Ice Age – peoples from Alba (modern Scotland) cross the frozenIrish Sea and began populating Ireland viaUlster. These inhabitants would later be supplanted or assimilated by theGaels.[1]
Iron Age – c. 1300 BC the first permanent settlements develop in Ireland. TheGiant's Ring andMcArt's Fort are both constructed on sites near modern Belfast.[1][2]
1177 – The village of Belfast comes under the ownership ofJohn de Courcy after acquiring land in Ulster with the Norman victory at the Battle of Downpatrick.[5] De Courcy would order castles to be built in Belfast and nearby Carrickfergus.[6]
1315 –Edward Bruce invades Ulster and receives homage from his father-in-law, the Earl of Ulster, as "King of Ireland". Edward is later killed at theBattle of Faughart in 1318.[8][9]
1573 –The 1st Earl of Essex pledges to conquer territory in Ulster at his own expense but is diverted by a storm when his convoy leavesLiverpool and is forced to winter in Belfast.[1]
1574 – Gaelic lordSir Brian MacPhelim and his entourage are lured to Belfast Castle by the Earl of Essex under the pretense of negotiations and a feast. They are betrayed and captured and eventually sent toDublin where they are executed.[1]
1597 – The beginning of theNine Years War that saw the English garrison in Belfast Castle captured and executed by Ulster Rebels. The uprising would go on to devastate areas of Ireland including the Lagan Valley.[15][16]
1598 – Sir John Chichester, who's lands include Belfast, is killed in theBattle of Carrickfergus. His brother, SirArthur Chichester, acquires his holdings in Carrickfergus, Belfast and the Lagan Valley.[17]
1603 –Conn O'Neill and his men are arrested after a skirmish with English soldiers en route to Belfast. O'Neill was attempting to acquire wine in Belfast after running out during a feast in Castlereagh. O'Neill would later escape after being imprisoned in Carrickfergus Castle and receive a pardon fromJames I for his daring.[18]
1605 – Arthur Chichester is appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland by James I, an office he will hold for a decade.[19] Chichester sets out to develop Belfast into a town by hiring craftsman from Britain and having millions of bricks fired for construction.[citation needed] The small population of Belfast at this time[citation needed] consists of Scots, English andManx.
1606 – Migration begins from lowland Scotland to Ulster with the encouragement ofHugh Montgomery.[18]
1607 –Flight of the Earls sees the self-imposed exile of Gaelic lords of theO'Neill andO'Donnell clans who leave Ulster in a power vacuum.[19] James I decides to re-distribute the land and make the migration from Britain to Ulster royal policy resulting in thePlantation of Ulster.[20] Overwhelming response comes from lowland Scotland to eastern Ulster and the demographic shift sees the advent ofUlster-Scots people.[21]
1611 – The last version of Belfast Castle on its original site is completed on the order of Arthur Chichester.[21][22]
1640 –Thomas Wentworth, thenLord Deputy of Ireland, purchases Carrickfergus' trade monopolies and endows them on Belfast.[citation needed] The Customs House is also moved to Belfast, effectively redirecting trade from Carrickfergus to Belfast.[24]
1641 – Catholics revolt in the1641 Rebellion and the rebels gain control of most of the province of Ulster. Large numbers of protestants are killed and sectarian fighting breaks out nationally.[25] This develops into theIrish Confederate War which continues until theCromwellian conquest of Ireland.[26]
1644 – Scottish commanderRobert Monro, when given command of English and Scottish forces in Ulster, seizes Belfast. He later refuses to cede it toGeorge Monck, the commander chosen by the English Parliament after its victory in theFirst English Civil War. Monro is eventually taken prisoner in 1648.[27]
1667 – Belfast produces half of Ireland's supply of butter, which is heavily used by the Irish. Butter is also sold at a premium in Europe, with the Dutch paying the highest prices and the French ordering the largest quantities.[citation needed]
1688 –James II is deposed by Parliament in favour of his son-in-law and daughter, William of Orange and Mary, who are crowned co-monarchs as a result of theGlorious Revolution.[28]
1690 –William of Orange arrives in Belfast, where surprised onlookers stare in silence, until cheering breaks out. A representative from theBelfast Corporation implores William to "pull the stiff neck of every papist down." William responds in broken English that he "came to see the people of Ireland settled in a lasting peace."[citation needed] On 12 July, Williamite forces defeat the Jacobite army at theBattle of the Boyne. James II flees the field and goes into exile in France.[28][29]
