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This article is about the capital city of Northern Ireland. For other uses, see Belfast (disambiguation).
| Belfast | |
| Irish: Béal Feirste | |
|
Belfast shown within Northern Ireland | |
| Area | 44.4 sq mi (115 km²) |
|---|---|
| Population | City proper: 276,459 Belfast Metropolitan Area: 579,554 (2001 census) |
| Irish grid reference | |
| - London | 322 mi (518 km) SE |
| District | City of Belfast |
| County | County Antrim County Down |
| Constituent country | Northern Ireland |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | BELFAST |
| Postcode district | BT1-BT17, BT29 (part of), BT58 |
| Dialling code | 028 |
| Police | Northern Ireland |
| Fire | Northern Ireland |
| Ambulance | Northern Ireland |
| European Parliament | Northern Ireland |
| UK Parliament | Belfast NorthBelfast SouthBelfast EastBelfast West |
| NI Assembly | Belfast NorthBelfast SouthBelfast EastBelfast West |
| Website: www.belfastcity.gov.uk | |
| List of places: UK • Northern Ireland • | |
Belfast (from the Irish: Béal Feirste meaning "Sandy ford at river mouth")Placenames/Logainmneacha: Belfast. BBC Northern Ireland - Education. BBC. Retrieved on 2007-05-17. is the capital of Northern Ireland.Northern Ireland. MSN Encarta - Northern Ireland. Microsoft. Retrieved on 2007-10-29. It is the largest urban area in Northern Ireland and the province of Ulster and the second-largest city on the island of Ireland. In the 2001 census, the population within the city limits (the Belfast Urban Area) was 276,459,Comparative Demography Profile: Belfast District Council, Northern Ireland. 2001 census data (Crown Copyright). Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency (2001). Retrieved on 2007-05-17. while 579,554 people lived in the wider Belfast Metropolitan Area.Area Profile of Belfast Metropolitan Urban Area (BMUA). 2001 Census data. Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency (2001). Retrieved on 2007-05-16. This made it the fifteenth-largest city in the United Kingdom, but the eleventh-largest conurbation.Pointer, Graham. The UK\'s major urban areas (PDF). UK National Statistics. Retrieved on 2007-12-07.
Belfast is situated on Ireland\'s eastern coast. The city is flanked to the northwest by a series of hills, including Cavehill, which is thought to be the inspiration for Jonathan Swift\'s novel, Gulliver\'s Travels. Belfast is located at the western end of Belfast Lough and at the mouth of the River Lagan making it an ideal location for the shipbuilding industry that once made it famous. When the Titanic was built in Belfast in 1912, Harland and Wolff had the largest shipyard in the world.Introduction To Titanic - Titanic In History. Titanic. Built in Belfast. Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. Retrieved on 2007-05-18. Originally a town in County Antrim, the County borough of Belfast was created when it was granted city status by Queen Victoria in 1888.Belfast City Hall. Discover Northern Ireland. Ireland Tourist Board. Retrieved on 2007-05-18.
Belfast saw the worst of The Troubles in Ireland, with nearly half of the total deaths in the conflict occurring in the city. However, since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, there has been significant urban regeneration in the city centre including Victoria Square, Queen\'s Island and Laganside as well as the Odyssey complex and the landmark Waterfront Hall. The city is served by two airports: The George Best Belfast City Airport adjacent to Belfast Lough and Belfast International Airport which is near Lough Neagh. Queen\'s University of Belfast is the main university in the city. The University of Ulster also maintains a campus in the city, which concentrates on fine art, design and architecture.
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The RMS Titanic leaving Belfast for sea trials, 12 April 1912
The name, \'Belfast\', is the anglicised version of the Irish Béal Feirste which translates as "the sandy ford at the river mouth". This refers to the sand bar that formed where the River Farset met the River Lagan at Donegall Quay and flowed into Belfast Lough, which became the hub around which the city developed.Keenan, Desmond (2000). Pre-Famine Ireland. XLibris.com, Chapter 5. The River Farset is also named after this silt deposit (from the Irish feirste meaning ‘sand spit’). Originally a more significant river than it is today, the Farset formed a dock on High Street until the mid 19th century. Bank Street in the city centre referred to the river bank and Bridge Street was named for the site of an early Farset bridge.Belfast City: Did you know?. Discover Ireland. Tourism Ireland (2007). Retrieved on 2007-05-18. However, superseded by the River Lagan as the more important river in the city, the Farset now languishes in obscurity, under High Street.
