Linen Hall Library, Belfast

Description

The Linen Hall Library, whose official title is the Belfast Library and Society for Promoting Knowledge, developed from the Belfast Reading Society, founded in 1788. The library reports that it is the oldest library in Belfast and the only subscription library remaining in Ireland, continuing to generate a proportion of its income from membership, and that it has retained its independence, maintaining the principle that its resources are owned by the community for the community. Its Northern Ireland Political Collection, which the library reports holds some 350,000 items including artefacts, books, pamphlets, leaflets, posters and periodicals, documents the troubles from the emergence of the civil rights movement through the peace process to the post-conflict society, alongside the archives of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, the Northern Ireland Women's Rights Association, the Peace People and the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition; it is a living collection added to by acquisition and donation. Its other collections include the National Collection of Northern Ireland Publications and the Northern Ireland Literary Archive, and it runs funded archive and public history projects, an annual memorial lecture, talks by historians, and a bursary for writers.

Watch its talks on YouTube.

Currently active

Yes

Offers funding

Yes, this infrastructure provides funding in the following categories:

Founding year

1788

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