The Blue Death in Belfast: The Cholera Epidemic of 1832

The first case of cholera in Belfast occurred on the 28 February 1832 in Quay Lane. The victim died less than twenty-four hours later. The disease spread rapidly in a population weakened by poverty and the effects of the famine of 1821/22. In Ireland, more than 50,000 would die, the worst epidemic since the Black Death in 1350. Belfast quickly ran out of both coffins and graveyard space resulting in hundreds being buried in cholera pits. This talk by Dr Geoffrey Todd examines the unusual treatments prescribed by nineteenth-century physicians and the general panic in the population, all illuminated by sources from The Linen Hall.