Belfast philanthropist baker honoured

The man who created the Belfast Bap was honoured by the city today.

The man who created the Belfast Bap was honoured by the city today.

The Ulster History Circle erected a blue plaque on the former home of master baker and philanthropist Barney Hughes.

He was famed for producing "economy" loaves at the height of the Great Famine in the 19th century. So as to feed the rapidly expanding working class at a time of shortage he supplemented expensive flour with a cheaper blend made from peas and beans.

Although highly nutritious, the loaves tended to create flatulence - stimulating the rhyme about Barney Hughes's bread, sticking to your belly like lead.

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The plaque was erected at 11 College Square North, the late Georgian-style terrace house he bought at the height of his considerable prosperity and in which three generations of Hughes's lived until 1949.

Hughes, who died in 1878, was a prominent Catholic businessman who donated the land on which St Peter's Cathedral was built in the Lower Falls, and he was the first Catholic member ever elected to the old Belfast Corporation.

He travelled widely in Europe seeking ideas to improve production methods, and by 1870 he was recognised as Belfast's leading baker and owner of one of the largest enterprises in Ireland.

PA