This talk explores aspects of 20th Century Belfast through the voices and visions of people outside the mainstream or struggling to survive in a challenging urban environment.

Our speakers will recover the voices of immigrant groups negotiating the polarities of a bifurcated society, including those of Belfast’s Jewish, Italian and Chinese communities, and review the contrasting images created by those who sought to expose the realities of poverty in the city through photography and others who offered escapism to the working classes through the mass medium of cinema.

‘Voices and Views of Belfast’ is hosted by the Institute of Irish Studies and Centre for Public History at Queen’s University and showcases the exciting new research on the city’s hidden histories by four of our early career researchers.