1691 – MorePenal Laws begin to be passed which restrict the religious, political and economic activities of Catholics, 'dissenters' of other Protestant denominations, and members of other religions, in order to formalise theProtestant Ascendency in Ireland.[31]
1740 – Belfast is affected by theGreat Frost and subsequent drought that hits Ireland.[33]
1759 – Population of Belfast is estimated to be 8,000.[34]
1771 – Aggrieved by high rents and evictions, 1,200 men from the ProtestantHearts of Steel gang surround Belfast Barracks demanding the release of a farmer imprisoned there. They are fired upon by the garrison, resulting in violence, rioting and arson. The Sovereign (mayor) of Belfast releases the prisoner, fearing further destruction. The revolt spreads to mid-Ulster, the group joining forces with Armagh'sHearts of Oak. TheIrish Parliament passes a special act and sends troops into Ulster to put down the unrest.[35]
1778 – During theAmerican Revolution, aprivateer ship called "The Ranger", captained byJohn Paul Jones, appeared in Belfast Lough on 28 April. The American ship engaged and captured theRoyal Navy vessel stationed there,HMS Drake, prompting the Sovereign of Belfast to write toDublin Castle for military assistance. When none materialized, the men of Belfast formed their own independent militia called it the Volunteer Corps. This force would later put pressure on theDublin Parliament to reform.[citation needed]
1780 – Political debate in Belfast led by UlsterPresbyterians effected by the Penal Laws and inspired by theScottish Enlightenment discusses reforms in Ireland including the full enfranchisement of Irish Catholics.[36]
1783 – Belfast sends delegates to the Irish Parliament in Dublin in an attempt to give Catholics voting rights but fail.[citation needed]
1784 – At a convention for the Volunteer Corps, Belfast members defied all the other Irish brigades and declared that they would allow Catholics to join their ranks.[citation needed]
1784 –St. Mary's in Chapel Lane holds its firstmass on 30 May The chapel was built with funds raised by Protestant businessmen to accommodate the increasing population of Catholics migrating from west Ulster to Belfast. The mostly Presbyterian 1st Belfast Volunteer Company paraded to the chapel yard and gave the parish priest aguard of honour, with many Belfast Protestants present to celebrate the event. The Roman Catholic population of Belfast was only around 400 at the time.[37]
1789 – Upon learning of the first waves of uprising in France, theBelfast Newsletter publishes an editorial praising the actions and ideals of what would become theFrench Revolution.
1790 – Inspired by the events the French Revolution, a movement led by Presbyterians lobbies the Irish Parliament for reform; the Northern Whig party is formed.<[citation needed]
1791 – Volunteer Corps members gather at The Exchange on Warring Street in Belfast to celebrate the fall of theBastille. They marched to the White Linen Hall (modern day Belfast City Hall) where they fired a volley salute to the French revolutionaries. A declaration was presented extolling the French people and inviting their support for revolution in Ireland.[citation needed]
1793 – The United Irishmen split over theReign of Terror in France with some condemning the violence and others applauding the action to further revolution.[citation needed]
1795 – After being implicated in treasonous activity, Theobald Wolfe Tone and his family stay in Belfast before being sent into exile in America. Tone and his compatriots climb Cave Hill where they vow that they would not rest until Ireland was free from the "British yoke". Tone's Belfast Presbyterian supporters raised funds to buy his family a small tobacco farm inNew Jersey.[42]
1796 – A French armada carrying over 45,000 men attempts to land in Ireland but is prevented by bad weather. The United Irishmen and CatholicDefenders were sensationalised by the attempted French invasion and their recruitment doubled in Ulster the following year.[citation needed]
1797 – The British Government attempts to disarm militias in Ulster with General Lake declaringmartial law, ordering the citizenry to surrender their arms and suppressing the publication of radical Belfast newspaperThe Northern Star. Weapon searches begin in Belfast and Carrickfergus, with more than 5,000 arms seized in the first ten days. Using informers, Lake would go on to devastate the United Irishmen's ranks while, at the same time, doing nothing to disarm loyalistOrange Men.[43]
1798 – General SirRalph Abercromby is appointedcommander-in-chief in Ireland and formallycensures the Irish army for brutality. Outraged members of the Irish Government force Abercromby to resign and has Lake return to take his place. As a result of Lake's harsh methods, the population rose up in revolt culminating theIrish Rebellion of 1798 from May to October.[citation needed]
