Background
McCracken was born in Belfast on 8 July 1770. Her father was Captain John McCracken, a prominent shipowner. Her mother Ann Joy came from another wealthy family which made its money in the linen trade and founded the Belfast News Letter.
doctors Belfast social reformer
McCracken was born in Belfast on 8 July 1770. Her father was Captain John McCracken, a prominent shipowner. Her mother Ann Joy came from another wealthy family which made its money in the linen trade and founded the Belfast News Letter.
She was the sister of the Irish rebel Henry Joy McCracken, who was executed in Belfast following his role in the Battle of Antrim in June 1798. She lived with Maria and her family until her death on 26 July 1866 at the age of 96 years. She is buried in grave number 35 at Clifton Street Cemetery.
She supported Edward Bunting in his collecting of traditional music, introducing him to people who could help, acting as his unofficial secretary and contributed anonymously to the second volume of his work The Ancient Music of Ireland in 1809.
Bunting lived with the McCrackens for thirty-five years, before moving to Dublin 1819. Due to her efforts a school, and later a nursery was set up to educate the orphans of Belfast.
She took particular pains to find a suitable teacher, displaying a high level of dedication and compassion for her cause. By the 1850s the liberality of the 1790s had largely evaporated in the aftermath of the failure of the 1798 United Irish rebellion and the subsequent executions or exile of the leading protagonists.
In 1859 Mary Ann McCracken wrote to Doctor Madden saying "I am both ashamed and sorry to think that Belfast has so far degenerated in regard to the Anti-Slavery Cause".
At the age of 88, she was to be seen in Belfast docks, handing out anti-slavery leaflets to those boarding ships bound for the United States, where slavery was still practised.
Mary Ann led the Women"s Abolitionary Ccmmittee in Belfast during the height of the anti slavery movement, wearing the famous Wedgewood brooches adorned with slave and slogan "Am I not a man and brother", and continued to promote the cause long after the spirit of radicalism had died in Belfast. The continued campaign of Mary Ann McCracken long after the deaths of her counterparts serves to demonstrate the strength of radicalism that existed in certain circles of Belfast society at the close of the eighteenth century.
Mary Ann was dedicated to the poor of Belfast and as a member of the Ladies Committee took on a leading role in looking out for the interests of the poor house.