Plaque marks home of city bap man

[Square Ball]

The home of Bernard 'Barney' Hughes, philantropist and creator of the famous Belfast bap, is to be marked by a blue plaque.


Mr Hughes, a self-made businessman, is remembered in his adopted city as an enlightened employer and benefactor of the poor.

Now his former home at College Square North in the city centre is to be marked with a blue plaque by the Ulster History Circle.

Barney Hughes arrived in Belfast from County Armagh in 1826, aged 18, to begin working as a labourer.

Proving to be a shrewd businessman, he was, by the 1870s, the owner of the largest bakery and milling concern in Ireland.

During the famine years in the 1840s he created a standardised bread bap which he sold at a reasonable price.

The small loaf, which survives today under the name of ''the Belfast bap," became so popular that it was, and remains the subject of a children's street song.

Philanthropist

Mr Hughes was the city's first Catholic municipal representative and was renowned for his good works.

A prominent philanthropist, he donated the land on which St Peter's Cathedral was built.

He also donated money towards the erection of a statue of the fiery orator, Dr Henry Cooke.

The statue, known colloquially as the 'Black Man, still stands in front of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution in Wellington Place.

A stained-glass triple window in St Peter's was dedicated to Barney Hughes's first wife.

The window and a side altar in the cathedral are also dedicated to one of his daughters.

Barney Hughes is remembered in Belfast as a courageous opponent of sectarianism, an industrial reformer and a man who sought justice and equality for all citizens.

The little loaf he created remains a top seller.

Lisa McGinney, assistant manager of Belfast's Windsor Bakery, said: "The bap was as popular now as it had ever been.

"We sell hundreds every day, to a mix of generations, they come in and buy them or get them split and filled with chicken and salad."



well, what do you do with yours?

cup of strong, stewed tea, three or four bits, buttered and strewberry jam, yummy

[stephenite]

Think I asked this a few years back and got no response - anyone know if the famous cafe/greasy spoon known as Bennys still exist down in the docklands??
Their breakfasts were the finest meal known to mankind

[aontroim abu]

Bennys is still on the go - in fact i had the pleasure of being in it on Monday morning

[SammyG]

"We sell hundreds every day, to a mix of generations, they come in and buy them or get them split and filled with chicken and salad."

Salad in a bap!!!!!, is the woman mental? Scoop out the insides, eat them and then fill the hole with (Tandragee) Tayto cheese and onion. The best lunch in the world.

[supersarsfields]

There's a Benny's on Boucher Cresent as well that I think is linked to that one in the Docks.