First chartered as an English settlement in 1613, the town's early growth was driven by an influx ofScottishPresbyterians. Their descendants' disaffection withIreland'sAnglican establishment contributed to therebellion of 1798, and to theunion withGreat Britain in 1800—later regarded as a key to the town's industrial transformation. When grantedcity status in 1888, Belfast was the world's largest centre oflinen manufacture, and by the 1900s her shipyards were building up to a quarter of totalUnited Kingdom tonnage.
Since theGood Friday Agreement, the electoral balance in the onceunionist-controlled city has shifted, albeit with no overall majority, in favour ofIrish nationalists. At the same time, new immigrants are adding to the growing number of residents unwilling to identify with either of the two communal traditions.
Belfast has seen significantservices sector growth, with important contributions from financial technology (fintech), from tourism and, with facilities in the redevelopedHarbour Estate, from film. It retains a port with commercial and industrial docks, including a reducedHarland & Wolff shipyard and aerospace and defence contractors.Post Brexit, Belfast and Northern Ireland remain, uniquely, within both the British domestic andEuropean Single trading areas for goods.
A 1685 plan of Belfast by the military engineerThomas Phillips, showing the town's ramparts andLord Chichester's castle, which was destroyed in a fire in 1708
The name Belfast derives from the IrishBéal Feirste (Irish pronunciation:[bʲeːlˠˈfʲɛɾˠ(ə)ʃtʲə]),[4] "Mouth of theFarset",[6] a river whose name in the Irish,Feirste, refers to a sandbar or tidal ford.[7] This was formed where the river ran—until culverted late in the 18th century, down High Street—[8] into the Lagan. It was at this crossing, located under or close to the current Queen's Bridge, that the early settlement developed.[9]: 74–77
The compilers ofUlster-Scots use various transcriptions of local pronunciations of "Belfast" (with which they sometimes are also content)[10] includingBilfawst,[11][12]Bilfaust[13] orBaelfawst.[14]
The site of Belfast has been occupied since theBronze Age. TheGiant's Ring, a 5,000-year-oldhenge, is located near the city,[9]: 42–45 [15] and the remains ofIron Agehill forts can still be seen in the surrounding hills. At the beginning of the 14th century,Papal tax rolls record two churches: the "Chapel of Dundela" at Knock (Irish:cnoc, meaning "hill") in the east,[16] connected by some accounts to the 7th-century evangelistSt. Colmcille,[17]: 11 and, the "Chapel of the Ford", which may have been a successor to a much older parish church on the presentShankill(Seanchill, "Old Church") Road,[9]: 63–64 dating back to the 9th,[18] and possibly toSt. Patrick in the mid 5th, century.[19]
ANorman settlement at the ford, comprising the parish church (nowSt. George's), a watermill, and a small fort,[20] was an outpost ofCarrickfergus Castle. Established in the late 12th century, 11 miles (18 km) out along the north shore of the Lough, Carrickfergus was to remain the principal English foothold in the north-east until thescorched- earthNine Years' War at the end of the 16th century broke the remaining Irish power, theO'Neills.[21]
With a commission fromKing James VI and I, in 1613Sir Arthur Chichester undertook thePlantation of Belfast and the surrounding area, attracting mainly English andManx settlers.[22] The subsequent arrival ofScottish Presbyterians embroiled Belfast in its only recorded siege: denounced from London byJohn Milton as "ungrateful and treacherous guests",[23] in 1649 the newcomers were temporarily expelled by an EnglishParliamentarian army.[24]: 21 [25]: 32 In 1689, CatholicJacobite forces, briefly in command of the town,[26] abandoned it in advance of the landing at Carrickfergus ofWilliam, Prince of Orange, who proceeded through Belfast to his celebrated victory on 12 July 1690 atthe Boyne.[27]
Together with FrenchHuguenots, the Scots introduced the production oflinen, aflax-spinning industry that in the 18th century carried Belfast trade to the Americas.[28] Fortunes were made carrying rough linen clothing and salted provisions to theslave plantations of theWest Indies; sugar and rum toBaltimore and New York City; and for the return to Belfastflaxseed and tobacco fromthe colonies.[29] From the 1760s, profits from the trade financed improvements in the town's commercial infrastructure, including theLagan Canal, new docks and quays, and the construction of the White Linen Hall which together attracted to Belfast the linen trade that had formerly gone throughDublin.Abolitionist sentiment, however, defeated the proposal of the greatest of the merchant houses,Cunningham and Greg, in 1786 to commission ships for theMiddle Passage.[30]
Volunteer Corps parade down High Street,Bastille Day, 1792
While other Irish towns experienced a loss of manufacturing, from the 1820s Belfast underwent rapid industrial expansion. After a cotton boom and bust, the town emerged as the global leader in the production oflinen goods (mill, and finishing, work largely employing women and children),[38] winning the moniker "Linenopolis".[39] Shipbuilding led the development of heavier industry.[40] By the 1900s, her shipyards were building up to a quarter of the total United Kingdom tonnage,[41] and on the eve of theGreat War, in 1914, close one eighth of world production.[25]: 167 This included from the yard ofHarland & Wolff the ill-fated RMSTitanic, at the time of her launch in 1911 the largest ship afloat.[42] Other major export industries included textile machinery, rope, tobacco and mineral waters.[17]: 59–88
Industry drew in a new Catholic population settling largely in the west of the town—refugees from a rural poverty intensified by Belfast's mechanisation of spinning and weaving and, in the 1840s, byfamine.[43] The plentiful supply of cheap labour helped attract English and Scottish capital to Belfast, but it was also a cause of insecurity.[44] Protestant workers organised and dominated the apprenticed trades[45] and gave a new lease of life to the once largely ruralOrange Order.[46][47] Sectarian tensions, which frequently broke out in riots and workplace expulsions, were also driven by the "constitutional question": the prospect of a restored Irish parliament in which Protestants (and northern industry) feared being a minority interest.[45]
In 1920–22, as Belfast emerged as the capital of the six counties remaining asNorthern Ireland in the United Kingdom, there waswidespread violence. 8,000 "disloyal" workers were driven from their jobs in the shipyards:[51] in addition to Catholics, "rotten Prods" – Protestants whose labour politics disregarded sectarian distinctions.[52]: 104–108 Gun battles, grenade attacks and house burnings contributed to as many as 500 deaths.[53] A curfew remained in force until 1924.[35]: 194 The lines drawn saw off the challenge to "unionist unity" posed bylabour.[54] Industry had been paralysed bystrikes in 1907 and again in 1919 (when the city was effectively policed by strikers).[55] Until "troubles" returned at the end of the 1960s, it was not uncommon in Belfast for theUlster Unionist Party to have itscouncil andparliamentary candidates returned unopposed.[56][57]
