The last decade has seen a marked increase in historical studies of class and social stratification in Ireland. While religious and political cleavages are familiar territory, particularly in relation to Belfast, the function of class has remained secondary to considerations of national identity and political allegiance. Alice Johnson's monograph on middle-class life in Victorian Belfast provides a welcome remedy to that neglect, providing a meticulously researched account of Belfast's middling classes during a period of tremendous growth and dynamism in the city's history. Focusing on the period from 1830 to 1880, Johnson's research delves enthusiastically into the social and cultural associations which bound this eponymous class together.
The book skilfully combines family archives, memoirs, periodicals, newspapers, and business records to illustrate the economic interests and cultural values undergirding a shared experience. Combining a prosopographical approach alongside case studies of three families, Johnson expertly layers different types of sources to analyse issues like social mobility, suburbanisation and philanthropy. The family archives of the Workman and Corry families, Presbyterian businessmen involved in shipbuilding and the linen industries, provide a rich resource for developing a multi-generational view of class and wealth. The range of sources is impressive and the author's approach ensures that they are sharply interrogated.
Structurally, the book moves from the ‘big picture’ of Belfast's economic and demographic composition towards the associational culture of the middle classes, and, finally, the intimacy and personal experiences of home life. Beginning with the 838 individuals in Johnson's database of the ‘civic elite’, the first two chapters explore the unique features of this emerging class, their origins, education, wealth, and business interests. Many of these individuals were newly affluent, their entrepreneurial and mercantile talents drawn to Belfast from the Ulster hinterland or Scotland at the beginning of the century. Presbyterians dominated civic life, though Anglicans were a powerful and over-represented minority.
Johnson builds a portrait of a tightly-knit Belfast elite, educated and outward-looking in their appreciation for scientific and technical progress, but firmly entrenched in familial lineages and local attachments. Middle-class families worked, prayed, learned, exercised and (sometimes) danced with each other. Throughout several chapters, Johnson demonstrates how familial structures were key to the maintenance and stability of social position. Brothers and sisters worked to secure capital, contacts and positions for each other. The correspondence of the Workman family emphasises how important these connections were during a time when banks’ lending capacity was limited and hiring practices were dependent on social reputation. The capital for a new endeavour or gainful employment was often found through extended kin networks, with investments leveraged against familial loyalty and individual honour.
Johnson's attention to detail shines in chapter three as her account of cultural and intellectual life indicates a diverse, if somewhat declining, cultural enthusiasm for learned and scientific societies. Johnson's exploration of religion in chapter four complicates any easy assumptions about the sectarianism of the elite classes. The main source of religious strife at the beginning of the period was in-fighting between Presbyterian sects, rather than against Catholics. Catholics were almost wholly absent from the civic elite and the merchant classes, which likely explains their relative absence from the study. Johnson argues that the Orange Order did not feature in the lives of Belfast elites to any great degree — only towards the end of the period did an antagonistic attitude towards Catholics and their ultramontane clergy emerge.
Interaction between classes brings out many of the key themes of the volume and illustrates the unique aspects of Belfast's mercantile identity. Unlike in Dublin, Belfast's middle classes did not aspire to the aristocracy nor did aristocratic values hold much attraction. There was a high level of social outreach to the poor; Sunday school classes and support for working-class improvement societies were a feature of middle-class life. Levels of charitable giving were incredibly high; in one case the Workman brothers donated the rough equivalent of their entire year's salary to thirty-five different charitable organisations and projects (p. 163). Religious conviction was a key element of middle-class philanthropy, and Johnson carefully indicates the ways that social prestige, self-interest and genuine generosity could co-mingle among well-meaning individuals.
Johnson convincingly argues that Belfast must be taken on its own terms, both British and Irish, conflicted in its identity but unanimous in its aspirations for greatness. Johnson's conclusion is only a few pages long, missing an opportunity to champion how this Belfast story challenges our understanding of nineteenth-century Ireland and class more broadly. Similarly, the reliance on Presbyterian family papers brings up interesting questions about the divergence of Anglican and Catholic experiences. However, this monograph leaves no doubt that the lives of the middle classes are a needed corrective to the typical historiographical treatment of Belfast. Johnson's thoroughly researched and detailed rendering of middle-class life should be a starting point for anyone interested in the social history of Ireland.