1798 –Henry Joy McCracken is then led to Market House at High Street and Corn Market, where he was hanged on 17 July after refusing to name his co-conspirators at his trial.[44] Wolfe Tone would commit suicide in Dublin on 19 November a day before he was scheduled to be executed after being convicted at his court martial.[42]
1800 – Profoundly influenced by the effects of the Irish Rebellion of 1798,William Pitt crafts theAct of Union establishing the modern United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and has the Irish Parliament in Dublin abolish itself.[45]
1808 – Population of Belfast is estimated to be 25,000.[34]
1811 – At its peak, the Belfast cotton industry employs 22,000 people directly in spinning mills and 30,000 more people indirectly in weaving and other roles.[47]
1828 –Mulholland's Cotton Mill on York Street burns down and is rebuilt much larger, with five stories, three steam engines, 15,300 spindles and a 186-foot-tall chimney. It is also upgraded to spin deep-soakedflax, and is able to render 700 tonnes of yarn per year.[citation needed]
1829 – A ban onOrange Institution Battle of the Boyne commemoration parades leads to demonstrations and serious rioting in the city. These spread toCounty Armagh andCounty Tyrone, lasting several days and resulting in at least 20 deaths.[citation needed]
1830 – Belfast becomes the world's leading producer of linen.[34]
1837 – Steam locomotives "Express" and "Fury" are delivered fromManchester toBelfast Harbour, from where are drawn up by horse to be placed on the new railway line Between Belfast and Lisburn. Nearly 1,600 spectators gather at 4 am to watch their test runs.[citation needed]
1840 – Ireland'scottage industries fail to compete with mechanised production and imports from England. The devastation of these industries contributes to rural families' dependence on the potato crop as a staple of their diet.[citation needed]
1841 – Population of Belfast is estimated to be 70,447 and the city boundary is extended.[34]
1841 – On 19 January, Daniel O'Connell speaks to a crowd from a balcony of Kern's Hotel. People both jeer and cheer so loud that his speech cannot be heard. The same night, Belfast residents throw stones and smash windows, and are eventually repelled by police. O'Connell leaves Belfast the next day under police escort.[53]
1841 –Rev. Henry Cooke, a spokesman for northern Presbyterians, extols the growth of industry and population in Belfast and connects its prosperity directly to its being a part of the United Kingdom.[53]
1845 – TheGreat Potato Famine begins after a potatoblight from America spreads to Irish crops.[53][54] The Belfast Newsletter predicts the devastating effect the blight would have on the common people of Ireland, particularly in rural areas.[53] The potato crop largely fails all over Ireland, with the exception of the west coast and parts of Ulster.[53][55]
1847 – The British government is feeding 3,000,000 famine victims a day, though many still die from disease brought on by malnutrition. Many of the poor moved eastward from rural areas into Belfast and Dublin, bringing with them famine-related diseases. Dr. Andrew Malcolm, working in Belfast at the time, wrote of the influx of the starving into the town, their horrific appearance and the "plague breath" they carried with them. In July, theBelfast Newsletter reported that the town's hospitals were overflowing and that some of the emaciated were stretched out on the streets, dead or dying.[55]
1848 – Another cholera outbreak hits Belfast, killing 1,163 people.[56]
1849 – The Belfast Harbour commissioners, members of the council, gentry, merchants and the 13th Regiment officially open the Victoria Channel on 10 July aboard the royal steamerPrince of Wales. This new waterway would allow large vessels to navigate the River Lagan regardless of the tide.[57][58]
1849 – In August,Queen Victoria,Prince Albert and thePrince of Wales sail up the new Victoria Channel on their visit to Belfast. They are received with celebrations, crowds of well-wishers, and decorations adorning the streets, and would be credited with lifting the spirits of the city as it recovered from the cholera outbreak. On High Street, a 32-foot high arch had been adorned with a misspelling of theIrish greeting "Céad Míle Fáilte". The royal family visit a goods exhibition at theWhite Linen Hall, inspect the newQueen's College, and tour Mulholland's Cotton Mill before returning to their vessel.[58]
1852 – Belfast is the first port of Ireland, outpacing Dublin in size, value and tonnage.[58]
