The Brontës’ Irish links celebrated at Embassy in Brussels

Brussels’ European Quarter is not the usual location for the Brussels Brontë Group’s Saturday morning talks, but that’s where almost 60 of our members convened on Saturday 17 October. 

In a building just up the road, the European Council had met the previous day to discuss trade and the budget. No such mundane topics were on our members’ minds as they headed from Schuman down rue Froissart. No, they were gathering to listen to talks about the much more important subject of the Brontë sisters. The venue was the Irish Embassy and the event was entitled A Morning with the Brussels Brontë Group: Celebration of the Brontës’ Irish Links. 

There were three Brontë sisters, and our gathering on 17 October was a meeting of three, bringing together enthusiasts from the Brussels Brontë Group, the Banagher Brontë Group, and the Brontë Birthplace in Yorkshire. Three organisations, in three different countries, each set up to celebrate the Brontë family in its own unique way. Thirteen members of the Banagher Brontë Group travelled from Ireland to Brussels to join us for the event. 

The Brussels Brontë Group (BBG), which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, needs no introduction on this blog. Last weekend, our members discovered that we are not the only ‘BBG’ in the Brontë world! We share the acronym with the Banagher Brontë Group, founded in 2023 in Banagher, Co. Offaly, Ireland to celebrate the town’s connection with Charlotte Brontë. Her husband Arthur Bell Nicholls grew up in the town, spent time there with Charlotte on their honeymoon and returned to live there after her death. 

Brontë enthusiasts at the Irish Embassy in Brussels

The house where Nicholls lived with his second wife, his cousin Mary Anna Bell, is now run as a bed and breakfast. This is where the “pillar portrait” of the Brontë sisters painted by Branwell Brontë was discovered after Nicholls’ death, folded on top of a wardrobe. 

The Banagher Brontë Group (“the other BBG” as we call it!) celebrates its Brontë link through literary events and other activities including plays and films created by members and Brontë-themed craft productions. They do things in style in Banagher. The book launch of Ann Dinsdale and Sharon Wright’s Let Me In: The Brontës in Bricks and Mortar featured a garden party with dancing and Brontë-themed costumes. 

The Brontë Birthplace in the Yorkshire village of Thornton is also a recent project. The house where Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne Brontë were born before the family moved to Haworth had a chequered history, including periods as a butcher’s shop and a café, before its purchase through a community share scheme. Following restoration, the building was opened to the public in 2025 as a visitor centre which also offers accommodation in the bedrooms where the young Brontës and their parents slept during Patrick Brontë’s Thornton ministry. 

Our speakers for the Celebration of the Brontës’ Irish Links were Nigel West, fundraising coordinator for the Birthplace project, and Dr. Michael O’Dowd, medical historian and author of two Brontë-related books. 

Ambassador Kevin Conmy, Helen MacEwan, Nigel West and Michael O'Dowd

Nigel West gave us a lively account of how the terraced house in Thornton’s Market Street, where the young Brontës spent their first years (1815-1820), came to be bought, lovingly restored and opened to the public. Today it hosts a vibrant educational and cultural programme of events. 

Nigel also explained his connections to Banagher and Arthur Bell Nicholls: he has a family link to Nicholls and his father inherited Nicholls’ home, Hill House. Nigel concluded his presentation by playing a video of the song "Brontë Birthplace" with lyrics by Michael O’Dowd and vocals by his wife Christine Patterson. Christine was a member of the Donegal folk band The Pattersons in the 1960s and ’70s. 

Michael O'Dowd

Michael O’Dowd, author of Charlotte Brontë: An Irish Odyssey (an account of Charlotte and Arthur’s honeymoon trail) and Charlotte Brontë: A Medical Casebook, gave us a talk on Charlotte Brontë: In Sickness and in Health in which he challenged the widely held belief that Charlotte died of hyperemesis gravidarum. Despite the gruesome descriptions of illnesses and cures in Victorian times, his talk was entertaining as well as informative. He prefaced it by singing us a song in Irish; having a speaker entertain us in this way was a first for us but a pretty standard proceeding in “the other BBG”. 

The event was opened by Ambassador Kevin Conmy, who had kindly agreed to host our event at the Irish Embassy during Ireland’s Presidency of the European Council. Nigel West presented the Ambassador with a signed print of a poem by Liliana Pasterska -- “Brontë Birthplace” -- illustrated and worked in calligraphy by our own Marina Saegerman. James Scully, chair of the Banagher Brontë Group, presented the Ambassador with a “wish stone”, a hand-carved talisman made from 5,600-year-old bog oak from Boora Bog in Co. Offaly. It is inscribed with “Brontë 2026 - Beannchar & An Bhruiséal” (Gaelic for “Banagher and Brussels”) on one side and “Cairdeas” (“friendship”) on the other. 

Ambassador Conmy receives "Brontë Birthplace" poem from Nigel West

Ambassador Conmy’s affable and relaxed opening address set the tone for an enjoyable weekend with our visitors from Ireland and Yorkshire. A dinner we organised for them concluded in true Irish fashion with a sing-along by our guests, who expressed surprise that we had no musical offerings of our own — something we need to work on! We also offered them a guided Brontë walk. Like Lucy Snowe’s pupils in Villette, they proved to be rather an unruly bunch, but their guide had more fun than on any other walk she had ever led! 

James Scully and Sean O’Riogain presented Helen MacEwan, representing the Brussels group, with a 4,800-year-old bog yew wish stone. Like the Ambassador’s, it is inscribed on one side “Brontë 2026 – Beannchar & An Bhruiséal”. The inscription on the other side reads “Cur le chéile – Co-operation”. A lovely gift that will be a treasured memento of one of our most enjoyable Brontë weekends ever. 

At the "blue plaque" on Rue Terarken

It goes without saying that the Irish group have extended a warm invitation to visit them in Banagher. Nigel West suggested Killarney as another possible location for a future gathering. The reason? Killarney also has a Brontë link. Charlotte and Arthur visited it on their honeymoon and Patrick Brontë published a tale called The Maid of Killarney during his time in Thornton. 

  Helen MacEwan