In 1932, the opening of the new buildings forNorthern Ireland's devolved Parliament atStormont was overshadowed by the protests of the unemployed and ten days of running street battles with the police. The government conceded increases inOutdoor Relief, but labour unity was short lived.[37]: 219–220 In 1935, celebrations ofKing George V's Jubilee and of the annual Twelfth were followed by deadly riots and expulsions, a sectarian logic that extended itself to the interpretation of darkening events in Europe.[37]: 226–233 Labour candidates found support for theanti-clericalSpanish Republic (marked today by aNo Pasaran! stained glass window in City Hall)[58] characterised as another instance ofNo-Popery.[59]
In 1938, nearly a third of industrial workers were unemployed,malnutrition was a major issue, and at 9.6% the city'sinfant mortality rate (compared with 5.9% inSheffield, England) was among the highest in United Kingdom.[60]
In the spring of 1941, the GermanLuftwaffe appeared twice over Belfast. In addition to the shipyards and theShort & Harland aircraft factory, theBelfast Blitz severely damaged or destroyed more than half the city's housing stock, and devastated the old town centre around High Street.[61] In the greatest loss of life in any air raid outside of London, more than a thousand people were killed.[61]
At the end of theSecond World War, the Unionist government undertook programmes of"slum clearance" (the Blitz had exposed the "uninhabitable" condition of much of the city's housing) which involved decanting populations out of mill and factory built red-brick terraces and into new peripheral housing estates.[62][63] At the same time, a British-fundedwelfare state "revolutionised access" to education and health care.[64] The resulting rise in expectations; together with the uncertainty caused by the decline of the city'sVictorian-era industries, contributed to growing protest, and counter protest, in the 1960s over theUnionist government's record on civil and political rights.[65]
For reasons thatnationalists andunionists dispute,[66] the public protests of the late 1960s soon gave way to communal violence (in which as many as 60,000 people were intimidated from their homes)[67]: 70 and toloyalist andrepublicanparamilitarism. Introduced onto the streets in August 1969, theBritish Army committed to the longest continuous deployment in its history,Operation Banner. Beginning in 1970 with theFalls curfew, and followed in 1971 byinternment, this includedcounterinsurgency measures directed chiefly at theProvisional Irish Republican Army. The PIRA characterised their operations, including the bombing of Belfast's commercial centre, as a struggle against British occupation.[68][69]
Eighty-five percent of the conflict-related deaths had occurred within 1,000 metres of the communalinterfaces, largely in the north and west of the city.[67]: 73 The security barriers erected at these interfaces are an enduring physical legacy of the Troubles.[72] The 14 neighbourhoods they separate are among the 20 most deprivedwards in Northern Ireland.[73] In May 2013, theNorthern Ireland Executive committed to the removal of all peace lines by mutual consent.[74][75] The target date of 2023 was passed with only a small number dismantled.[76][77]
The more affluent districts escaped the worst of the violence, but the city centre was a major target. This was especially so during the first phase of the PIRA campaign in the early 1970s, when the organisation hoped to secure quick political results through maximum destruction.[72]: 331–332 Includingcar bombs and incendiaries, between 1969 and 1977 the city experienced 2,280 explosions.[24]: 58 In addition to the death and injury caused, they accelerated the loss of the city's Victorian fabric.[78]
Since the turn of the century, the loss of employment and population in the city centre has been reversed.[79] This reflects the growth of theservice economy, for which a new district has been developed on former dockland, theTitanic Quarter. The growing tourism sector paradoxically lists as attractions themurals and peace walls that echo the violence of the past.[72]: 350.352 In recent years, "Troubles tourism"[31]: 180–189 has presented visitors with new territorial markers: flags, murals and graffiti in whichloyalists andrepublicans take opposing sides in theIsraeli-Palestinian conflict.[80]
The demographic balance of some areas has been changed by immigration (according to the 2021 census just under 10% of the city's population was born outside the British Isles),[81] by local differences in births and deaths between Catholics and Protestants, and by a growing number of, particularly younger, people no longer willing to self-identify on traditional lines.[63]
In 1997, unionists lost overall control ofBelfast City Council for the first time in its history. The election in 2011 saw Irish nationalist councillors outnumber unionist councillors, withSinn Féin becoming the largest party, and the cross-communityAlliance Party holding the balance of power.[82]
In the2016 Brexit referendum, Belfast's four parliamentary constituencies returned a substantial majority (60 percent) for remaining within theEuropean Union, as did Northern Ireland as a whole (55.8), the onlyUK region outside London and Scotland to do so.[83] In February 2022, theDemocratic Unionist Party, which had actively campaigned for Brexit, withdrew from the power-sharing executive and collapsed the Stormont institutions to protest the 2020 UK-EUNorthern Ireland Protocol. With the promise of equal access to the British and European markets, this designates Belfast as a point of entry to theEuropean Single Market within whose regulatory framework local producers will continue to operate.[84] After two years, the standoff was resolved with an agreement to eliminate routine checks on UK-destined goods.[85]
Belfast is at the mouth of the River Lagan at the head of Belfast Lough open through theNorth Channel to theIrish Sea and to the North Atlantic. In the course of the 19th century, the location's estuarine features were re-engineered. With dredging and reclamation, the lough was made to accommodate a deep sea port, and extensive shipyards.[86] The Lagan was banked (in 1994 aweir raised its water level to cover what remained of the tidal mud flats)[87] and its various tributaries were culverted[88] On the model pioneered in 2008 by the Connswater Community Greenway some, including the course of the Farset, are now being considered for "daylighting".[89]
It remains the case that much of the city centre is built on an estuarine bed of "sleech": silt, peat, mud and—a source the city's ubiquitous red brick— soft clay, that presents a challenge for high-rise construction.[90] (In 2007 this unstable foundation persuadedSt Anne's Cathedral to abandon plans for a bell tower and substitute a lightweight steel spire).[91] The city centre is also subject to tidal flood risk. Rising sea levels could mean, that without significant investment, flooding in the coming decades will be persistent.[92]
The city is overlooked on theCounty Antrim side (to the north and northwest) by a precipitousbasaltescarpment—the near continuous line ofDivis Mountain (478 m),Black Mountain (389 m) andCavehill (368 m)—whose "heathery slopes and hanging fields are visible from almost any part of the city".[86]: 13 FromCounty Down side (on the south and south east) it is flanked by the lower-lyingCastlereagh andHollywood hills. The sand and gravelMalone Ridge extends up river to the south-west.