The site of Belfast has been occupied since the Bronze Age. The Giant\'s Ring, a 5000 year old henge, is located near the city, and the remains of Iron Age hill forts can still be seen in the surrounding hills. Belfast remained a small settlement of little importance during the Middle Ages. John de Courcy built a castle on what is now Castle Street in the city centre in the 12th century, but this was on a lesser scale and not as strategically important as Carrickfergus Castle to the north, which was built by de Courcy in 1177. The O\'Neill clan had a presence in the area. In the 14th century the Clan Aedh Buidh, descendants of "Yellow" Hugh O\'Neill built Grey Castle at Castlereagh, now in the east of the city.Komesu, Okifumi (1990). Irish Writers and Politics. Rowman & Littlefield, 73. Conn O\'Neill also owned land in the area, one remaining link being the Connswater River flowing thorough east Belfast."Celebrations mark the arrival of first Ulster Scots in Ireland", Irish News, 2006-04-24. Retrieved on 2007-09-18.
Belfast became a substantial settlement in the 17th century after being established by Sir Arthur Chichester which was initially settled by the mainly Protestant English and Scottish migrants during thePlantation of Ulster.In 1791, the Society of United Irishmen was founded in Belfast, after Henry Joy McCracken and other prominent Presbyterians from the city invited Theobald Wolfe Tone and Thomas Russell to a meeting, after having read Tone\'s "Argument on Behalf of the Catholics of Ireland". Belfast blossomed as a commercial and industrial centre in the 18th and 19th centuries and became Ireland\'s pre-eminent industrial city. Industries thrived, including linen, rope-making, tobacco, heavy engineering and shipbuilding, and at the end of the nineteenth century, Belfast briefly overtook Dublin as the largest and most industrialised city in Ireland. The Harland and Wolff shipyards became one of the largest shipbuilders in the world, employing up to 35,000 workers."Cranes to remain on city skyline", BBC News, 2003-10-09. Retrieved on 2007-03-12. Belfast was heavily bombed during World War II. In one raid, in 1941, German bombers killed around one thousand people and left tens of thousands homeless. Outside of London, this was the greatest loss of life in a night raid during the Blitz."The Belfast blitz is remembered", BBC News, 2001-04-11. Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
Belfast has been the capital of Northern Ireland since its creation in 1920 by the Government of Ireland Act. Since it began to emerge as a major city, it has been the scene of much sectarian conflict between its Roman Catholic and Protestant populations. These opposing groups in this conflict are now often termed republican and loyalist respectively, although are also referred to as \'nationalist\' and \'unionist\'. The most recent example of this is known as the Troubles - a civil conflict that raged from c.1969 to the late 1990s. Belfast saw the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, particularly in the 1970s, with rival paramilitary groups forming on both sides. Bombing, assassination and street violence formed a backdrop to life throughout The Troubles. The IRA detonated 22 bombs, all in a confined area in the city centre in 1972, on what is known as "Bloody Friday", killing nine people. Loyalists paramilitaries, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Ulster Defence Association (UDA) retaliated to the PIRA campaign by a series of killings. A particularly notorious group, based on the Shankill Road in the mid 1970s became known as the Shankill Butchers. In all, over 1,500 people were killed in political violence in the city from 1969 until 2001.Sutton Index of Deaths. CAIN. Retrieved on 2007-09-10.
A legacy of the Troubles is that both republican and loyalist paramilitary groups in Belfast have become involved in organised crime and racketeering. On 20 December, 2004, UK£26.4 million was stolen from the headquarters of the Northern Bank in Belfast City Centre, the largest cash robbery at the time in the United Kingdom. The police investigation linked the robbery to the Provisional Irish Republican Army."Police say IRA behind bank raid", BBC News Northern Ireland, BBC, 2005-01-07. Retrieved on 2007-05-26. Policing in Belfast is provided by the Police Service of Northern Ireland. They reported annual decreases in recorded crime in East, North, and South Belfast between 2002 and 2006. (May 2007). "Research into Recent Crime Trends in Northern Ireland" (PDF). Northern Ireland Policing Board. Retrieved on 2007-05-23. West Belfast showed an increase in recorded crime during the same period.
Belfast was granted borough status by James I in 1613 and official city status by Queen Victoria in 1888.Belfast City Hall: History and Background. Belfast City Council. Retrieved on 2007-05-24. Since 1971 it has been a local government district under local administration by Belfast City Council.Local Government (Boundaries) Act (Northern Ireland) 1971. Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN) (2007). Retrieved on 2007-05-24. Belfast is represented in both the British House of Commons and in the Northern Ireland Assembly. For elections to the European Parliament, Belfast is within the Northern Ireland constituency.
For more details on this topic, see Belfast City Council.
