Our Story

A family history of the Barnes of Aghagallon and Belfast from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. Farmers and basket makers the Barnes family were protestant settlers in the Province of Ulster, reputedly of Huguenot ancestry. Surviving the famine years Jeremiah Barnes made the first move to Belfast and opened a basketry business in Hercules Street inherited by his son Thomas and married the redoubtable Mary Ellen McManus. Their son Jerry was imprisoned following The Easter Rising and became a noted Sinn Fein politician and businessman, whilst his younger brother Paddy played Gaelic football with the 'Titanic Team', who brought Antrim to the Finals for the first time in 1911 and again in the following year.