From 1820, Belfast began to spread rapidly beyond its 18th century limits. To the north, it stretched out along roads which drew into the town migrants from Scots-settled hinterland ofCounty Antrim.[44] Largely Presbyterian, they enveloped a number of Catholic-occupied "mill-row" clusters:New Lodge,Ardoyne and "the Marrowbone".[93][94] Together with areas of more substantial housing in theOldpark district, these are wedged between Protestant working-class housing stretching fromTiger's Bay out the Shore Road on one side, and up theShankill (the original Antrim Road) on the other.[95]
The Greater Shankill area, includingCrumlin andWoodvale, is over the line from theBelfast North parliamentary/assembly constituency, but is physically separated from the rest ofBelfast West by an extensive series of separation barriers[96]—peace walls—owned (together with five daytime gates into theFalls area) by theDepartment of Justice.[97] These include Cupar Way where tourists are informed that, at 45 feet, the barrier is "three times higher than theBerlin Wall and has been in place for twice as long".[98]
With other working-class districts, Shankill suffered from the "collapse of old industrial Belfast".[99] But it was also greatly affected from the 1960s by the city's most ambitious programme of "slum clearance". Red-brick, "two up, two down" terraced streets, typical of 19th century working-class housing, were replaced with flats, maisonettes, and car parks but few facilities. In a period of twenty years, due largely to redevelopment, 50,000 residents left the area leaving an aging population of 26,000[100][99] and more than 100 acres of wasteland.[101]
Meanwhile,road schemes, including the terminus of theM1 motorway and theWestlink, demolished a mixed dockland community,Sailortown, and severed the streets linking the Shankill area and the rest of both north and west Belfast to the city centre.[102][103]
New "green field" housing estates were built on the outer edges of the city. The onset of the Troubles overwhelmed attempts to promote these as "mixed" neighbourhoods so that the largest of these developments on the city's northern edge,Rathcoole, rapidly solidified as aloyalist community.[104] In 2004, it was estimated that 98% of public housing in Belfast was divided along religious lines.[105]
In the mid-19th century rural poverty and famine drove large numbers of Catholic tenant farmers, landless labourers and their families toward Belfast. Their route brought them down theFalls Road and into what are now remnants of an older Catholic enclave aroundSt Mary's Church, the town's first Catholic chapel (opened in 1784 with Presbyterian subscriptions),[106] andSmithfield Market.[44] Eventually, an entire west side of the city, stretching up the Falls Road, along theSpringfield Road (encompassing the new housing estates built 1950s and 60s: Highfield, New Barnsley, Ballymurphy, Whiterock and Turf Lodge) and out pastAndersonstown on the Stewartstown Road towardPoleglass, became near-exclusively Catholic and, in political terms, nationalist.
Reflecting the nature of available employment as mill workers, domestics and shop assistants, the population, initially, was disproportionately female. Further opportunities for women on the Falls Road arose through developments in education and public health. In 1900, theDominican Order openedSt Mary's [Teacher] Training College, and in 1903King Edward VII opened theRoyal Victoria Hospital at the junction with the Grosvenor Road.[107] Extensively redeveloped and expanded, the hospital has a staff of more than 8,500.[108]
The area's greatest visitor attractions are its wall and gable-end murals. In contrast to those in loyalist areas, where Israel is typically the only outside reference, these range more freely beyond the local conflict frequently expressing solidarity withPalestinians, withCuba, and withBasque andCatalan separatists.[111][112]
West Belfast is separated from South Belfast, and from the otherwise abutting loyalist districts ofSandy Row and theDonegall Road, by rail lines, theM1 Motorway (to Dublin and the west); industrial and retail parks, and the remnants of theBlackstaff (Owenvarra) bog meadows.
Belfast began stretching up-river in the 1840s and 50s: out theOrmeau andLisburn roads and, between them, running along a ridge of higher ground, theMalone Road. From "leafy" avenues of increasingly substantial (and in the course of time "mixed") housing, the Upper Malone broadened out into areas of parkland and villas.
Further out still, where they did not survive as public parks, from the 1960s the great-house demesnes of the city's former mill-owners and industrialists were developed for public housing: loyalist estates such as Seymour Hill and Belvoir. Meanwhile, in Malone and along the river embankments, new houses and apartment blocks have been squeezed in, increasing the general housing density.[113]
Beyond the Queen's University area the area's principal landmarks are the 15-storey tower block ofBelfast City Hospital (1986) on the Lisburn Road, and the Lagan Valley Regional Park through which atowpath extends from the City-centre quayside to Lisburn.[114]
The first district on the right bank of the Lagan (theCounty Down side) to be incorporated in Belfast wasBallymacarrett in 1853.[118]Harland & Wolff, whose gantry cranes,Samson & Goliath, tower over the area, was long the mainstay of employment — although less securely so for thetownland's Catholics (In 1970, when the yard still had a workforce of 10,000, only 400 Catholics were employed).[37]: 280 Tolerated in periods of expansion asnavvies and casual labourers,[52]: 87–88 they concentrated in a small enclave, theShort Strand, which has continued into this century to feature as a sectarian flashpoint.[119][120] Home to around 2,500 people, it is the only distinctly nationalist area in the east of the river.[121]
East Belfast developed from theQueens Bridge (1843), through Ballymacarrett, east along theNewtownards Road and north (along the east shore of the Lough) up theHolywood Road; and from theAlbert Bridge (1890) south east out theCregagh and Castlereagh roads. The further out, the more substantial, and less religiously segregated, the housing until again encountering the city's outer ring of public housing estates: loyalist Knocknagoney,Lisnasharragh, andTullycarnet.