The city of Belfast has a mayoral form of municipal government. The City\'s officials are the Lord Mayor, Deputy Lord Mayor and High Sheriff who are elected from fifty-one councillors. The first Lord Mayor of Belfast was Daniel Dixon, who was elected in 1892.Councillors: Lord Mayor. Belfast City Council. Retrieved on 2007-05-24. As of June 2007, the Lord Mayor of Belfast is Ulster Unionist Party politician, Jim Rodgers, who previously served in the same office in 2001. His duties, as mayor of Belfast, include presiding over meetings of the council, receiving distinguished visitors to the city, and representing and promoting the city on the national and international stage.
In 1997, Unionists lost overall control of Belfast City Council for the first time in its history, with the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland gaining the balance of power between Nationalists and Unionists. This position was confirmed in the council elections of 2001 and 2005. Since then it has had three Nationalist mayors, two from the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and one from Sinn Féin. The first nationalist Lord Mayor of Belfast was Alban Maginness, a member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, in 1996.
In the 2005 local government elections, the voters of Belfast elected fifty-one councillors to Belfast City Council from the following political parties: 15 Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), 14 Sinn Féin, 8 Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), 7 Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), 4 Alliance Party, 2 Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), and 1 Independent.Belfast City Council Elections 1993-2005. Northern Ireland Elections. Northern Ireland Social and Political Archive (ARK) (2005). Retrieved on 2007-05-24.
For more details on this topic, see Northern Ireland Assembly and Parliament of the United Kingdom.
The Parliament Buildings at Stormont. Built in 1932 and home to the Northern Ireland Assembly.
As Northern Ireland\'s capital city, Belfast is host to the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont, the site of home rule legislature in Northern Ireland. Belfast is divided into four Northern Ireland Assembly and UK parliamentary constituencies: North Belfast, West Belfast, South Belfast and East Belfast. All four extend beyond the city boundaries including into parts of Castlereagh, Lisburn and Newtownabbey districts. In the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections in 2007, Belfast elected 24 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), 6 from each constituency. The MLA breakdown consisted of 8 Sinn Féin, 6 Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), 4 Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), 3 Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), 2 Alliance Party, and 1 Progressive Unionist Party (PUP)."Northern Ireland election", BBC News, 2007-03-09. Retrieved on 2007-03-13. In the 2005 UK general election, Belfast elected one MP from each constituency to the House of Commons at Westminster, London. This was comprised of 2 DUP, 1 SDLP, and 1 Sinn Féin.The 2005 Westminster elections in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland Elections. Northern Ireland Social and Political Archive (ARK) (2005). Retrieved on 2007-05-24.
The city\'s coat of arms shows a central shield, bearing a ship and a bell, flanked by a chained wolf (or wolfhound) on the left and a seahorse on the right. A smaller seahorse sits at the top. This crest dates back to 1613, when King James I granted Belfast town status. The seal was used by Belfast merchants throughout the seventeenth century on their signs and trade-coins.Brett, C. E. B (1967). Buildings of Belfast, 1700-1914. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. A large stained glass window in the City Hall displays the seal, where an explanation suggests that the seahorse and the ship refer to Belfast\'s significant maritime history. The wolf may be a tribute to the city\'s founder, Sir Arthur Chichester, and refer to his own coat of arms.
Belfast is situated on Northern Ireland\'s eastern coast at . A consequence of this northern latitude is that it both endures short winter days and enjoys long summer evenings. During the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, local sunset is before 16:00 while sunrise is around 08:45. This is balanced by the summer solstice in June, when the sun sets after 22:00 and rises before 05:00.Sunrise and sunset in Belfast. Sun Calculator. time and date.com. Retrieved on 2007-05-18.
Belfast is located at the eastern end of Belfast Lough and at the mouth of the River Lagan. In 1994, a weir was built across the river by the Laganside Corporation to raise the average water level so that it would cover the unseemly mud flats which gave Belfast its nameLagan Weir - Why it exists. Laganside. Retrieved on 2007-05-25.(from the Irish: Béal Feirste meaning "The sandy ford at the river mouth"). The area of Belfast Local Government District is 42.3 square miles (110 km²).Area Measurements in Northern Ireland. 2001 census Data. Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency (2001). Retrieved on 2007-05-18.
The city is flanked on the north and northwest by a series of hills, including Divis Mountain, Black Mountain and Cavehill thought to be the inspiration for Jonathan Swift\'s Gulliver\'s Travels. When Swift was living at Lilliput Cottage near the bottom of the Limestone Road in Belfast, he imagined that the Cavehill resembled the shape of a sleeping giant safeguarding the city.Belfast Hills. Discover Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland Tourist Board. Retrieved on 2007-05-18.. The shape of the giant\'s nose, known locally as Napoleon\'s Nose, is officially called McArt\'s Fort probably named after Art O\'Neill, a sixteenth century chieftain who controlled the area at that time.About the Cave Hill. The Cave Hill Conservation Campaign (2007). Retrieved on 2007-05-25. The Castlereagh Hills overlook the city on the southeast.
