Belfast (or Béal Feirste in Irish) is the capital city of the North of Ireland and is situated at the head of Belfast Lough. It is the largest urban area in the province of Ulster, the second largest city on the island of Ireland and the 15th largest city in the United Kingdom.

Historically, Belfast has been a centre for the Irish linen industry (earning the nickname "Linenopolis"), tobacco production, rope-making and shipbuilding: the city's main shipbuilders, Harland and Wolff, which built the ill-fated RMS Titanic, propelled Belfast onto the global stage in the early 20th century as the largest and most productive shipyard in the world. Belfast played a key role in the Industrial Revolution, establishing its place as a global industrial centre until the latter half of the 20th century.













With the rising prestige of the city and the growing wealth of the Victorian city fathers they began to demonstrate their civic pride in constructing one impressive building after another; buildings such as Lanyon's delightful Custom House, where the great Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope kept an office, the Queen's University of Belfast, another Lanyon masterpiece. Successive industrial and trading advances utterly transformed Belfast and created this architectural legacy. Belfast could claim not only the largest shipyard in the world, but the largest linen mill, the largest tobacco factory and the largest rope works. Today many highlights of contemporary Belfast were once Victorian warehouses like the luxury boutique hotel Ten Square housed in old linen warehouse and the fashionable Malmaison Hotel once two glorious seed warehouses. The chic Japanese restaurant Zen and that icon of Belfast's cultural life, the Linen Hall Library both once Linen warehouses. Even the building that most symbolises the city's great ambitions and aspirations, City Hall, is built on the site of the old White Linen Hall.

Industrialisation and the inward migration it brought made Belfast, if briefly, the largest city in Ireland at the turn of the 20th century and the city's industrial and economic success was cited by Ulster Unionist opponents of Home Rule as a reason why Ireland should shun devolution and later why Ulster in particular would fight to resist it.

Today, Belfast remains a centre for industry, as well as the arts, higher education and business, a legal centre, and is the economic engine of Northern Ireland. The city suffered greatly during the period of disruption, conflict, and destruction called the Troubles, but latterly has undergone a sustained period of calm, free from the intense political violence of former years, and substantial economic and commercial growth. Belfast city centre has undergone considerable expansion and regeneration in recent years, notably around Victoria Square.

Belfast is served by two airports: Belfast International Airport to the north-west of the city, and George Best Belfast City Airport in the east of the city.

You can find out more information about Belfast and Northern Ireland at the following sites: www.gotobelfast.com
www.discovernorthernireland.com

We look forward to welcoming you to Belfast!







* Courtesy of Wikipedia and Lonely Planet.