When Tom Hartley began his research on the history of Balmoral Cemetery – originally known as Belfast Cemetery, Malone – he did not anticipate that it would take him on a journey of discovery into the dynamic history of Belfast Presbyterianism and of Belfast itself. From the prominent conservative nineteenth-century Presbyterian minister the Reverend Henry Cooke to the suffragist Isabella Tod, and including the powerful Presbyterian ministers and lay members of its various Belfast churches, this story embraces narrative of schisms and controversy, details the formation and disappearance of congregations, outlines the temperance and missionary work undertaken by Belfast Presbyterians, and explores the historic connections with Scottish Presbyterianism.
