In July 1798, Henry Joy McCracken, a founding member of the United Irishmen, was led to the gallows in front of Belfast’s old Market House on High Street. Only thirty years of age, he was court-martialled and condemned for his part in the rebellion, and his execution was carried out publicly at the heart of the city.

The Market House was long ago swept away by redevelopment, but the site where McCracken met his fate has remained in commercial use ever since. Over the centuries it has housed a string of familiar names — Burton’s, Woolworths, a women’s clothing store — and today the spot is occupied by a Dunnes Stores.

Folklore insists, however, that the past was not so easily erased. For years, staff and shoppers spoke in hushed tones of a presence within the building — a restless figure tied to the memory of 1798. Many believed it to be McCracken himself, unwilling to leave the place where his life ended. In a curious twist, the tales add that the disturbances ceased when the property became a fashion shop, as though the change of purpose somehow laid the ghost to rest.

Fact or fable, Belfast’s High Street carries the imprint of history — and the story of Henry Joy McCracken remains etched in its very stones.