This century, efforts have been made to add to East Belfast's two obvious visitor attractions: Samson & Goliath (the "banana yellow" Harland & Wolff cranes date only from the early 1970s)[52]: 79 and theParliament Buildings at Stormont. What is marketed now as EastSide, features, at the intersection of the Connswater and Comber Greenways and next to the EastSide Visitor Centre,CS Lewis Square (2017), named and themed in honour of the local author ofThe Chronicles of Narnia.[122] Next to the former the Harland & Wolff Drawing Offices (now an hotel), stands the "cultural nucleus to Titanic Quarter",Titanic Belfast (2012) whose interactive galleries tell the liner's ill-fated story.[123]
In 2015, theOrange Order opened the Museum of Orange Heritage on the Cregagh Road with the aim of educating the wider public about "the origins, traditions and continued relevance" of the parading institution.[124]
Belfast City Centre is roughly bounded by the ring roads constructed since the 1970s: theM3 which sweeps across the dockland to the north; the Westlink that connects to theM1 for points south and west; and, with less certainty, the Bruce Street and Bankmore connectors that tie back toward the Lagan at the Gasworks Business Park and the beginning of the Ormeau Road. This embraces "the Markets", the one remaining inner-city area of housing. Of the various markets, including those for the sale and shipping of livestock, from which it derives its name, only one survives, the former produce market,St George's,[125] now a food and craft market popular with visitors to the city.[126]
Among surviving elements of the pre-Victorian town are theBelfast Entries, 17th-century alleyways off High Street, including, in Winecellar Entry, White's Tavern (rebuilt 1790); the elliptical FirstPresbyterian (Non-Subscribing) Church (1781–83) in Rosemary Street (whose members led the abolitionist charge against Greg and Cunningham);[127] theAssembly Rooms (1769, 1776, 1845) on Bridge Street;St George's Church of Ireland (1816) on the High Street site of the old Corporation Church;St Mary's Church (1782) in Chapel Lane, which is the oldest Catholic church in the city. The oldest public building in Belfast,Clifton House (1771–74), theBelfast Charitable Societypoorhouse, is on North Queen Street. It is now partly cut off from the city centre by arterial roads. In addition there are small sets of city-centreGeorgian terraces.[128]
TheBaroque revivalCity Hall was finished in 1906 on the site of the former White Linen Hall, and was built to reflect Belfast's city status, granted byQueen Victoria in 1888. ItsEdwardian design influenced theVictoria Memorial inCalcutta, India, andDurban City Hall in South Africa.[130] The dome is 173 ft (53 m) high and figures above the door state "Hibernia encouraging and promoting the Commerce and Arts of the City".[131]
Nearby is the Renaissance and Baroque revival Scottish Provident Institution (1902). Opposite is a branch of theUlster Bank which is built behind the classical facade of a former Methodist church dating from 1846.
The openingVictoria Square Shopping Centre in 2008 was to symbolise the rebound of the city centre since its days as a restricted security zone during the Troubles.[135] But retail footfall in the centre is limited by competition with out-of-town shopping centres and with internet retailing. As of November 2023, footfall had not recovered pre-COVID pandemic levels.[136] There are compensating trends: the growth in tourism and hospitality which has included a sustained boom in hotel construction.[137]
The City Council also talks of a "residential-led regeneration".[138][139] New townhouse and apartments schemes are being developed for the city's quays,[140] and for Titanic Quarter.[141] The completion in 2023 of Ulster University's enhanced Belfast campus (in "one of the largest higher education capital builds in Europe")[142] and the determination of Queen's University to compete with the private sector in the provision of student housing,[143] has fostered the construction downtown of multiple new student residences.[144]
People can be found sleeping rough on the streets of the city centre. Numbers, while growing, may be comparatively small for a city of its size in the British Isles. In 2022, counts and estimates by theNorthern Ireland Housing Executive identified a total of 26 rough sleepers in Belfast.[145] This is against a background (in 2023) of 2,317 people (0.67% of residents) presenting as homeless, many of whom are in temporary accommodation and shelters.[146] Such figures, however, do not include all those living in severely overcrowded conditions, involuntarily sharing with other households on a long-term basis, or sleeping rough in hidden locations.[147][148]
Since 2001, buoyed by increasing numbers of tourists, the city council has promoted a number of culturalquarters.
TheCathedral Quarter comprises much of Belfast's old trade and warehousing district in the narrow streets and entries aroundSt Anne's Cathedral, with a concentration of bars, beer gardens, clubs and restaurants (including two establishments claiming descent from the early town, White's and The Duke of York)[149] and performance spaces (most notably the Black Box andOh Yeah).[150][151] It hosts a yearlyvisual and performing arts festival. The adjoiningCustom House Square is one of the city's main outdoor venues for free concerts and street entertainment.
