Joy's Entry Belfast and Henry Joy McCracken

I'm on a 'Voyage of discovery,' down in Belfast City Centre. I'm looking at our series of old Entries/Passageways/Back AlleyWays/Lanes/Short-Cuts generally known as the Entries. In this video I have moved 50 yards or so along Ann Street from Pottinger's Entry to find Joy's Entry. Joy's Entry is particularly narrow and connects Ann Street to High Street. It has several pubs, such as McCrackens Cafe Bar. The Entry takes its name from the Joy family who were prominent 18th century residents of the city, including Francis Joy, founder of the Belfast Newsletter and his grandson Henry Joy McCracken, after whom the pub is named. The Belfast Entries are a series of historical narrow alleyways in the city centre of Belfast, Northern Ireland, mostly in the vicinity of High Street and Ann Street. When the town was first laid out, these alleyways serviced dense residential and commercial development. The surviving examples retain pockets of historic development including many Victorian and pre-Victorian period pubs, some of which remain open for business to this day. Former Social Development Minister David Hanson described the Entries as the streets "where Belfast began and developed into the city it is today". Dating back to at least 1630 but most probably earlier than that, these entries are the oldest parts of Belfast city. The entries running north from High Street were largely destroyed during the Belfast Blitz in World War II. Despite this, some remain. In 2006 and 2007, a number of the Entries underwent environmental refurbishment to improve their condition.