Belfast

I

Introduction

Belfast, city, capital of Northern Ireland, in eastern Northern Ireland on the River Lagan at the head of Belfast Lough (an inlet of the North Channel of the Irish Sea). Northern Ireland is administered at local government level through borough, district, and city councils. Belfast has its own city council—Belfast City—and is represented at the Westminster parliament by 4 members of parliament out of Northern Ireland's total complement of 17. Population 277,200 (2001 estimate).

II

Economy

The city is populated mainly by Protestants in east Belfast and Catholics in west Belfast. Between 1981 and 1991 Belfast experienced an 11 per cent decline in population and also a decline in manufacturing employment, particularly in shipbuilding, textiles, and engineering but also in light industry. Other industries include food processing, brewing, and the manufacture of vehicle components and computer software. Male unemployment for the Belfast city council area exceeded 25 per cent. However, Belfast remains the centre of economic activity for the province of Northern Ireland. With about 18 per cent of the population of Northern Ireland resident in Belfast, the city is the location for 30 per cent of manufacturing companies and about 20 per cent of all retailing activity. A major petroleum refinery is also located there.

In 1996 a new fast ferry service began operating from Stranraer, which boosted the number of passengers travelling between Belfast and ports in the rest of the United Kingdom (Liverpool, Stranraer, and the Isle of Man) from 500,000 to over 2 million by 2001. Improvements in these transport links have been crucial in attracting overseas companies to Northern Ireland. In addition, the area around the port of Belfast has recently undergone massive redevelopment and is now equipped with modern cargo and passenger-handling facilities. These rank with the best in Europe and handle goods travelling between domestic ports such as Stranraer, Liverpool, and Swansea and container freight to and from Scandinavia, the Baltic, and Rotterdam. Development land has been set aside in the surrounding area for new factories and warehouses which will also be close to the city centre, to Belfast Harbour Airport, and to Belfast International Airport at Aldergrove, 32 km (20 mi) west of the city.

The city government intends to promote investment and tourism and to bring about economic regeneration. Situated on the banks of the Lagan in the heart of the central business district, the Belfast Waterfront Hall is the city’s new major international conference and performing arts centre; it was opened in early 1998. Nearby are the newly refurbished St George's Market, originally built in 1896, and a new Hilton hotel on the redeveloped site of the former city gasworks, both of which opened at the end of the 1990s. The river itself has also been an area for improvement. Former industrial activity affected water quality in the River Lagan. The Laganside Corporation has undertaken the construction of the new Lagan Weir at Donegall Quay. Dredging of the former mudflat area and improvements to sewage treatment have helped to encourage a wide range of fish species back to the river.

III

Places of Interest

Queen's University of Belfast was built by Charles Lanyon, the most prolific of Belfast's architects. In 1995 the university celebrated its sesquicentenary. During its 150 years, Queen's has developed a reputation as one of Europe's leading centres for innovation and technology transfer. It has recently opened the Northern Ireland Technology Centre, one of a number of initiatives by the university that link it to business, research, and design. In 1984 the University of Ulster was formed from the merger of Ulster Polytechnic and the New University of Ulster; Belfast is home to one of the campuses of this university. The Belfast College of Technology and Union Theological College are also located there. Entry to secondary schools throughout Northern Ireland is mostly selective, and many schools are aided (either Catholic-maintained or voluntary grammar schools). Recently there has been a growth in integrated schools for Catholic and Protestant students.

Each November the city holds the “Belfast Festival at Queen's”, a major festival that has attracted the Royal Swedish Ballet, the Chinese State Circus, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and the Royal Shakespeare Company. During July in Dixon Park, an international rose festival is held. The park is famous for its roses and grows up to 100,000 blooms throughout the summer months.

Attractions in Belfast include the 20th-century St Anne's Cathedral, the restored city Opera House, dating originally from 1895, and the Crown Liquor Saloon, one of the most famous of the city's public houses, which has been restored by the National Trust. There is also the city hall and Stormont Castle (the home of the Northern Ireland Assembly), the Ulster Museum in the Botanic Gardens, the Arts Council Sculpture Park, and the Linen Hall Library, established in 1788, which has a Robert Burns collection. In Waring Street is the Ulster Bank (1860), with a beautiful Venetian palace interior.

IV

History

Belfast was founded in 1177, with the construction of a Norman castle by John de Courcy. Taken by the English in the 16th century, it was granted a charter of incorporation in 1613, and the immigration of Protestants was encouraged. In 1800 the Act of Union with England led to Belfast becoming established as a major industrial centre. It was made a city in 1888, with a lord mayor from 1892. During the 18th century, the harbour underwent enlargement, and the shipbuilding industry began on a large scale. By the height of its industrial era, Belfast had grown into a major city and port of world significance. The dock area was the location of a flourishing manufacturing industry where shipbuilding, engineering, linen production, and rope-making were all important activities. Imported tobacco was manufactured into cigarettes and other tobacco products. It was in Belfast that the ill-fated SS Titanic was built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard.

Belfast was made the capital of Northern Ireland in 1920, when the Government of Ireland Act partitioned Ireland (see Ireland, Partition of) into Northern and Southern Ireland. In 1921 the Northern Ireland parliament opened, and continued to sit at Stormont Castle until its suspension in 1972. In December 1999 power in the province was devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly, which sits at Stormont.

Belfast was bombed heavily by the Germans during World War II and was again subject to bomb and fire damage between 1969 and 1994, when the city was the scene of Republican-Roman Catholic and Loyalist-Protestant disorder. In August 1994 a peace accord was declared, bringing to the city an increased sense of stability. The so-called Good Friday Peace Agreement, signed in Belfast in April 1998, was a further milestone in the normalization of relations between various political groups. However, by mid-2001 the peace process had reached deadlock and tensions once again resurfaced in areas of the city, including a violent dispute concerning access to a Catholic girls’ primary school through Protestant streets in Ardoyne. The autumn was marred by rioting and bombing, much of it provoked by dissident republican groups angered over the IRA’s moves towards decommissioning in October.