The past lives on in the present

I was speaking at an event this morning in South Belfast and when I finished I decided to walk the few miles to my office rather than catch a bus. The route took me through a rather old part of South Belfast and along the way  I was struck by two images. One, of a Mill poet (main picture) and the other of the Carnegie Building (additional picture)

In terms of the first, I have never heard of Eliza Hamilton and a goggle enquiry didn’t help.
In terms of the second, a Carnegie library was a library built with money donated by Scottish business-man and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. In total 2,509 Carnegie libraries were built between 1883 and 1929. In 1908 he granted a building on Donegall Road to Belfast City Corporation in as a place of public learning. Carnegie believed in giving to the "industrious and ambitious; not those who need everything done for them, but those who, being most anxious and able to help themselves, deserve and will be benefited by help from others”. The building still stands today and is still in use, though no longer as a public library.

It was as though I had been transported back in time to another place. One of the two still has a presence today and stands as a testimony to the philanthropy and generosity of one man. The other haunts me as it speaks from the grave about a young mother who never had a childhood but who wanted one for her children. I don’t know whether that prayer was answered, but for 5 minutes today, she had my attention. Maybe someone acted generously to Eliza and granted her wish. Small steps of kindness can and do change history and peoples’ lives.