59 Facts About Belfast City

Belfast City suffered greatly during the violence that accompanied the partition of Ireland, and especially during the more recent conflict known as the Troubles.

Belfast City is still a port with commercial and industrial docks, including the Harland and Wolff shipyard, dominating the Belfast City Lough shoreline.

Name Belfast City derives from the Irish, later spelt The word means "mouth" or "river-mouth" while is the genitive singular of and refers to a sandbar or tidal ford across a river's mouth.

County borough of Belfast was created when it was granted city status by Queen Victoria in 1888, and the city continues to straddle County Antrim on the left bank of the Lagan and County Down on the right.

Belfast City remained a small settlement of little importance during the Middle Ages.

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However, this original 'Belfast City Castle' was much smaller and of far less strategic importance than nearby Carrickfergus Castle, which was constructed at Carrickfergus and was probably built in the late 1170s.

Belfast City was established as a town in 1613 by Sir Arthur Chichester.

When early in the American War of Independence, Belfast City Lough was raided by the privateer John Paul Jones, the townspeople assembled their own Volunteer militia.

The plentiful supply of cheap labour helped attract English and Scottish capital to Belfast City, but it was a cause of insecurity.

Sectarian tension was not in itself unique to Belfast City: it was shared with Liverpool and Glasgow, cities that following the Great Famine had experienced large-scale Irish Catholic immigration.

In 1921, as the greater part of Ireland seceded as the Irish Free State, Belfast City became the capital of the six counties remaining as Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom.

Belfast City has been the scene of various episodes of sectarian conflict between its Catholic and Protestant populations.

Belfast City saw some of the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, particularly in the 1970s, with rival paramilitary groups formed on both sides.

Belfast City is represented in both the British House of Commons and in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Belfast City Council is the local council with responsibility for the city.

Belfast City elected 7 Sinn Fein, 5 DUP, 5 Alliance Party, 1 SDLP, 1 UUP and 1 PBPA MLAs.

Belfast City is at the western end of Belfast City Lough and at the mouth of the River Lagan giving it the ideal location for the shipbuilding industry that once made it famous.

Belfast City is flanked on the north and northwest by a series of hills, including Divis Mountain, Black Mountain and Cavehill, thought to be the inspiration for Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.

The climate of Belfast City is significantly milder than most other locations in the world at a similar latitude, due to the warming influence of the Gulf Stream.

Townlands of Belfast are its oldest surviving land divisions and most pre-date the city.

Parts of Belfast are segregated by walls, commonly known as "peace lines", erected by the British Army after August 1969, and which still divide 14 districts in the inner city.

The Gaeltacht Quarter is an area around the Falls Road in west Belfast City which promotes and encourages the use of the Irish language.

The Edwardian architectural style of Belfast City Hall influenced the Victoria Memorial in Calcutta, India, and Durban City Hall in South Africa.

The Forest of Belfast is a partnership between government and local groups, set up in 1992 to manage and conserve the city's parks and open spaces.

In 2008, Belfast was named a finalist in the Large City category of the RHS Britain in Bloom competition along with London Borough of Croydon and Sheffield.

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Belfast City experienced a huge growth in population in the first half of the 20th century.

Segregation has been present throughout the history of Belfast but has been maintained and increased by each outbreak of violence in the city.

Belfast City harbour was dredged in 1845 to provide deeper berths for larger ships.

Belfast City has been the fastest-growing economy of the thirty largest cities in the UK over the past decade, a new economy report by Howard Spencer has found.

The Belfast City Hospital is the regional specialist centre for haematology and is home to a cancer centre that rivals the best in the world.

The Mary G McGeown Regional Nephrology Unit at the Belfast City Hospital is the kidney transplant centre and provides regional renal services for Northern Ireland.

Belfast City has a direct rail connection with Dublin called Enterprise which is operated jointly by NIR and Iarnrod Eireann, the state railway company of the Republic of Ireland.

Belfast City has a large port used for exporting and importing goods, and for passenger ferry services.

Belfast City's population is evenly split between its Protestant and Catholic residents.

In 2003, Belfast City had an unsuccessful bid for the 2008 European Capital of Culture.

Ulster Orchestra, based in Belfast City, is Northern Ireland's only full-time symphony orchestra and is well renowned in the United Kingdom.

Musicians and bands who have written songs about or dedicated to Belfast City includeU2, Van Morrison, Snow Patrol, Simple Minds, Elton John, Rogue Male, Katie Melua, Boney M, Paul Muldoon, Stiff Little Fingers, Nanci Griffith, Glenn Patterson, Orbital, James Taylor, Fun Boy Three, Spandau Ballet, The Police, Barnbrack, Gary Moore, Neon Neon, Toxic Waste, Energy Orchard, and Billy Bragg.

Belfast City has a longstanding underground club scene which was established in the early 1980s.

Belfast City has the highest concentration of Irish-speakers in Northern Ireland.

Belfast City is the home of the Belfast City Telegraph, Irish News, and The News Letter, the oldest English-language daily newspaper in the world still in publication.

The Belfast City Telegraph was founded in 1827 as the Belfast City Daily News and later became The Northern Star.

Belfast City Telegraphy is a popular news website in the United Kingdom.

Belfast City is the headquarters of BBC Northern Ireland, ITV station UTV and commercial radio stations Q Radio and U105.

Belfast City has become a popular film location; The Paint Hall at Harland and Wolff has become one of the UK Film Council's main studios.

In November 2011, Belfast became the smallest city to host the MTV Europe Music Awards.

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Belfast City has several notable sports teams playing a diverse variety of sports such as football, Gaelic games, rugby, cricket, and ice hockey.

The Belfast City Marathon is run annually on May Day, and attracted 20,000 participants in 2011.

Belfast City was the home town of former Manchester United player George Best, the 1968 European Footballer of the Year, who died in November 2005.

Belfast City is home to over twenty Gaelic football and hurling clubs.

In May 2020, the foundation of East Belfast City GAA returned Gaelic Games to unionist East Belfast City after decades of its absence in the area.

Belfast City has four teams in rugby's All-Ireland League: Belfast City Harlequins in Division 1B; and Instonians, Queen's University and Malone in Division 2A.

Belfast City is home to the Stormont cricket ground since 1949 and was the venue for the Irish cricket team's first ever One Day International against England in 2006.

Belfast City is home to one of the biggest ice hockey clubs in the United Kingdom, the Belfast City Giants.

Belfast City produced the Formula One racing stars John Watson who raced for five different teams during his career in the 1970s and 1980s and Ferrari driver Eddie Irvine.

Queen's University Belfast City was founded in 1845 and is a member of the Russell Group, an association of 24 leading research-intensive universities in the UK.

The Belfast City campus has a specific focus on Art and Design and Architecture, and is currently undergoing major redevelopment.

Belfast City is one of the most visited cities in the UK, and the second most visited on the island of Ireland.

Belfast City Council is currently investing into the complete redevelopment of the Titanic Quarter, which is planned to consist of apartments, hotels, and a riverside entertainment district.

Belfast City Council takes part in the twinning scheme, and is twinned with the following sister cities:.