressmakers. It took a five-year apprenticeship to become a domestic servant. The measure of concern for the welfare of the girls appears in a minute of the Ladies’ Committee to the general committee (of men) recommending that girls should not be apprenticed to weavers “…. as the sedentary occupation of winding pirns from noon till night in close damp weaving shops is highly injurious to health and spirits …”

      The Poor Law Act of 1838 introduced the workhouse system in Ireland and the Belfast workhouse opened in 1841. While the Poorhouse operated at Clifton House was largely a voluntary organisation, the workhouses were of a different character, being paid for by a Poor Rate raised locally, and with conditions made so harsh that only the most desperate would seek admission. The workhouse was designed to accommodate 1000 people who qualified as “destitute”, as opposed to being in poverty, and the Belfast workhouse was full in 1846, the year after the first failure of the potato crop in Ireland. Mary Ann was involved in famine relief and along with others from the Ladies’ Committee was a member of the Belfast Ladies Association for the Relief of Irish Destitution which was established on 1 January 1847.

      Slavery

      From a letter Mary Ann wrote to her brother in 1797 appears a forthright view on slavery and the status of women: “… there can be no argument produced in favour of the slavery of women that has not been used in favour of general slavery and which have been successfully combatted by many able writers.”

      A most powerful image is that of Mary Ann in 1859 at almost 89 years of age standing on the docks in Belfast, handing out leaflets to those embarking and disembarking from the ships, seeking support for her opposition to slavery.

      Abolition of the carrying of slaves to British territories and to United States territories occurred in 1807. However, slavery continued within the British territories until the Emancipation Act 1834 and in the United States until 1865 when the 13th Amendment abolished slavery throughout the country. Mary Ann must have been exultant to live to see abolition in America.

      Nevertheless the enslavement of those of African descent continued in other parts of the world and, for example, was not abolished in Brazil until 1888. The progression from freedom to equality has been an uneven path. Legislation was required 100 years later to prohibit different treatment on racial grounds. No doubt Mary Ann would have been at the forefront in advocating modern equality legislation based on race as well as gender or on any personal status.

      Today, in the western world, the slavery that endures is of a different character, is less visible and involves the abuse of power, the enslavement of the vulnerable. In 2017, the Northern Ireland Department of Justice chose Clifton House as the location for the launch of its campaign against modern slavery, a recognition of the historical connection between the Society and campaigns against slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries. As a result of the Anti Slavery Day Act 2018, an Anti Slavery Day was held on 18 October 2018 to raise awareness of human trafficking and modern slavery.

      Clifton Street Cemetery

      Ms McNeill concluded her biography by referring to Mary Ann being buried in the shadow of the Poorhouse. The graveyard is behind Clifton House. The two areas have now been separated by a road development that required the vesting of part of the lands originally granted to the Society. Clifton Street Cemetery is now under the management and control of Belfast City Council.

      Mary Ann’s grave remained unmarked for many years. In 1902, during construction work at St. Georges Church, High Street, Belfast, what were believed to be the remains of her brother, Henry Joy McCracken, were recovered. The remains were kept by Francis Joseph Bigger, a solicitor and antiquarian, at his home at Ardrigh, on the Antrim Road in Belfast, where he housed a private museum of the 1798 rebellion. On 12 May 1909, the remains of Henry Joy were reinterred in the plot with Mary Ann. A sealed glass phial was placed inside the coffin describing the recovery of his remains. At the same time a headstone was erected in memory of Mary Ann. The inscription reads:

      MARY ANNE MacCRACKEN

      THE BELOVED SISTER OF

      HENRY JOY MacCRACKEN

      BORN 8 JULY 1770

      WEPT BY HER BROTHERS SCAFFOLD

      17 JULY 1798

      DIED 26 JULY 1866

      Díleas go h-éag

      The inscription may be based on both Irish and Scottish Gallic and may be translated as “faithful to death” and refer to the bond between brother and sister. At Clifton House, where Mary Ann provided long years of support to the women and children, it may be taken to refer to her lifelong devotion to the disadvantaged.

      The Society in More Modern Times

      Accommodation for children ceased in 1882 when other organisations had taken over the provision of care for children. Thereafter, the care facility was provided for the elderly. Dr. Strain in Belfast and its Charitable Society, published in 1961, described the work of the Society (at the time when Ms McNeill was on the Board of the Society and her biography of Mary Ann had just been published). In 1961, there were 144 older men and woman residents at Clifton House who, having secured a place, would have a home for life. Payment was based on ability to pay and no one was refused a place because of inability to pay. Dr. Strain expressed the view that “For the elderly applicants for admission poverty has taken a new form. Extreme financial hardship is rare. Instead there is a poverty of care and affection. This may be the result of living alone on the one hand or of the stresses of overcrowding on the other.”

      As the twentieth century came to a close it became necessary for care facilities to be reviewed. The Society faced new regulations to provide modern standards of care for the elderly. A purpose-built nursing home for the elderly housing 100 residents was completed nearby at Carlisle Circus. Clifton Nursing Home was developed through the unstinting work of Lady Quigley who was chair of the ‘Home from Home’ appeal that raised the funds from business to complete the development and was President of the Society from 2007 to 2017.

      Clifton House continues to house the Belfast Charitable Society, which in 2019 held its 247th Annual General Meeting in its 266th year. Under the stewardship of recent Boards of the Society, the strategic move has been made away from the direct provision of care and the emphasis has been placed on philanthropy, the remarkable heritage of the Society and measures designed to address the ever changing face of disadvantage.

      Today the Society facilitates the care of older people at Clifton House and at Clifton Nursing Home through delivery of care by a specialist provider for those with supported care, sheltered housing and nursing-care needs.

      While

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