Photograph reproduced courtesy the Trustees of National Museums Northern Ireland
The late 1890s and early 1900s saw a revival of matters relating to Gaelic culture. Alice Milligan, a Tyrone-born, Methodist College-educated woman started a republican monthly, The Shan Van Vocht, with her friend Anne Johnstone. Others, such as Francis Joseph Biggar, a member of the Royal Irish Academy, also supported of the Irish language revival. Others who were active in the cultural life of the city were writers such as Joseph Campbell, F. Frankford Moore, Samuel Keightley, Mrs. Margaret Pender and Forrest Reid.
In an attempt to improve the health of the people, as well as to provide leisure opportunities, there were public baths, such as the Ormeau Public baths which were built in the 1880s. Within the city there were parks laid out such as Ormeau Park and the Botanic Gardens. In fact, it was to the Botanic Gardens that the first tram (initially horse drawn, but electric from 1905) route in the city was established, linking it with Castle Place in 1872. The establishment of a network of trams and an extended railway system linking Belfast with surrounding areas and beyond changed the social opportunities of the people of the city.