1857 – Confrontations between crowds of Catholics and Protestants on 12 July degrade into stones being thrown on Albert Street, and Catholics beating twoMethodist ministers in the Millfield area with sticks. The next night, Protestants fromSandy Row went into Catholic areas, smashed windows and set houses on fire. The unrest turned into ten days of rioting, with many of the police force joining the Protestant side.[58]
1858 – Harlandbuys out his partner John Hixon with the backing of Gustav Schwab, whose nephewGustav Wolff had been working as an assistant to Harland.[58]
1864 – Riots get so intense that reinforcements and twofield guns are dispatched fromDublin Castle. A funeral for a victim of police gunfire turns into a loyalist parade that unexpectedly passes throughDonegall Square in the heart of Belfast. Police can barely maintain a barrier between the parade and the Catholics amassing at Castle Place. Continuous gunfire throughout the city is heard until heavy rain disperses the crowds.[58]
1869 – Gustav Schwab founds theWhite Star Line and orders all of its ocean vessels from Harland & Wolff, setting the firm on the path to becoming the biggest ship building company in the world.[58]
1870 – Construction of Belfast Castle on Cave Hill is complete.[57]
1872 – In summer, 30,000nationalists hold a demonstration atHannahstown calling for the release ofFenian prisoners, leading to riots between Catholics and Protestants.[61]
1874 –Home Rule becomes a mainstream issue in Irish politics.The Newsletter denounces a number of MPs on the eve of the election, writing that "Home Rule was simply 'Rome Rule'" and that Protestants would not support a new Dublin parliament.[citation needed]
1886 – The Catholic population of Belfast reaches 45,000.[37]
1886 – The1886 Belfast riots break out between Catholic and Protestant civilians over tensions arising from theHome Rule Bill.[62] In June, Protestants celebrate the defeat of theFirst Home Rule Bill in theHouse of Commons, leading to rioting in Belfast in which seven people die and many more are injured. Following the July Orange Institution parades (The Twelfth), clashes occur between Catholics and Protestants, and also between Loyalists and police. Thirteen people are killed in one weekend, and rioting continues sporadically until mid-September, resulting in an official death toll of 31.[citation needed]
1888 –Queen Victoria grants city status to Belfast. At the time it is Ireland's largest city, the UK's third most important port (behind London and Liverpool), the leader in world trade,[clarification needed] and the global centre of linen production.[34]
1893 – Asecond Home Rule Bill passes through the House of Commons but is struck down in theHouse of Lords. Wary Protestants celebrate and, as had happened seven years earlier, Catholics are attacked in Belfast's shipyards.[66]
1899 – Large crowds gather on 14 January to watch the launch of theRMS Oceanic, which had been ordered by theWhite Star Line for trans-Atlantic passenger travel. The Oceanic is the largest moving object ever built up to that time.[68]
1900 – Belfast had the world's largesttobacco factory, tea machinery and fan-making works, handkerchief factory,dry dock and color Christmas card printers. Belfast was also the world's leading manufacturer of "fizzy drinks" (soft drinks).[66] The city of Belfast is 75% Protestant, however, the whole island of Ireland is 75% Catholic.[68]
1901 – Population of Belfast is estimated to be 349,180.[34]
1907 – The city sawa bitter strike by dock workers organised by radical trade unionistJim Larkin. The dispute saw 10,000 workers on strike and a mutiny by the police, who refused to disperse the striker's pickets. Eventually theBritish Army had to be deployed to restore order. The strike was a rare instance of non-sectarian mobilisation in Ulster at the time.[71]
1910 – Irish Unionists choseEdward Carson, a lawyer and formerConservative Party MP forTrinity College Dublin, as their leader. In September. Unionists led by Carson raise a militia, theUlster Volunteers (or Ulster Volunteer Force), to resist Home Rule by force if necessary. TheUlster Unionist Council secretly requested a price quotation from a German arms manufacturer for 20,000 rifles and a million rounds of ammunition.[citation needed]
1911 – Carson and the UCC voted for the first disbursement of funds to be used in the acquisition of arms.[citation needed]
