Federation for Ulster Local Studies

12/04/2026

Yesterday we had our first tri-annual North/South Meeting of 2026 with our sister organisation the Federation of Local History Societies! We were pleased that Mairead, Larry & Betty could come up to Belfast to discuss potential collaborations- there's lots of exciting events being planned behind the scenes!

The first of these events is a joint trip to the Battle of the Boyne/Newgrange on the 18th July 2026! If you're interested RSVP via the below link to the website and we'll keep you up to date with all the details!

https://www.ulsterlocalstudies.org/event-details/fuls-flhs-trip-to-boyne

28/03/2026

A fantastic project supported by Drumquin Historical Society! It’s so important that we appreciate and protect our ancient heritage- otherwise we’ll lose these irreplaceable ancients sites!

A court tomb in Co Tyrone, which has been in existence for 5,500 years, has been carefully preserved in a collaborative effort with local historians and NI Water.

22/02/2026

We’ll be there so call by if you’re about!

The Libraries NI Heritage Week Family History Fair brings together archivists, historians and genealogy specialists from across Northern Ireland. 😃

A welcoming space to ask questions, discover resources and make connections.

📍 Belfast Central Library
📅 Friday 13 March
⏰ 10:00am – 2:00pm

14/02/2026

From the 11th to 22nd of October it’s Northern Ireland Science Festival and there’s tons of interesting talks and events taking place across the country- many of them relating to the history of science and medicine! 👩‍⚕️ 💊 💀 🧬 🧪 🧫

On Monday night there is what is sure to be a fantastic talk by Robyn Atcheson - Historian all about the history of pregnancy and childbirth! For fans of BBC’s Call the Midwife or really anyone with an interest in history.

Monday 16th February at 7pm in the Great Hall, Queens University Belfast- only £10 a ticket and available via the link below!

How did you know you were pregnant before the invention of pregnancy tests? How could you avoid getting pregnant? Who did you call when it was time to give birth? Why were Caesareans so deadly?

13/02/2026

What’s sure to be a great event by FULS member Broughshane Historical Society coming up on the 25th February!
Why not come along!!

08/02/2026

I thought some of our members might be interested in this free copyright training from the Rural Community Network!

Copyright Essentials with Naomi Korn Associates

You’ll explore what copyright protects, how long it lasts, who owns rights and will address common challenges such as using content on social media.

📅Monday 23rd and Tuesday 24th February 2026
🕰️10am – 1.30pm
🗺️ Online

Free to attend.
Sign up here - https://forms.gle/ZCbxfdGFKxpPDT2XA

This event is part of the Rural Community Network’s ‘HEARTH project’ and is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund Northern Ireland

07/02/2026

The Committee of the Federation for Ulster Local Studies is pleased to announce our much loved (and missed) Speaker's List is coming back!

Due to GDPR concerns we've had to rethink how we share out much missed speaker's list that was featured on our old website. We're working on creating a new version but we need the details of speakers.

If you do talks on local interest topics and would like to be included in our new list we want to hear from you. Simply fill out the form on our website by following the link- https://www.ulsterlocalstudies.org/join-our-speakers-list

Feel free to pass along the link below to anyone who wants to be featured as we want lots of top quality speakers for our members to choose from when they're putting together their programmes!

21/01/2026

Fantastic to see a FULS member get some USA-NI 250 funding for their new exhibition and accompanying resources- a brilliant opportunity for an organisation doing some excellent research and work within their locality!

Congratulations Donaghmore Historical Society!

✨ Good news! Donaghmore Historical Society has been awarded £14,200 under USA–NI 250 to create 'Donaghmore to the New World: Ulster Links to the Spirit of 1776.'
📜 We’ll produce exhibition panels, a booklet, a schools resource and a digital map putting Donaghmore, Dungannon & the surrounding area on the map and sharing our stories with the diaspora.
🙏 More soon and thank you to everyone who supports our work.

Acknowledgement: This festival has been supported under the
USA – NI 250 programme of the Department for Communities.

👉 Official announcement link in the first comment.

15/01/2026

We’re pleased to welcome the latest member of the Federation for Ulster Local Studies- Crossgar Historical Society!

This group based in Crossgar, Co. Down is run by local councillor Callum Bowsie. We’re really pleased to welcome them to the FULS family, and we’re looking forward to some of their fascinating talks coming up in 2026!

They meet on the 4th Tuesday of the month in Crossgar War Memorial (Annexe) Hall at 7:30pm- with only £3 admission!

Why not go and visit their next meeting!

07/12/2025

Just a short post to say thank you to all those that attended our 50th anniversary lunch at Stormont! We had members represented across Ulster and our Sister federation in the South!

Thanks for all that attended I’ve been able to tag below as well as those I couldn’t! Here’s to many more years of local history in Ulster!

Comber Historical Society North of Ireland Family History Society Balloo, Killinchy - A Hidden History Ballinascreen Historical Society Ards Historical Society Banbridge Historical Society Lecale & Downe Historical Society West Belfast Historical Society Roe Valley Historical Society Glens Of Antrim Historical Society

Just a post to say big thank you to all who made the journey to Stormont on Saturday 18th November 2025 for our 50th celebration! We had a great turnout and many of our member societies were represented including Antrim, Ballygawley, Ballinascreen, Banbridge, Carrickfergus, Comber, East Belfast, Don...