reclaiming forsaken spaces; cultivating a new modus vivendi for Ulster Part 2 Dissertation 2026 Jamie Noel University of Greenwich | UK this thesis is a fragment of a wider information database focused on Irish linen in Ulster. this database is to allow information to be easily accessible to help revive and preserve Irish Linen. this document will showcase the importance and significance of Irish linen to a potential funder in the hope that it will allow the recommissioning of a linen mill in Ulster.Belfast was once named Linenopolis due to the vast amount of linen once exported from there. linen accounted for sixty percent of all Ireland's exports in the late eighteenth century (Mallon Linen, 2025), every part of linen production from growing flax to finishing was in Ulster until the twentieth century according to Judith Neilly, managing director of Ferguson's Irish Linen, during a factory tour in Banbridge (2026), linen production, like many other manufacturing industries, was moved abroad and the mills now lie abandoned across the country. while some have been granted a renewed lease of life, these cases are relatively uncommon. although the “saved” mills have been repurposed as offices, limiting their reuse to their physical attributes overlooks their broader historical and cultural significance.when visiting several of these abandoned mills, i discovered that the heart of these once cultural hubs had been taken, and they now lie silent and soulless. this thesis proposes restoring a carefully selected mill in Gilford and reviving Ulster's linen production for the first time in the twenty-first century. Tutor(s) Simon Withers