1914 – A shipment of 24,000 rifles with five million rounds of ammunition, or 216 tonnes, arrived in Ireland in April. Alarmed by the events up north, the almost-defunctIrish Republican Brotherhood was revitalised as a direct response to the actions of the UV.<[citation needed]John Redmond suspected that the Irish Volunteers were secretly being controlled by the IRB from within and moved to take over the militia, but failed. Observing the success of the Ulster Volunteers in arming, the Irish Volunteers also contacted gun manufacturers in Germany to purchase arms.[citation needed] KingGeorge V, fearing civil war, became involved and sponsored peace talks in Ulster, which eventually broke down.[citation needed] TheGreat War begins on 3 August when Germany invades Belgium.[75] The men of the UV and Irish Volunteers both by and large joined theBritish Army.[citation needed] Carson offers the UV militia to GeneralHerbert Kitchener, commander of the British armed forces.Kitchener agrees and keeps the UV command structure together as the36th Ulster Division (Kitchener also refused to make a separate division for the Irish nationalists).[citation needed] Redmond urged the Irish Volunteers to fight and defend Ireland as well as the more abstract ideals of freedom and religious equality. By this, he meant joining forces with the British and fighting for the king.Eoin MacNeill refused to fight for the British overseas, and led a minority of 11,000 to form their own militia with the name "Irish Volunteers" in the split. The majority group, led by Redmond, re-branded as theNational Volunteers.[citation needed] The Third Home Rule Bill passes on 18 September. Asquith attempts to avoidcivil war in Ireland by introducing several measures proposing that island be partitioned. Unionists demanded that the six north-eastern counties of Ireland (four of which had Protestant majorities) be excluded from Home Rule.[76]
1916 – At least 210,000 Irishmen had enlist; 1/3 of the UV joined and, though Ulster supplied more than half of the Irish recruits, 57% of those who came from Ireland were Catholic. In Belfast, Catholics were more likely to join the military than Protestants. Nearly 28,000 of those who joined to fight inFrance never returned to Ireland.[citation needed] TheBattle of the Somme from 1 July to 18 November claims the lives of many Ulstermen including those from Belfast.[74] Britain suffered over 54,000 casualties; the Ulster Division alone had 5,700 killed or wounded (over 10% of the total losses).[77] The UUC mandates that their goal in September to have the six northeast counties of Ulster be anexclusion zone from Home Rule.[citation needed]
1920 – Rioting breaks out in Belfast on 21 July, starting in the shipyards and spreading to residential areas. The violence was partly in response to the IRA killing inCork of northernRoyal Irish Constabulary police officerGerald Smyth, and also because of competition for jobs due to the high unemployment rate.[80] ProtestantLoyalists marched on the Harland and Wolff shipyards in Belfast and forced over 11,000 Catholic and left-wing Protestant workers from their jobs. This sectarian action is often referred to as theBelfast Pogrom. The sectarian rioting that followed resulted in about 20 deaths in just three days. Both Catholics and Protestants were expelled from their homes by the other side, sometimes by fire. The further IRA assassination of an RIC Detective Swanzy in nearbyLisburn on 22 August prompted another round of clashes, in which 33 people died in 10 days.[citation needed] Amidst political unrest, theGovernment of Ireland Act 1920 entered the statute book, officially creatingNorthern Ireland on 23 December.[citation needed]
1921 –Elections on 24 May give Unionists a landslide victory with 40 seats, while Sinn Féin and other Irish Nationalists won only six seats each. James Craig became the firstPrime Minister of Northern Ireland.[81][82] KingGeorge V offered to open Northern Ireland's parliament on 22 June 1921 in hopes that it would bring peace negotiations.[citation needed] Belfast suffers a day of violence known at the time as 'Belfast's Bloody Sunday'. An IRA ambush of an armoured police truck on Raglan Street killed one RIC man, injured two more and destroyed their armoured car. This sparked ferocious fighting in west Belfast on the following day, Sunday 10 July, in which 16 civilians (eleven Catholics and five Protestants) died and 161 houses were destroyed. Gun battles raged all day along the sectarian 'boundary' between theFalls andShankill Roads; rival gunmen used rifles, machine guns andhand grenades. Four more would die over the following two days.[citation needed] After atruce leading to peace talk between Republicans and the British Government, the Anglo-Irish War ends on 11 July with atreaty.[83] The second spike in violence happened from 29 August to 1 September, in which twenty people were killed. The third eruption was in November, when more than thirty died in response to the IRA bombing city trams taking Protestant workers to the shipyards, killing seven people.
