‘Dearly, Departed’: Bodysnatching in 19th-Century Belfast

There was a time in Belfast when the bodies of the deceased rose from their graves…but not without some help!

In the 19th century body-snatchers were at large in the local cemeteries, stealing the bodies of the recently deceased for dissection by local doctors. But why did people go to such lengths? Why were these bodies needed? And how were they stopped?

Join us at Clifton House, where James Cromey, Archive & Project Coordinator of the North Belfast Heritage Cluster will discuss why body-snatchers were such a concern during the early 1800’s.

James Cromey is the Archive & Project Coordinator for the North Belfast Heritage Cluster and their Great Place North Belfast project. He has a background in Archaeology, Geography and History, and has completed extended works on Victorian Mental Health Asylums in Britain, and the Witch Trials in Europe. In his role as Archive & Project Coordinator, his work with the Cluster focuses on academic accessibility and empowering communities to rediscover and reclaim their forgotten pasts, whilst his academic research focuses on how memorials, ruins and folktales can influence and alter how history is perceived and understood.

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