X-Nico

47 unusual facts about Belfast


Annie Scott Dill Maunder

Annie received her secondary education at the Ladies Collegiate School in Belfast, which later became Victoria College.

Archie Doyle

It was a highly controversial affair, opposed by the IRA GHQ in Belfast as damaging to the Northern Campaign, and precipitating a massive manhunt by the Irish police.

Ballycraigy

Ballycraigy is a mainly loyalist housing estate in Antrim, about 10 miles north of Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Bank Building

Bank Buildings, Belfast, a building located at 1–27 Castle Street in Belfast, Northern Ireland

Behind the Barricades

On the cover a Soldier with his back to the camera stands in a street off the Falls Road, Belfast in front of a barricade.

Belfast Brigade

Alternative versions of the song contain a reference to the Falls Road area instead of Seaforde Street.

Belfast, New York

Facing Jake Kilrain in Richburg, Mississippi that August, the fight went 72 rounds before Sullivan was declared the winner.

William Muldoon, Greco-Roman Wrestling Champion, physical culturist and the first chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission

In 1889, John L. Sullivan- one of the world's first sports superstars - came to Belfast to train for the last bare knuckle boxing championship with Belfast resident William Muldoon for what was arguably the most important fight of Sullivan's career.

Bogside

Throughout the rest of the 1990s, the Bogside became relatively peaceful compared to other localities of Northern Ireland at that time such as Belfast, even though street riots were still frequent.

Bowen Construction

The Group had operations throughout the island of Ireland and the UK with main offices in Cork, Dublin and London (through its subsidiary Bowen PLC) as well as smaller regional offices in Limerick, Belfast and Waterford.

Carál Ní Chuilín

She later received a Masters Degree in Management from Queen's University Belfast.

Ní Chuilín was elected in 2007 to the Northern Ireland Assembly as a Sinn Féin member for North Belfast.

Cherie Gardiner

Gardiner came into prominence after winning the title of 2009 Miss Northern Ireland, in a ceremony held in the Europa Hotel in Belfast.

CITI Belfast

The CITI was a proposed light-rail system that would have served the under-construction Titanic Quarter and George Best Belfast City Airport in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Creggan, Derry

This violence continued to occur up to the early 1990s when violence in the city started to calm and move mainly to Belfast.

Crown Liquor Saloon

The Crown Liquor Saloon is a public house in Belfast, Northern Ireland, located in Great Victoria Street.

Cynthia Brooke, Viscountess Brookeborough

Following her death Lord Brookeborough married Sarah Eileen Bell, daughter of Henry Healey, of Belfast, and widow of Cecil Armstrong Calvert FRCS, director of neurosurgery at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast.

Donal O'Donnell

He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and was educated at St. Mary's Christian Brothers' Grammar School, Belfast, University College Dublin, King's Inns and the University of Virginia.

Dunmurry train explosion

The two damaged carriages were transported to Queen's Quay in Belfast for forensic examination and were subsequently rebuilt.

E.M.O'R. Dickey

Dickey (his full name was Edward Montgomery O'Rorke Dickey) was born in Belfast on 1 July 1894, the son of Edward O'Rorke Dickey.

Eileen Bell

She was educated at the Dominican College, Belfast and the University of Ulster.

Gerard Weston

During the height of the Troubles, he frequently entered alone the dangerous areas of Ballymurphy and Turf Lodge in Belfast, talking with local people in an attempt to reduce tension.

Helen Waddell

Helen was educated at Victoria College for Girls and Queen's University Belfast, where she studied under Professor Gregory Smith, graduating in 1911.

J D Wetherspoon

He was educated at eleven different schools in Northern Ireland and New Zealand including Campbell College in Belfast.

Jackson McGreevy

Born in Belfast, McGreevy first excelled at hurling whilst at school in St. Mary's CBGS.

Jim Gamble

Earlier in his career he was head of the Northern Ireland anti-terrorist intelligence unit in Belfast, then Deputy Director General (with the rank of Deputy Chief Constable) of the National Crime Squad, which in April 2006, merged into the Serious Organised Crime Agency.