1922 – Belfast becomes the capital of Northern Ireland.[34] After theAnglo-Irish Treaty confirms the partition of Ireland into Northern Ireland and theIrish Free State,Michael Collins, a leader in the Republican movement and commander of the IRA, covertly sends arms and aid to the northern IRA with the aim both of defending the Catholic population there and sabotaging the government of Northern Ireland in hopes of its collapse. Loyalists recognised the IRA's tactic of subversion and openly attacked Catholic neighbourhoods, which were somewhat defended by IRA gunmen. Roughly thirty people were killed in Belfast in February 1922, sixty in March and another 30 in April. Recurring cycles of violence continued until the summer of 1922. In response to this most recent conflict, theFirst Dáil imposed a boycott on goods produced in Belfast from 6 August, which proved to be ineffective. TheMcMahon Murders of 26 March, and theArnon Street Massacre of a week later, in which uniformed police shot a total of twelve Catholic civilians dead in reprisal for the killings of policemen, were two of the worst incidents.[84] On 29 April, King George V grants theUlster Special Constabulary the title ofRoyal Ulster Constabulary. On 22 May, the IRA assassinated unionist politicianWilliam Twaddell, in Belfast. Immediately afterwards, theSpecial Powers Act was passed in an effort to stop the chaos.Internment (arrest and imprisonment without trial) was introduced, and over 350 IRA men were arrested in Belfast, crippling its organisation there.[citation needed] May saw seventy-five people killed in Belfast, and another 30 died there in June. Several thousand Catholics fled the violence and sought refuge inGlasgow andDublin. However, after this crisis, the violence declined rapidly. Only six people died in July and August and the final conflict-related killing took place in October 1922. The Republican movements splits after the public votes in the Treaty via referendum resulting in theIrish Civil War beginning on 28 June.[85] In July, legislation was rushed through to abolishproportional representation in local government elections. Violence in Northern Ireland subsides with the introduction ofinternment and the South being distracted by the civil war. Around 90% of the 465 deaths in Belfast were civilian on civilian.[86] TheIrish Free State is established on 6 December per the Anglo-Irish Treaty.[87]
1923 – The death toll in Northern Ireland between July 1920 and July 1922 was 557 men, women and children; 303 were Catholics, 172 Protestants and 82 members of the security forces.[88] In Belfast, 236 people had been killed in the first months of 1922 but there was not a single sectarian murder in the city between 1923 and 1933 Northern Ireland was reputed to have one of the lowest crime rates in Europe during this period.[89]
1925 – James Craig calls asnap election in April to demonstrate Unionist solidarity against the Boundary Commission, using the now famous catchphrase "not an inch".[citation needed] A leaked report published in theMorning Post newspaper on 7 November details the conclusions of the commission. Parts ofDonegal andMonaghan were conceded to Northern Ireland, with only the town ofCrossmaglen going to the Free State; the population of NI would ultimately be reduced by only 1.8%.James Cosgrave and Craig (the latter had hitherto refused to participate in the commission) rushed to London to meet with the new Prime Minister,Stanley Baldwin, where they agreed to suppress the Boundary Commission and keep the border as it was. Craig returns to a hero's welcome in Belfast in December.[91]
1928 – Ten nationalists sat in the Northern Ireland Commons receiving no acclaim for their willingness to cooperate and returning to their seats. The only bill the Nationalists got through from 1928 to 1972 was the Wild Birds Protection Act.
1929 – James Craig (who had been awarded a peerage and was now Lord Craigavon) abolishes proportional representation in parliamentary elections. Though the impact was most felt by smaller parties, Nationalists considered this another harsh measure to oppress the minority. The1929 Stock Market Crash in New York had wide-reaching effects around the world in places like Northern Ireland. Economic interests in the province, particularly large industries like shipbuilding, were hit hard.[citation needed]
1931 – Speaking in the Commons,Joseph Devlin castigates the Unionist party for snubbing the willingness of Nationalists to cooperate, favoring "old party lines" and treating one-third of the population as politicalpariahs.[citation needed]Harland & Wolff did not launch a single ship between December 1931 and May 1934.[citation needed]
