Online Resources & Archive

The Irish Linen Guild offers a comprehensive website promoting the heritage, industry and lineage of linen in Ireland. Features links to current manufacturers, history, education, industry and tourism.
The Irish Linen Guild’s main concern is with yarns and fabrics made in Ireland from flax. Founded in 1928, the Guild is the official promotional organisation of the Irish Linen industry. It is the global authority on Irish linen and the owner of the Irish Linen Guild trademark. It seeks to emphasise the sustainability of the flax fibre, and to promote the distinctive quality of Irish linen.
info@irishlinen.co.uk

NI Screen has an extensive digital film archive which is fully accessible to search and browse. Use of archive material can be arranged with NI Screen.
3rd Floor Alfred House, 21 Alfred Street, Belfast BT2 8ED
T: +44 (0)28 90 232444
E: info@northernirelandscreen.co.uk

The Public Record Office Northern Ireland (PRONI) is the official archive for Northern Ireland. It holds collections and information from throughout Northern Ireland’s history which can be searched and accessed. PRONI also offers free talks and seminars.
in 2023 PRONI produced The Ulster Textile Industry: a Catalogue of Business Records - an online PDF cataloge which lists linen linked records avaible in the PRONI archives.
Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) 2 Titanic Boulevard, BELFAST, BT3 9HQ
Access and opening times.

Housed in a Victorian-era former linen warehouse on Donegall Square North, The Linen Hall offers free entry from Monday to Friday, 9.30am – 5.30pm. Founded as the Belfast Library and Society for Promoting Knowledge in 1788, it is the oldest library in the city and is the only subscription library in Ireland, continuing to generate a proportion of its income from membership. It holds several digital collections which can be searched and explored online.
17 Donegall Square North, Belfast, BT1 5GB
+44 (0)28 9032 1707
info@linenhall.com

Belfast Central Library holds extensive cultural heritage archives including the Newspaper Library archive. Regional library collections across NI can also be accessed via the main site.
Tel: 028 9050 9156
Email: belfast.heritage@librariesni.org.uk

The Mills of Northern Ireland website is administered by Sebastian Graham. It maps Northern Ireland’s linen heritage through the use of the Valuation Records, Ordnance Survey Map Records and local information, and features a comprehensive map of mill locations in Northern Ireland.
Its associated Facebook page invites photographs and memories to be uploaded from anyone with a contribution to the linen heritage of Northern Ireland as a way to document, save and view a social history and architectural heritage of linen.
Sebastian Graham has been identifying mills across Northern Ireland for over eight years and has located over 4,000 so far. He works for Ulster Architectural Heritage as the Heritage at Risk Officer, working in partnership with the Historic Environment Division. There are over 1000 buildings on the register including mills.
Video: Recorded talk ‘Mills at Risk’ by Sebastian Graham for Linen Biennale 2023 at Linen Hall Library Aug 23
Video: Ulster Architectural Heritage - S Graham Mapping Mills of Northern Ireland. Category 4: Best Rescue, Recording or Interpretation of a Historic Place.

Ulster Architectural Heritage (UAH), works to promote the historic environment, its protection, conservation and heritage-led regeneration for people and communities. The main site relates to heritage architecture in NI - including ‘Heritage at Risk NI’.

Ulster University research and projects included:
Catherine O’Hara (THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY JANUARY 2018)
The Secret Life of Design in Ulster’s Interwar Linen Industry: A critical analysis of the contributions of the Old Bleach Linen Company.
Project: 2016 HLF funded project - archive: Textiles experts from Ulster University restored and archived The William Liddell Damask plate collection used in the Jacquard damask weaving process.

Online Education & Media