Without defined geographical boundaries, theGaeltacht Quarter encompassesIrish-speaking Belfast. (According to the 2021 census, 15.5% of people in the city havesome knowledge of Irish, 4% speak it daily).[152] It is generally understood as an area around the Falls Road in west Belfast served by theCultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich cultural centre.[153] It can be said to include, at the Skainos Centre in unionist east Belfast,Turas, a project that promotes Irish through night classes and cultural events in the belief that "the language belongs to all".[154]
Aerial view of Belfast (2004)
TheLinen Quarter', an area south of City Hall once dominated by linen warehouses, now includes, in addition to cafés, bars and restaurants, a dozen hotels (including the 23-storeyGrand Central Hotel), and the city's two principal Victorian-era cultural venues, theGrand Opera House and theUlster Hall.[155]
Finally, theTitanic Quarter covers 0.75 km2 (185 acres) of reclaimed land adjacent toBelfast Harbour, formerly known asQueen's Island. Named afterRMSTitanic, launched here in 1911,[42] work began in 2003 to transform some former shipyard land into "one of the largest waterfront developments in Europe".[158] The current area housesTitanic Belfast, thePublic Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), two hotels, and multiple condo towers and shops, and the Titanic [film] Studios.[159]
FromGeorgian Belfast, the city retains a civic legacy. In addition toClifton House[160] (Belfast Charitable Society, 1774), this includes theLinen Hall Library[161] (Belfast Society for Promoting Knowledge, 1788), theUlster Museum (founded in 1833 by theBelfast Natural History Society as the Belfast Municipal Museum and Art Gallery), and theBotanic Gardens[162] (established in 1828 by the Belfast Botanic and Horticultural Society).[162] These remain important cultural venues: in the case of the Gardens, for outdoor festivities including the BelfastMelā, the city's annual August celebration of global cultures.[163]
The principal stage for drama remains theLyric Theatre (1951, 2011), the largest employer of actors and other theatre professionals in the region.[169] At Queens University, drama students stage their productions at theBrian Friel Theatre, a 120-seat studio space (named after the renowned playwright).[170]
In November 2011, Belfast became the smallest city to host theMTV Europe Music Awards.[171] The event was made possible by the 11,000-seat Odyssey Arena (today theSSE Arena) which opened in 2000 at the entrance to theTitanic Quarter[172] A further large-scale venue is theWaterfront Hall, a multi-purpose conference and entertainment centre that first opened in 1997. The main circular Auditorium seats 2,241 and is modelled on theBerlin Philharmonic Hall.[173] In 2012, theMetropolitan Arts Centre, the "MAC", was opened in theCathedral Quarter, offering a performance mix of music, theatre, dance and visual art.[174]
The city has a number of community arts, and arts education, centres, among them theCrescent Arts Centre[175] in south Belfast, the Irish-languageCultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich[176] in west Belfast, The Duncairn[177] in north Belfast and, in the east of the city, EastSide Arts.[178]
Féile an Phobail, a community arts organisation born out of the Internment Commemorations in the west of the city, stages one of the largest community festivals in Europe.[179] It has grown from its originalAugust Féile on the Falls Road, to a year-round programme with a broad range of arts events, talks and discussions.[180]
In November 2021, Belfast became the third city in the British Isles to be designated byUNESCO asCity of Music (after Glasgow in 2008 and Liverpool in 2016) and is one of 59 cities worldwide participating in theUNESCO Creative Cities Network.[181][182]
Queens University hosts theSonic Arts Research Centre (SARC), an institute for music-based practice and research. Its purpose designed building, Sonic Laboratory and multichannel studios were opened byKarlheinz Stockhausen, the German composer and "father of electronic music",[189] in 2004.[190]
One of Northern Ireland's two community TV stations,NvTv, is based in theCathedral Quarter of the city. Broadcasting only over the Internet is Homely Planet, the Cultural Radio Station for Northern Ireland, supporting community relations.[194]
Since the lifting in 1872 of a twenty-yearparty processions ban,Orange parades in celebration of "the Twelfth" [of July] and the bonfires of the previous evening, the eleventh, have been a fixed fixture of the Belfast calendar.[195] On what became a public holiday in 1926,[196] Belfast and guest Orange lodges (from both across Ulster and Scotland) with their pipe, flute, drum and accordion bands muster at Carlisle Circus, and parade through the city centre past the City Hall and out the Lisburn Road to a gathering in "the field" at Barnett Demesne.[197] While some local feeder and return marches have a history of sectarian disturbance, in recent years, events have generally passed off without serious incident.[198] The tradition is documented and celebrated in the Museum of Orange Heritage on the Cregagh Road in East Belfast.[124]
What is sometimes referred to as the Catholic equivalent of the Orangemen,[199] the much smallerAncient Order of Hibernians, confines its parades to nationalist areas in west and north Belfast,[200] as do republicans commemorating theEaster Rising.[201] In August 1993, in a break with a history of nationalist exclusion from the city centre, a parade marking theintroduction of internment in the 1971 proceeded upRoyal Avenue toward the City Hall, where it was addressed by Sinn Féin president,Gerry Adams, in front of the statue ofQueen Victoria.[195]
Since 1998, the Belfast City Council has funded a city-centreSt. Patrick's Day (17 March) celebration. It is organised byFéile an Phobail as a "carnival" complete with a parade featuring dancers, circus entertainers, floats, and giant puppets. Critical of what they perceive as an evolving nationalist festival, unionists on the City Council observe that "a lot of the Protestant Unionist Loyalist (PUL) community will stay away from the city centre on St Patrick's Day, the same as some stay away on the Twelfth of July".[202]
In 1991, Belfast hosted its firstgay pride event. Belfast Pride, culminating in a city-centre parade at the end of July, is now one of the biggest annual festivals in the city and, according to its organisers, the largestLGBT+ festival in Ireland.[203][204]
In 2021, there were 345,418 residents within the expanded 2015 Belfast local government boundary[63] and 634,600 in theBelfast Metropolitan Area,[215] approximately one third of Northern Ireland's 1.9 million population.