John Hermon

He was the first RUC officer to attend the advanced policing course at the British police training college in Bramshill in England, before returning to Northern Ireland and a promotion in Belfast.

Joy in the Hood

Galway, Mount Vernon in Belfast, Southill in Limerick and Knocknaheeny in Cork to run comedy workshops and integrate into society in these places.

Killinure

Use of the road is attested as far back as the 17th century, and it formed part of the main stagecoach route between Belfast and Downpatrick.

King's Hall

King's Hall, Belfast - concert hall, boxing and conference venue in Northern Ireland

Lagan Valley Hospital

A senior member of maternity liaison committee stated that it would have a 'detrimental impact', as hospitals in Belfast and Craigavon were already 'bursting'.

Malone Road

At the northern end of the road, Number 1 Malone Road is Methodist College Belfast, while further south lies Victoria College, Belfast.

Merville Garden Village

Merville Garden Village is a housing estate located at Shore Road, Whitehouse, Newtownabbey, County Antrim, Northern Ireland created by structural and landscape architect Edward Prentice Mawson.

Between 1849-1887, for example, it was the home of Sir Edward Coey (1805–87), noted as the first and only Liberal Party Mayor of Belfast (1861) and prominent wealthy businessman, who helped make Belfast one of the most prosperous manufacturing centres in the world during the 19th century.

Mikael Heggelund Foslie

This collection was donated to the Ulster Museum by The Queen's University of Belfast in 1968.

Foslie contributed an algal collection named Algae Norvegicae to the Ulster Museum in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Murray v United Kingdom

On the morning of 26 July, Margaret Murray was taken into custody by the Army on suspicion of fund-raising for the Provisional IRA in connection with her brothers' activities and taken to the Springfield Road screening centre.

Pulling Moves

Pulling Moves was a Northern Irish television programme set in Lenadoon, West Belfast.

RCJ

Royal Courts of Justice, Belfast in Chichester Street in Belfast, Northern Ireland

Ronnie Flanagan

Sir Ronald Flanagan, GBE, QPM, (born 25 March 1949 in Belfast) was the Home Office Chief Inspector of Constabulary for the United Kingdom excluding Scotland.

Social Sounds

The main sponsor behind the festival is Heineken with Downtown Radio, Cool FM, Europa Hotel and 21 Social also sponsoring the two-day event which takes place over the end of August Bank Holiday.

The Troubles in Claudy

The 13 people killed there in the Troubles are equivalent to one percent of the village's 2001 population; in comparison, the death rate in Belfast was equivalent to just over half a percent of the city's 2001 population, and that in Derry a quarter of a percent.

The Troubles in Strabane

Damages were awarded to the families by the Ministry of Defence on 7 May 2002, as part of a Belfast High Court settlement.

William Henry Lynn

Among Lynn's most prominent designs working on his own were his work at Queen's University, Belfast, the Carlisle Memorial Methodist Church, Carlisle Circus, Belfast (1872–5; now derelict) and the Ruskinian "Venetian" Gothic Belfast Bank on College Green, Dublin (1892), now housing a grand pub.

In Belfast the firm produced urbane Italianate commercial structures, in Dublin, the Church of St Andrew (1860) and the Unitarian Church, St Stephen's Green was "justly described as the best example extant of a modern Gothic church on a narrow street frontage, the treatment being quite original and altogether admirable".

In 1846 Lynn was articled to Sir Charles Lanyon in Belfast; under Lanyon he prepared the drawings for the original building housing Queens College, Belfast.


1953 in British television

1 May – The BBC brings into service television transmitters at Pontop Pike (County Durham) and Glencairn (Belfast) to improve coverage prior to the Coronation broadcast.

A Year in the Province

He has since worked as an academic, publishing numerous historical titles, and since 1998 has been Reader in History at Queen's University, Belfast.

Alexander Robinson

In an interview with the north Belfast playwright Martin Lynch in the 1980s, Robinson claimed he worked for Al Capone and Joseph Kennedy.

Anderson baronets

The Anderson Baronetcy, of Parkmount in the County of the City of Belfast and of Mullaghmore in the County of Monaghan, was created in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom on 22 June 1911 for Robert Anderson, Lord Mayor of Belfast from 1908 to 1910.

