Dr Robyn Atcheson

Lisa Rea Currie appointed AHRC Community Innovation Practitioner on BeHere Project Queen’s has been awarded a Community Innovation Practitioner (CIP) Award for 2025-26, as part of the Creative Communities programme, funded by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and ...

Another great project developed by the Centre for Public History at QUB

A green garden with a circular pond in the centre, with stairs leading up to a large house in the backdrop. - View of the house from the Spanish garden at Mount Stewart, County Down ©National Trust Images/James Dobson

🎨 Apply by 29 Sept 2025 for a £10,000 Artist Residency at Mount Stewart, Co. Down! Part of the Historic Houses, Global Crossroads research, the 6-week residency (May–June 2026) invites artists to explore global plant networks & reimagine the site’s ecological legacy🌿See link in thread.

A large panel on Magherafelt workhouse with text on the left, a map in the middle and a key on the right.

Alongside the stone memorial, they also installed an information panel right at the entrance to what is now Mid-Ulster Hospital.
It gives a succinct overview of the site's history & shows the layout of the workhouse.

A granite headstone sits on grass. The words read "Magherafelt workhouse site. To the memory of all those who sought shelter within these walls 1842 - 1945"

Another week, another workhouse!

Last night I attended the unveiling of a new memorial at Magherafelt workhouse.

The Loup & District Historical Society, with the expert guidance of Dr Ciaran Reilly, did an excellent job with this project.

Limavady Workhouse - Limavady Opened in 1842, the Limavady Union Workhouse is reported to be one of the best preserved buildings of its type in the whole of Ireland.

It is a beautiful example of a workhouse repurposed to help the local community while also acknowledging and remembering the lives of those affected by the institution.
If you're in the area, definitely give it a visit.
discovernorthernireland.com/things-to-do...

You can visit the entrance block, dormitories and dining area of this workhouse which have been extremely well maintained. You can also see up into the added ventilation towers.
It is open on Mondays and tours are available.

Today, it is home to the Limavady Community Development Initiative. The activity of the Initiative is very impressive with a community cafe, garden and adult and children services. When I visited yesterday I saw the kitchens which provide meals on wheels and a baby bank.

Like many other Ulster workhouses, Limavady had transformed into a mainly medical institution by the 1930s and officially became Limavady District Hospital in 1932. The remaining paupers were transferred to Coleraine workhouse at this time.

A long two storey brick building with 3 story blocks either ends. Green grass in front.

Had a great excuse this week to revisit a workhouse.
Limavady (or Newtownlimavady) was opened in 1842 as a medium model capable of holding 500 paupers.
It is now better known in the area as Roe Valley Hospital where some outpatient services are still in operation.
#workhouse

Absolutely love your deep dive into the first female graduates from QUB. Really great historical detective work!

Florence Augusta Hamilton: mother and mathematician — Robyn Atcheson - Historian Florence Augusta Hamilton Lewis Mother and mathematician

You may have heard me on Radio Ulster yesterday morning chatting with Anna Curran about a very interesting Belfast woman - Flora Lewis.

The full story of this woman and her life is now up on my website.
#womenshistory

www.robynatcheson.com/articles/flo...

NOTE TO SELF It’s OK to Start Over and TRY AGAIN You are doing the BEST you can You are WORTHY and LOVABLE It’s OK to ask for Help You are capable of AMAZING things Your boundaries are IMPORTANT Your FEELINGS are Valid You are ALLOWED to say NO

We are closed 11-14 July.
While we are away, here are some important things to remember!

Awesome stuff! Congrats.

Sex in Jane Austen's World with Dr. Robyn Atcheson Austen After Dark · Episode

To celebrate the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth, I chatted sex history & the Georgians earlier this year for a new podcast -
Austen After Dark

This is very NSFW and also NSFMF (Not Suitable For My Family)

(You've been warned)

open.spotify.com/episode/0zQJ...

Call for Applications: Editorial Fellowships at History Workshop, 2025 History Workshop is advertising two part-time, paid Editorial Fellowships in 2025, open to early career historians.

Join us! We are advertising two part-time, paid Editorial Fellowships at History Workshop in 2025-27.

Our fellowships support early career historians to develop expertise in public, radical and digital history & to gain experience of working in an editorial team.
www.historyworkshop....

I worked as historical consultant on a community-based short film on a little-known aspect of local social history in NI. would that be the kind of thing you'd be interested in?

#impact made me choke on my tea

Finished up exam marking today and fitted in some prep for a radio interview tomorrow.
Pre-recording some women's history for BBC Radio Ulster. Looking forward to chatting about women's education in Belfast & a special mathematician.

It's only Tuesday and I think this is the most interesting thing of the week.
My husband has also just told me about the Disney-inspired bomb developed in WW2 so I'll be in a Disney rabbit hole for the foreseeable.

This was before Snow White even. Mind. Blown.

I got an enquiry from a US academic about an exhibition held in Belfast in 1935. We had the catalogue in our archive. Who knew the Belfast Museum & Art Gallery @ulstermuseum.org
were so forward thinking! #WaltDisney

This is so cool!

Bayeux Tapestry to return to British Museum on loan after 900 years Bayeux Tapestry will be shown at the British Museum, which will lend treasures to Normandy museums.

BIG EMBROIDERY-NOT-A-TAPESTRY NEWS! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A black and white Springer spaniel has his mouth around the top edge of an A4 page with typed text on it. POV of a person trying to read the page.

Appreciation post for my wee man Ben, pictured here helping me prepare a chapter a few years ago.

We had to say goodbye on Friday and I miss him so much already.
My husband had him for 9 years (a rescue of indeterminate age) & I was lucky enough to become his second human.

Couldn't agree more. The pathways do not exist. The care is spread over so many departments.
If you're unlucky enough to get an "old school" rheumatologist, there is zero help.

As a history communicator, I tell the stories that inspire me and the stories that need to be heard.
I give talks and tours.
I speak at festivals.
I consult on history projects.
And I keep track of it all on my website www.robynatcheson.com

As a historian, I research the history I'm passionate about. My PhD was on poor relief in 19th-century Belfast and it left me with a passion for the stories of the marginalised. The poor, the sick, the have-nots.

The front gates of the union workhouse in An Bábhún Buí, Contae an Chabháin, a building on either side and a further building beyond the gates

Information sign for the workhouse in Bawnboy, County Cavan - further info here https://www.workhouses.org.uk/Bawnboy/

Back open area of the Bawnboy workhouse, County Cavan, wildflowers have grown

Teach na mbocht, An Bábhún Buí, Contae an Chabháin

YouTube video by Hearts of Down The Forgotten Famine

Last year I acted as historical consultant for this film about the workhouse burial ground in Newtownards and the impact of the Famine.

So pleased to see it out in the world.
#history #irishhistory #famine

youtu.be/3i6-cHvtP6c?...

So many people did, especially as they were often the only source of free healthcare in Ireland.