Rename Chichester Street in Belfast to McCracken Street.

Rename Chichester Street in Belfast to McCracken Street.

Started
16 August 2021
Petition to
Signatures: 1,133Next Goal: 1,500
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Why this petition matters

Started by Sean Napier

United Irish Historical Society.

The McCracken's were one the most respected Presbyterian families in Belfast. Two well known members of the family are Henry Joy McCracken and his sister Mary Ann McCracken.

Belfast born Henry Joy became the archetypal young revolutionary hero and rebel leader...becoming in death the symbol of the #1798 United Irishmen rebellion in Ulster. Following the defeat of the United Irishmen forces at Antrim which he commanded, the young Henry Joy was captured and court-martialed at the Belfast Assembly rooms and sentenced to be hanged at Cornmarket/High Street. He refused an offer for his life on many occasions, in exchange for naming others involved...he would not betray his friends and was truly 'faithful to the last'. After being removed from the gallows his body was taken up Wineceller Entry to the rear of his house in Rosemary Street then he was brought to the towns burial grounds at the now named St.Georges Church, High Street, Belfast and was buried in an unmarked grave...he's since been reinterned at Clifton Street graveyard with his beloved sister Mary Ann who was also buried in an unmarked grave. Henry Joys only child was Maria Bodel she would also later be buried in an unmarked grave in the paupers section in the same graveyard.

Mary Ann McCracken was an equal rights social activist, petitioning for education and relief for the poor, child welfare and prison reform. She was involved in early women’s suffrage campaigns and prison reform schemes. Mary Ann was also a life-long abolitionist founding the Belfast Women’s Anti-Slavery League. In her late eighties, she could still be found on the docks, handing out anti-slavery leaflets to emigrants embarking for the slave-owning United States!

The motto of this remarkable woman, which accurately sums up her character, was it is ‘better to wear out than to rust out’. But her radical, humanitarian zeal and generous strength of character were indefatigable.

Their father Captain John McCracken was a ship owner and sail maker who'd married Ann Joy a member of a leading Huguenot family, her grandfather founded Irelands oldest newspaper 'The Belfast Newsletter' in 1737 and her brother was the Henry Joy who built the Belfast Poor House 1774....what a family....let's honour them! ..be part of history and sign the petition.

 

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Signatures: 1,133Next Goal: 1,500
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