Apollon XI

She was chartered by Burns & Laird Lines Ltd. for the service between Belfast and Liverpool, also from Cork to Fishguard, Dublin to Liverpool and for the service Glasgow - Dublin - Liverpool.

Ardrossan Winton Pier railway station

Train services in connection with the sailings of Burns and Laird Lines to Belfast and Isle of Man Steam Packet Company to Douglas, Isle of Man ceased in 1976 and 1985, respectively, when the shipping routes closed.

Belvoir Park Hospital

Belvoir Park Hospital was a cancer treatment specialist hospital situated in Newtownbreda, South Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Big Self

The line-up expanded to a six-piece with the addition of Owen Howell (previously drummer with Belfast band Stage B) on percussion, but then drummer Michael Morris returned to live in Belfast, and soon after saxophonist Gordy Blair left to join Australian band Dave Graney and the Rattlesnakes.

Bob Kyle

During this time the Whites claimed three League titles, two Irish Cups, one City Cup, three County Antrim Shields and one Belfast Charity Cup.

Brendan O'Neill

Brendan O'Neill (musician) (born 1951, Belfast), Irish musician, drummer of the late Rory Gallagher band and now Nine Below Zero

Bristol RE

From 1976 the RE remained in production only for the Northern Irish state-owned bus companies Ulsterbus and Citybus, and for export to Christchurch Transport Board, New Zealand.

Cathal Brugha water polo

The Cathal Brugha club was formed in 1932 and was based in the old Falls Baths on the Falls Road, Belfast.

Ceara Grehan

In 2002, Grehan performed at the Odyssey Belfast for "One Enchanted Evening," alongside Peter Corry, Brian Kennedy, Joanna Ampil (Les Misérables, Miss Saigon, Jesus Christ Superstar), and Jeff Leyton (Les Misérables).

Celia de Fréine

Also in 2009 the Abbey Theatre commissioned her short play Casadh which was given a rehearsed reading at the Peacock Theatre in Dublin and at An Chultúrlann in Belfast as part of the Gach Áit Eile series.

Ciaran Carson

His collections of poetry include The Irish for No (1987), winner of the Alice Hunt Bartlett Award; Belfast Confetti (1990), which won the Irish Times' Irish Literature Prize for Poetry; and First Language: Poems (1993), winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize.

Ciarán Mackel

Project Management, MSc Design, RIBA MRIAI, is a Belfast-born architect and urban designer; and Practice Principal in ARD Ciaran Mackel Architects.

Coates baronets

He was a senior partner of William F. Coates & Co, stockbrokers, of Belfast, Lord Mayor of Belfast in 1920, 1921, 1922, 1929 and 1930 and a Member of the Senate of Northern Ireland.

Donegall Square

In the centre is Belfast City Hall, the headquarters of Belfast City Council.

Edmund Getty

He became Ballast Master of the Belfast Ballast Board and, later, Secretary of the Belfast Harbour Board.

Garbhan Downey

In 2010, he won a contest to predict the winners of Northern Ireland's 18 Westminster constituencies, missing out on just one, Naomi Long, who surprisingly beat First Minister Peter Robinson in East Belfast.

Gary Arbuthnot

Gary Arbuthnot gives regular recitals for Fred Olsen and Cunard Cruise Lines and he has also performed as a soloist at venues including the South Bank Centre in London, the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, Pollack Hall in Montreal and the National Concert Hall in Dublin.

Glentoran F.C.

The club's Board of directors have suggested moving close to a town called Comber, well outside the city bounds of Belfast, which the majority of supporters firmly oppose.

Henry Benson, Baron Benson

In 1963 Benson submitted his report, which recommended closing all railways in Northern Ireland except the Belfast commuter lines to Bangor, County Down and Larne and the main line between Belfast and the Republic of Ireland, and the reduction of the main line between Portadown and the Republic to single track.

History of the Jews in Northern Ireland

Well known Belfast Jews include: Ronald Appleton QC, Crown Prosecutor during The Troubles in Northern Ireland, who was elected President of the Belfast Hebrew Congregation and served in that post until he retired in 2008; Belfast actors Harold Goldblatt and Harry Towb; pioneer of modern dance in Northern Ireland Helen Lewis; and jazz commentator Solly Lipschitz.