1932 –Sectarian tensions increased, to the alarm of the Unionist community, asÉamon de Valera (a staunch Republican leader and Easter Rising veteran) assumed the premiership of Free State Ireland. When theChurch of Ireland announced plans to commemorate the coming ofSaint Patrick to Ireland, a Catholic cardinal commented publicly that "the Protestant church in Ireland, and the same is true anywhere else, is not only not the rightful representative of the early Irish church, but it is not even a part of the Church ofChrist." This brought Protestant outrage, pushing tensions to the breaking point and Loyalists responded in June 1932 by attacking Catholic pilgrims returning to Belfast on public transport from theEucharistic Congress in Dublin. Denouncements of Catholicism grew louder as the Loyalist summermarching season came closer. The situation was made worse by the fact that many of Northern Ireland's unemployed were in a state of privation and some were starving.[citation needed] On 30 September 1932, MPs in Northern Ireland's House of Commons shouted in protest over the 78,000 unemployed and their lack of food. One MP threw themace on the floor and accused the House of hypocrisy. On 3 October 1932, 60,000 unemployed Catholics and Protestants marched together in solidarity to a torch-lit rally at theCustom House. The bands who marched alongside the protesters were careful not play any sectarian songs, and instead opted to perform the popular tune "Yes, We Have No Bananas". On 11 October, crowds formed up on Templemore Avenue in east Belfast and began to march. The police, drawing their batons, were given the order to charge and stormed into the crowds; some marchers were beaten, many fled. Rioting broke out on the LowerFalls Road and police, armed with rifles, fired and mortally wounded one Catholic and one Protestant. News spread to the nearbyShankill Road, a traditionally loyalist area, where a woman in ashawl was quoted by a reporter fromThe Irish Press as shouting "they're kicking the shite out of the Peelers [police] up the Falls! Are you's going to let them down!?" Shankill Protestants ran the few blocks to aid the mostly Catholic rioters against the police in a rare episode of non-sectarian unity. Shocked, the Government conceded to their demands and increased aid to the unemployed of Northern Ireland, pacifying the population. The newStormont Parliament buildings are opened on 16 November in a ceremony that included KingGeorge V.[citation needed]
1933 – By January, the volume of international trade was only one-third of what it had been before the Crash.[citation needed]
1935 – TheWorkman, Clark and Company shipyard closes down permanently.[citation needed] There was another summer of tension as the Church of IrelandBishop of Down appealed to the public to forget the "unhappy past" and endeavor to work together. In response, at the Belmont Field,Orange Order Grand Master Sir Joseph Davidson asked rhetorically "are we to forget that the flag of Empire is described as foreign flag? And our beloved King insulted by Mr. De Valera? Are we to forget that the aim of these people is to establish an all-Ireland, Roman Catholic state in which Protestantism is to be crushed out of existence?" That night, as the observers at Belmont Field returned to Belfast, fierce fighting broke out on York Street, which raged for days. When calm returned eight Protestants and five Catholics had been killed and 2,000 Catholics had been driven from their homes.[citation needed]
1937 –Éamon de Valera unveils hisconstitution in 1937, Articles 2 and 3 stated that the government in Dublin had the right to exercisejurisdiction over the entire island of Ireland. The constitution also recognised the validity of the Protestant Church and others, however, it gave special status to the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland.[93]
1938 – Craigavon calls for ageneral election to show his contempt for the Irish Constitution, with the Unionists winning a crushing majority over Nationalists and others. By February, nearly a third of industrial workers were unemployed. Eyewitnesses recall seeing barefoot children at the Albertbridge pens in Belfast hoping to get unwanted, unsterilised milk before the cattle were shipped to England. Belfast Corporation would only build 2,000council houses between the World Wars and many were built with inferior materials amidst accusations ofcorruption.Malnutrition was also a major issue for families both in the Free State and Northern Ireland, with a 9.6%infant mortality rate in Belfast, compared with 5.9% inSheffield, England. Maternity was more dangerous in Northern Ireland than in England or the Free State, withmaternal mortality rising by a fifth between 1922 and 1938.Tuberculosis was also a concern, killing many young people in Belfast and other areas.[citation needed]
1941 – TheBelfast Blitz occurred onEaster Tuesday, 15 April. Two hundred GermanLuftwaffebombers attacked the city, pounding working class areas of Belfast around the shipyards and north Belfast, in particular, theNew Lodge andAntrim Road areas. About a thousand people died and many more were injured. Of Belfast's housing stock, 52% was destroyed. Outside London, this was the greatest loss of life in a single raid during the war. Roughly 100,000 of the population of 415,000 became homeless.[95] Belfast was targeted due to its concentration of heavy shipbuilding and aerospace industries. Ironically, during the same period the local economy made a recovery as the war economy saw great demand for the products of these industries. The British government had thought that Northern Ireland would be safe from German bombing because of its distance from German positions, and so had done very little to prepare Belfast forair raids. Fewbomb shelters were built and the fewanti-aircraft guns the city possessed had been sent to England.[96]
1951 – The population of Belfast is estimated to be 443,671.[34]
1969 –Riots break out from 12–16 August.[99] In response, theBritish Army is deployed to Northern Ireland on 14 August as a peace-keeping force beginningOperation Banner.[100]Peace walls are erected by the army throughout the country between Republican and Loyalist communities, the largest is in Belfast between the Falls Road and Shankill Road areas.[101] TheProvisional IRA split from theOfficial IRA in December.[102]