As with many cities, Belfast's inner city is currently characterised by the elderly, students and single young people, while families tend to live on the periphery. Socio-economic areas radiate out from theCentral Business District, with a pronounced wedge of affluence extending out the Malone Road and Upper Malone Road to the south.[216] Deprivation levels are notable in the inner parts of the north and the west of the city. The areas around theFalls Road,Ardoyne andNew Lodge (Catholic nationalist) and theShankill Road (Protestant loyalist) experience some of the highest levels of social deprivation including higher levels of ill health and poor access to services. These areas remain firmly segregated, with 80 to 90 percent of residents being of the one religious designation.[217][218]
National Identity of Belfast City residents (2021)
Nationality
Per cent
Irish
39.4%
British
37.0%
Northern Irish
27.5%
Consistent with the trend across all of Northern Ireland, the Protestant population within the city has been in decline, while the non-religious, other religious and Catholic population has risen. The 2021 census recorded the following: 43% of residents as Catholic, 12% as Presbyterian, 8% as Church of Ireland, 3% as Methodist, 6% as belonging to other Christian denominations, 3% to other religions and 24% as having either no religion or no declared religion.[152]
In terms of community background, 47.93% were deemed to belong to, or to have been brought up in, the Catholic faith and 36.45% in a Protestant or other Christian-related denomination.[219] The comparable figures in 2011 were 48.60% Catholic and 42.28% Protestant or other Christian-related denomination.[220]
With respondents free to indicate more than one national identity, in 2021 the largest national identity group was "Irish only" with 35% of the population, followed by "British only" 27%, "Northern Irish only" 17%, "British and Northern Irish only" 7%, "Irish and Northern Irish only" 2%, "British, Irish and Northern Irish only" 2%, British and Irish less than 1% and Other identities with 10%.[152]
Insofar as the city's two indigenous minority languages (Irish andUlster Scots) are concerned, figures are made available from the decennial UK census. On census day, 21 March 2021, 14.93% (43,798) in Belfast claimed to have some knowledge of the Irish language, whilst 5.21% (15,294) claimed to be able to speak, read, write and understand spoken Irish.[221] 3.74% (10,963) of residents claimed to use Irish daily and 0.75% (2,192) claimed Irish is their main language.[222][223] 7.17% (21,025) of people in the city claimed to have some knowledge of Ulster Scots, whilst 0.75% (2,207) claimed to be able to speak, read, write and understand spoken Ulster Scots.[224] 0.83% (2,430) claimed to use Ulster Scots daily.[225]
From the mid to late 19th century, there was a communityof central European Jews[226] (among its distinguished members, two-time Lord MayorOtto Jaffe)[227] and of Italians[228] in Belfast. Today, the largest immigrant groups are Poles, Chinese and Indians. The 2011 census figures recorded a total non-white population of 10,219 or 3.3%, while 18,420 or 6.6% of the population were born outside the UK and Ireland. Almost half of those born outside the British Isles lived insouth Belfast, where they comprised 9.5% of the population.[229] The majority of the estimated 5,000 Muslims[230] and 200Hindu families[231] living in Northern Ireland resided in theGreater Belfast area. In the 2021 census the percentage of the city's residents born outside the United Kingdom had risen to 9.8.[81]
Services (including retail, health, professional & scientific) account for three quarters of jobs in the Belfast. Only 6% remain in manufacturing. The balance is in distribution and construction.[232] In recent years, unemployment has been comparatively low (under 3% in the summer of 2023) for the UK. On the other hand, Belfast has a high rate of people economically inactive (close to 30%).[233] It is a group, encompassing homemakers, full-time carers, students and retirees,[234] that in Belfast has been swollen by the exceptionally large proportion of the population (27%) withlong-term health problems or disabilities[235] (and who, in Northern Ireland generally, are less likely to be employed than in other UK regions).[236]
An early report on the post-Belfast Agreement prospects for the city economy underscored another distinctive feature of its working-age population. While it appeared well qualified, with 24 per cent educated to degree level, at "the other end of the educational spectrum", 26 per cent had no qualifications at all, a much higher share than in English cities.[25]: 251
Of Belfast's Victorian-era industry, little remains. The last working linen factory—Copeland Linens Limited, based in the Shankill area—closed in 2013.[237] In recent yearsHarland & Wolff, which at peak production in the Second World War had employed around 35,000 people, has had a workforce of no more than two or three hundred refurbishing oil rigs and fabricating off-shore wind turbines. A £1.6 billionRoyal Navy contract has offered the yard a new lease, returning it to shipbuilding in 2025,[31]: 261–262 [238] a prospect secured by the purchase of insolvent yard by Spain's state-owned shipbuilder,Navantia.[239]
In 1936, Short & Harland Ltd, a joint venture ofShort Brothers and Harland & Wolff, began the manufacture of aircraft in the docks area. In 1989, the British government, which had nationalised the company during the Second World War, sold it to the Canadian aerospace companyBombardier. In 2020, it was sold on to the American aerostructure companySpirit AeroSystems.[240] Producing aircraft components, it remains the largest manufacturing concern in Northern Ireland.[241]
The sector's principal constraint, cyber security, has been addressed since 2004 by the Queens University Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (IECIT), and itsCentre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT).[251] The IECIT is the anchor tenant atCatalyst (science park)[252] in the Titanic Quarter, which hosts a cluster of companies seeking to offer innovative cyber-security solutions.[253]
Between 2018 and 2023, film and television production based largely in Belfast, and occupying significant new studio capacity in the ports area, contributed £330m to Northern Ireland's economy.[254] There are two 8-acre media complexes (serviced by the adjacentCity Airport): the Titanic Studios on Queen's Island (theTitanic Quarter) and across the Victoria Channel inGiant's Park on the Lough's north foreshore, the Belfast Harbour Studios.[255] Together they offer 226,000 ft2 of studio space, plus offices and workshops,[256] and have attracted U.S. production companies such asAmazon,HBO (including all eight series of its fantasy dramaGame of Thrones),Paramount,Playtone,Universal, andWarner Bros.[159][255]
At the beginning of 2024,Ulster University, in partnership withBelfast Harbour and supported byNorthern Ireland Screen, announced an £72m investment to add to the complex a new virtual production, research and development, facility, Studio Ulster.[257][254] Additional studio space is available at Loop Studios (formerly Britvic) on the Castlereagh Road in East Belfast.[256][258]
In May 2025, Belfast was named "City of Film’"at the Global Production Awards ceremony held during theCannes Film Festival in France.[259]
This has included an entirely new phenomenon for Belfast: in 1996, the port received its first cruise ship.[262] In 2023, Belfast welcomed 153 calls, 8% up from the pre-pandemic record set in 2019. Ships from 32 different countries landed 320,000 passengers.[263] By 2028, there is to be a new a £90 million deep-water quay capable of accommodating the world’s largest cruise liners.[264]