HM Passport Office

The agency's headquarters is collocated with the Home Office at 2 Marsham Street and it has six regional offices around the UK, in London, Glasgow, Belfast, Peterborough, Liverpool and Durham as well as an extensive nationwide interview office network as all first time adult passport applicants are required to attend an interview to verify their identity as a fraud prevention measure.

Irish language in Northern Ireland

The historic influence of the Irish language in Northern Ireland can be seen in many place names, for example the name of Belfast first appears in the year 668, and the Lagan even earlier.

Jimbo Simpson

Indeed Sinn Féin's North Belfast spokesman, Gerry Kelly had called on the Housing Executive to move the peace lines in order to build new housing for Catholics, a statement Simpson interpreted as the same sort of encroachment that had brought him to the UDA in the first place.

Julian Simmons

Simmons' career in broadcasting began when he appeared in amateur drama productions in Belfast while working for Air Canada at their offices in the city.

Kapelle der Versöhnung

The chapel also has a replica of Coventry Cathedral’s Statue of Reconciliation, a gift of the Cathedral found in Hiroshima and Belfast too – also places emerging from the destructiveness of war.

Kennomeat

Robert Wilson & Sons were an established manufacturer of pet foods, with canneries in Barrhead near Glasgow and at Malone in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and in the 1930s they registered the names Kennomeat and Kattomeat.

Latvia national under-17 football team

The following players have been called up for the 2014 UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship matches against Northern Ireland, Turkey and Luxembourg in Belfast and Dungannon in November 2013.

Lilian Bland

In 1900, following the death of her mother, Bland and her father moved to Tobercorran House in Carnmoney, north of Belfast, to live with her aunt Sarah.

Luna Nera

The former Drawing Offices of Harland and Wolff, Belfast, once the largest shipyard in the world, where the RMS Titanic was designed and built.

Mo Courtney

In the late 1970s and early 1980s Courtney was part in a gang of teenagers from Belfast's Shankill Road and nearby districts who spent their days near the Buffs Club on Century Street in the nearby Oldpark district.

MS European Endeavour

She was chartered to DFDS Seaways in August 2010 and early September 2010 to provide refit cover on the BirkenheadDublin and Belfast routes.

North/South Inter-Parliamentary Association

The second plenary session was scheduled took place on 26 April 2013 in Belfast.

Official Irish Republican Army

However it retained a strong presence in certain localities, notably the Lower Falls, Andersonstown, Turf Lodge and the Markets areas of Belfast, along with a big presence in Derry but particularly Free Derry in the Bogside area as well as Newry and South Down.

Project Zambia

It was a response by a school in Belfast to the cry of the poverty-stricken people of the compounds of Lusaka, Zambia.

Robin Kinahan

During World War II he joined the Royal Artillery, the 8th (Belfast) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, serving briefly in France before the Dunkirk withdrawal, then in the air defence of Coventry and London before ending up in Burma under General Slim.

Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park

The park was bequeathed to the people of Belfast in 1959 by Lady Edith Stewart Dixon and was dedicated to the memory of her husband, the late Sir Thomas Dixon.

The Healing Game

On "Burning Ground" the singer relives a common scene from his childhood when jute was shipped to Belfast from India.

The Vals

To celebrate the release of their debut single 'Yesterday Today', the band played a special show in Belfast with Chris Helme of John Squire’s post-Stone Roses band The Seahorses.

Thomas Begley

Begley was killed when a bomb he was planting on the Shankill Road, West Belfast, Northern Ireland intending to kill Johnny Adair and senior members of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) exploded prematurely, killing him, a UDA member and eight Protestant civilians.

Ulster Hospital

The hospital provides acute services to 250,000 people in the North Down, Ards and Castlereagh council areas, as well as east Belfast.

Ulster Project

Currently, the project brings teens from eleven cities in Northern Ireland, including Banbridge, Belfast, Derry, Omagh, Coleraine, Strabane, Sion Mills, Limavady, Portadown, Castlederg, Enniskillen and Cookstown.