1972 – The 1st Battalion British parachute regiment fires into a crowd of protesters after clashing with youths on 30 January inDerry resulting in 14 dead and a surge in volunteers for Republican paramilitaries in an event known asBloody Sunday.[108] TheVanguard Unionist Progressive Party is founded on 9 February.[109] In March,an explosion in Abercorn Restaurant on Castle Lane kills 2 people and injures more than 140.[110] The Parliament of Northern Ireland isprorogued on 30 March anddirect rule is imposed byWestminster.[111] Five people are killed and 2 people are injured in July when theBritish Army open fire at civilians in theSpringhill Massacre.[112] In retaliation for the events ofBloody Sunday, 9 people are killed and 130 people are injured in July when 22 bombs are set off by the Provisional IRA around Belfast in an event that becomes known asBloody Friday.[113] Ten days later on 31 July, British security forces carried outOperation Motorman which aimed to re-takeno-go areas in Belfast and Derry.[114]
1973 – TheSunningdale Agreement is reached on 9 December in an attempt to stabilize Northern Ireland by creating a power-sharing executive as well as an All-Ireland council.[115]
1974 – TheUlster Workers Council stages ageneral strike from 15 to 28 May in opposition to the Sunningdale Agreement which would eventually collapse the same year.[116]
1975 – In April 5 people are killed and 60 are injured when a bomb is detonated in theMountainview Tavern.[117] A series of attacks in October by theUlster Volunteer Force across several places in Northern Ireland including Belfast kills 12 people.[118]Lenny Murphy and theShankill Butchers gang kill their first victim, Francis Crossin, on 24 November cutting his throat and mutilating his body.[119]
1976 –Betty Williams andMairead Corrigan create the create Women for Peace (which later became theCommunity of Peace People) after Williams witness three children get hit and killed by a car. The driver was member of the IRA who had been shot when exchanging gunfire with British soldiers. Williams and Corrigan would create the Petition for Peace with over 6,000 signatories and would go on to both receive theNobel Peace Prize in 1977.[citation needed]Terri Hooley opens the Good Vibrations record shop late in the year.[120]
1977 – The first of the Shankill Butchers are arrested on 19 May after one of their victims survives and identifies them while being driven around the Shankill area by theRoyal Ulster Constabulary.[119]
1978 – The Belfast-based punk band, Rudi, releasing "Big Time" under Terri Hooley'sGood Vibrations label in April.[121]
1982 – Lenny Murphy is killed by two members of the Provisional IRA while leaving his girlfriend's house in Glencairn. The PIRA was given details of Murphy's habits by the UVF who also granted the former safe conduct through Loyalist areas to carry out the hit.[122]
1988 – 3 people are killed and more than 50 people injured in March whena gunman opens fire during the funeral of Provisional IRA members who died inGibraltar.[123] Three days later, British Army corporals Derek Wood and David Howes arekilled by the IRA after they drove onto a street where an IRA funeral procession was passing.[124]
2017 – NI Assembly suspends again on 9 January.[131] CS Lewis Square opens to the public in East Belfast in honour of theauthor ofThe Chronicles of Narnia and other prominent works on Christian intellectualism.[138]
2018 – ThePrimark store at the Bank Buildings catches fire on 28 August and burns for three days causing extensive damage.[139]
2020 – NI Assembly at Stormont re-convenes on 11 January.[131] Northern Ireland is put under lock down on 16 March during theCOVID-19 pandemic.
2023 – Elections for the seventh assembly are held on 21 May returning a majority for Sinn Féin for the first time in the history of Northern Ireland.[143][144]
2024 – On 18 January, over 100,000 workers from theNational Health Service,Translink NI and teachers' unions stage the Public Sector Strike over pay in many towns and cities including Belfast.[145] After two years of suspension, theNI Assembly meet on 3 February and appointMichelle O'Neill as the First Minister andEmma Little-Pengelly as Deputy First minister. This is the first time in the history of Northern Ireland that a republican has become First Minister as well as both top two posts being held by women.[146]
^The Bruces in Ireland, 1315–18. Robin Frame. Cambridge University Press, 28 July 2016. Irish Historical Studies, Volume 19, Issue 73, March 1974, pp. 3–37doi:10.1017/S0021121400023075
^The Bruce Invasion and County Louth, 1315–18. Brendan Smith, Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society, Vol. 22, No. 1 (1989), pp. 7–15. County Louth Archaeological and History Societydoi:10.2307/27729669JSTOR27729669
^"Ormeau Park".Belfast City Council. Retrieved10 November 2022.
^ab"CAIN Web service: the Northern Ireland conflict (1968 to the present): (Formerly titled CAIN: conflict archive on the Internet)".Choice Reviews Online.40 (12): 40Sup–0537–40Sup-0537. 1 August 2003.doi:10.5860/choice.40sup-0537 (inactive 1 July 2025).ISSN0009-4978.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
^McCann, David; McGrattan, Cillian, eds. (3 March 2017),"Appendix",Sunningdale, the Ulster Workers’ Council strike and the struggle for democracy in Northern Ireland, Manchester University Press,doi:10.7765/9781526108388.00022,ISBN978-1-5261-0838-8, retrieved15 December 2023
Ireland portal