Belfast has also seen growth of "conflict tourism".[31]: 186–191 To the dismay of some, "tourists take photos of the division lines that are not consigned to history, but are a part of living Belfast: children play football against the walls that tourists flock to. The places and the people themselves have become a spectacle, an attraction."[265] Tourist bosses and guides, however, are satisfied that the greater draw is city's other "must-see attractions",[266] and its "convivial food and nightlife scene".[267]
Invest NI, Northern Ireland's economic development agency is pitching Belfast and its hinterland to foreign investors as "only region in the world able to trade goods freely with bothGB and EU markets".[268] This follows the 2020Northern Ireland Protocol and the 2023Windsor Framework, agreements between the British government andEuropean Union, whereby, post-Brexit, Northern Ireland would effectively remain within theEuropean Single Market for goods while, in principle, retaining unfettered access to the British domestic market. Despite the DUP's derailment of devolved government in protest, local business leaders largely welcomed the new trade regime, hailing the promise of dual EU-GB access as a critical opportunity.[269][270]
In February 2024, the DUP consented to a return of the devolved Assembly and Executive on the understanding that neither the EU nor the British government would defend the integrity of their respective internal markets by conductingroutine checks on the bulk of goods passing through Belfast, or other Northern Ireland, ports.[271]
Children from Catholic and Protestant homes in Belfast are taught, for the most part, separately on a pattern that, by the mid-nineteenth century, had been established throughout Ireland.[272] Primary and secondary education is divided between (Catholic) Maintained Schools and (non-Catholic/ "Protestant") Controlled Schools.[273] They are bound by the same curriculum, but their teaching staff are trained separately (in the university colleges ofSt Mary's andStranmillis).[274][275]: 200–202
Denominational lines have since blurred, with Catholics in particular moving into the controlled grammars.[277] But the presence of 18selective grammar schools in Belfast is a further feature of post-primary education in Belfast that distinguishes it from that of comparable cities in Great Britain where academic selection was abandoned in the 1960s and 70s.[278] Partly prompted by theCOVID disruption of external testing in 2021/22,[279] some the city's grammars have begun to review and amend the practice. It is not clear that this will be on terms that reduce the degree of social segregation they have represented within the system.[280]
In 2006, theBelfast Education and Library Board became part of the consolidatedEducation Authority for Northern Ireland. In Belfast, the Authority has responsibility for 156 primary,[281] and 48secondary schools (including the 18 grammars).[282] The system is marked by stark inequalities in outcome.[283] Around 30% of school leavers in the city do not attain 5GCSEs, A* - C (including Maths and English). For those in receipt of free school meals, the figure rises to over 50%.[284]
Belfast has two universities.Queen's University Belfast was founded as a college in 1845. In 1908, the Catholic bishops lifted their ban on attendance and Queen's was granted university status.[275]: 164, 166 It is a member of theRussell Group, an association of 24 leading research-intensive universities in the UK,[286] and is one of the largest universities in the UK with over 25,000 students – among them over 4,000 international students.[287]
Ulster University, created in its current form in 1984, is a multi-centre university with a campus on the edge of theCathedral Quarter of Belfast. Since 2021, this original "Arts College" campus has undergone a £1.4bn expansion to accommodate offerings across all departments. The project promises to bring 15,500 staff and students into the city, and to generate 5,000 new jobs.[288][142]
Belfast City Council is responsible for a range of powers and services, including land-use and community planning, parks and recreation, building control, arts and cultural heritage.[291] The city's principal offices are those of theLord Mayor of Belfast, Deputy Lord Mayor andHigh Sheriff. Like other elected positions within the Council such as Committee chairs, these are filled since 1998 using theD'Hondt system so that in recent years the position has rotated between councillors from the three largest factions,Sinn Féin, theDUP and theAlliance Party.
The first Lord Mayor of Belfast in 1892,Daniel Dixon, likeevery mayor but one until 1997 (Alliance in 1979), was aunionist.[292] The firstnationalist Lord Mayor of Belfast wasAlban Maginness of theSocial Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) in 1997. The currentLord Mayor is Micky Murray of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, who has been in the position of Lord Mayor since 3 June 2024. His duties include presiding over meetings of the council, receiving distinguished visitors to the city, representing and promoting the city on the national and international stage.[292]
In 1997, unionists lost overall control of Belfast City Council for the first time in its history, with the Alliance Party holding the balance of power. In 2023, unionists retained just 17 of 60 seats on the council, leaving nationalists (Sinn Féin and the SDLP) just 4 seats short of a majority.[293] In addition to the 11 Alliance members there are four other councillors, 3Green and 1People Before Profit, who refuse a nationalist/unionist designation.
Northern Ireland Assembly and Westminster elections
The Royal Hospitals site in west Belfast (junction of Grosvenor and Falls roads) contains two hospitals. TheRoyal Victoria Hospital (its origins in a number of successive institutions, beginning in 1797 with The Belfast Fever Hospital)[296] provides both local and regional services. Specialist services include cardiac surgery, critical care and the Regional Trauma Centre.[297] The Children's Hospital (Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children) provides general hospital care for children in Belfast and provides most of the paediatric regional specialities.[298]
TheMater Hospital (founded in 1883 by theSisters of Mercy)[303] on the Crumlin Road provides a wide range of services, including acute inpatient, emergency and maternity services, to north Belfast and the surrounding areas.[304]
TheUlster Hospital, Upper Newtownards Road,Dundonald, on the eastern edge of the city, first founded as the Ulster Hospital for Women and Sick Children in 1872,[305] is the major acute hospital for theSouth Eastern Health and Social Care Trust. It delivers a full range of outpatient, inpatient and daycare medical and surgical services.[306]
Belfast is a relativelycar-dependent city by European standards, with an extensive road network including the 22.5 miles (36 km)M2 andM22 motorway route.[307]
Black taxis are common in the city, operating on ashare basis in some areas.[308] These are outnumbered byprivate hire taxis. Bus and rail public transport in Northern Ireland is operated by subsidiaries ofTranslink. Bus services in the city proper and the nearer suburbs are operated byTranslink Metro, with services focusing on linking residential districts with the city centre on 12quality bus corridors running along main radial roads,[309]
In 2024, the city's Europa Bus Centre and Great Victoria Street rail station, was replaced by a new Belfast Central Station. It is "the largest integrated transport facility on the island of Ireland" with bus stands, railway platforms, and facilities for taxis and bicycles.[310]
The city has two airports:George Best Belfast City Airport, close to the city centre on the eastern shore of Belfast Lough andBelfast International Airport 30–40 minutes to the west on the shore ofLough Neagh. Both operate UK domestic and European flights. The city is also served byDublin Airport, two hours to the south, with direct inter-continental connections.
TheGlider bus service is a new form of transport in Belfast. Introduced in 2018, it is abus rapid transit system linking East Belfast, West Belfast and the Titanic Quarter from the City Centre.[311] Usingarticulated buses, the £90 million service saw a 17% increase in its first month in Belfast, with 30,000 more people using the Gliders every week. The service is being recognised as helping to modernise the city's public transport.[312]
Silent Valley Reservoir, showing the brick-built overflow
Half of Belfast's water is supplied via theAquarius pipeline from theSilent Valley Reservoir in County Down, created to collect water from theMourne Mountains.[315] The other half is now supplied fromLough Neagh via Dunore Water Treatment Works in County Antrim.[316][317] The citizens of Belfast pay for their water in theirrates bill. Plans to bring in additional water tariffs were deferred bydevolution in May 2007.[318]
Power is provided from a number ofpower stations viaNIE Networks Limited transmission lines. (Just under a half of electricity consumption in Northern Ireland is generated fromrenewable sources).[319]Phoenix Natural Gas Ltd. started supplying customers in Larne and Greater Belfast with natural gas in 1996 via the newly constructedScotland-Northern Ireland pipeline.[316]Rates in Belfast (and the rest of Northern Ireland) were reformed in April 2007. The discretecapital value system means rates bills are determined by the capital value of each domestic property as assessed by the Valuation and Lands Agency.[320]
Belfast City Council owns and maintains 17 leisure centres across the city, run on its behalf by the non-profitsocial enterpriseGLL under the 'Better' brand.[321] These include eight large multipurposed centres complete with swimming pools: Ballysillan Leisure Centre and Grove Wellbeing Centre in North Belfast; the Andersonstown, Falls, Shankill and Whiterock leisure centres in West Belfast; Templemore Baths and Lisnasharragh Leisure Centre in East Belfast, and close to the city centre in South Belfast, the Olympia Leisure Centre and Spa,[322]
Belfast has overforty parks. The oldest (1828) and one of the most popular parksBotanic Gardens[323] in theQueen's Quarter. Built in the 1830s and designed bySir Charles Lanyon, its Palm House is one of the earliest examples of a curvilinear and cast ironglasshouse.[324] Other attractions in the park include the recently restored Tropical Ravine, a humid jungle glen built in 1889,[325] rose gardens and public events ranging from live opera broadcasts to pop concerts.[326]
The largest municipal park in the city, and closest to the city centre, lies on the right bank of Lagan. The 100-acres ofOrmeau Park were opened to the public in 1871 on what was the last demesne of the town's former proprietors, the Chichesters,Marquesses of Donegall.[327]
In north Belfast, theWaterworks, two reservoirs to which the public have had access since 1897, are features of a park supporting angling and waterfowl.[328] In 1906, a further water park,Victoria, opened behind industrial dockland on what had been the eastern shore of the Lough.[329] It is now connected through east Belfast by the Connswater Community Greenway which offers 16 km of continuous cycle and walkway through east Belfast.[330]
The largest green conservation area within the city's boundaries is a 2,116 hectares patchwork of "parks, demesnes, woodland and meadows" stretching upriver along the banks of the Lagan river and canal;[114] Established in 1967, the Lagan Valley Regional Park envelopes in its course, Belvoir Park Forest, which contains ancient oaks and a 12th-century NormanMotte,[331] andSir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park, whose International Rose Garden attracts thousands of visitors each July.[332]
Colin Glenn Forest Park,[333] theNational Trust Divis and the Black Mountain Ridge Trail,[334] and Cave Hill Country Park.[335] offer panoramic views over Belfast and beyond from the west.[334] Climbing the Castlereagh Hills, the National Trust Lisnabreeny Cregagh Glen does the same from the east.[336]
Belfast has several notable sports teams playing a diverse variety of sports such asfootball,Gaelic games,rugby,cricket, andice hockey. TheBelfast Marathon is run annually on May Day, The 41st Marathon in 2023, with related events (Wheelchair Race, Team Relay and 8 Mile Walk) attracted 15,000 participants.[338]
Belfast is home to over twentyGaelic football andhurling clubs.[340]Casement Park in west Belfast, home to theAntrim county teams, had a capacity of 31,500 making it the second largestGaelic Athletic Association ground inUlster.[341] Listed as one of the venues for the UK and Ireland's successfulUEFA Euro 2028 bid, with co-funding from the Irish government there are plans for a complete rebuild.[342] In May 2020, the foundation ofEast Belfast GAA returned Gaelic Games to East Belfast after decades of its absence in the area. The current club president is Irish-language enthusiastLinda Ervine who comes from a unionist background in the area. The team currently plays in the Down Senior County League.[343]
For this northern latitude, thanks to the influence of theGulf Stream andNorth Atlantic Drift, Belfast has a comparatively mild climate. In summer the temperatures rarely range above 25 °C (77 °F) or dip in winter below −5 °C (23 °F).[350][351] The maritime influence, also ensures that the city gets significant precipitation. On 157 days in an average year, rainfall is greater than 1 mm. Average annual rainfall is 846 mm (33.3 in),[352] less than areas of northern England or most ofScotland,[353] but higher thanDublin or the south-east coast of Ireland.[354]
Henry Cooke (1788–1868),Presbyterian Moderator, evangelist, proponent of "Protestant unity" (Cooke Memorial Church, May Street, "Black Man" statue College Square East)
Hugh "Roaring" Hanna (1821–1892), Protestant evangelist associated with sectarian riot (Commemorated, until targeted and destroyed inthe Troubles, by his statue and church at Carlisle Circus).
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