Former poet and Catholic Bishop of Down and Connor, Dr William Philbin wrote this of Belfast: "Belfast is a city walled in by mountains, moated by sees, and undermined by deposits of history".
Belfast has a temperate climate. Average daily high temperatures are 18 °C (64 °F) in July and 6 °C (43 °F) in January. The highest temperature recorded in Belfast was 30.8 °C (87.4 °F) on 12 July 1983.Climate: Northern Ireland. Met Office. Retrieved on 2007-05-25. The city gets significant precipitation (greater than 0.01 in/0.25 mm) on 213 days in an average year with an average annual rainfall of 845.8 millimetres (33.3 in),Belfast, Northern Ireland - Average Conditions. BBC Weather Centre. BBC. Retrieved on 2007-05-18. less than the Lake District or the Scottish Highlands, but higher than Dublin or the south-east coast of Ireland.Rainfall in Ireland. Met Éireann. Retrieved on 2007-05-25. As an urban and coastal area, Belfast typically gets snow on fewer than 10 days per year. The city is also renowned for how warm it can get during the winter month at its high latitude. In February, temperatures have hit 17*c, at the same latitude where it is ~-45*c in Russia and Canada.
View of Belfast from The Ashby Building, part of QUB. The David Keir Building of Queen\'s University is in the foreground. The yellow façade of Belfast City Hospital is visible in the centre background, with the city\'s current tallest building Windsor House in the right background.
For more details on City Layout, see Belfast City Layout.
Belfast expanded very rapidly from small market town to industrial city during the course of the nineteenth century. Because of this it is less an agglomeration of villages and towns which have expanded into each other than other comparable cities, such as Manchester or Birmingham. The city expanded to the natural barrier of the hills that surround it, overwhelming other settlements. Consequently the arterial roads along which this expansion took place (such as the Falls Road or the Newtownards Road) are more significant in defining the districts of the city than nucleated settlements. Including the City Centre, the city can be divided into five areas with North Belfast, East Belfast, South Belfast, and West Belfast. Each of these is a parliamentary constituency. Belfast remains segregated by walls, commonly known as “peace lines”, erected by the British Army after August 1969, which still divide fourteen neighbourhoods in the inner-city.Margrethe C. Lauber. "Belfast\'s Peacelines: An Analysis of Urban Borders, Design and Social Space in a Divided City". Retrieved on 2007-05-18. In June 2007, a UK£16 million programme was announced which will transform and redevelop streets and public spaces in the city centre.Major makeover for Belfast City Centre. Department for Social Development (NI) (2007-06-12). Retrieved on 2007-06-12. Major arterial roads (quality bus corridors) into the city include the Antrim Road, Shore Road, Holywood Road, Newtownards Road, Castlereagh Road, Cregagh Road, Ormeau Road, Malone Road, Lisburn Road, Falls Road, Springfield Road, Shankill Road, and Crumlin Road.The Arterial Routes. Belfast Metropolitan Area Plan 2015 Draft Plan. The Planning Service. Retrieved on 2007-06-12.
Belfast City Centre is divided by two postcodes, BT1 for the area lying north of the City Hall, and BT2 for the area to its south. The industrial estate and docklands share BT3. The rest of the Greater Belfast postcodes are set out in a clockwise system. Although BT stands for Belfast, it is used across the whole of Northern Ireland.The UK Postcode System. List Masters (2005). Retrieved on 2007-06-12.
View of Belfast from the Big Wheel at the City Hall
Since 2001, boosted by increasing numbers of tourists, the city has developed a number of cultural quarters. The Cathedral Quarter takes its name from St. Anne’s Cathedral (Church of Ireland) and has taken on the mantle of the city\'s key cultural locality.Exploring Belfast\'s cultural life. Belfast City Council (2007). Retrieved on 2007-05-25. It hosts a yearly visual and performing arts festival.
View of Belfast City Hall from the Big Wheel
Custom House Square is one of the city\'s main outdoor venues for free concerts and street entertainment. The Gaeltacht Quarter is an area around the Falls Road in West Belfast which promotes and encourages the use of the Irish language.Gaeltacht Quarter. Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (2007). Retrieved on 2007-05-25. The Queens Quarter in South Belfast is named after Queens University. The area has a large student population and hosts the annual Belfast Festival at Queen’s each autumn. It is home to Botanic Gardens and the Ulster Museum, closed for major redevelopment until 2009.Contact Details. The Ulster Museum (2007). Retrieved on 2007-05-18. The Golden Mile is the name given to the mile between Belfast City Hall and Queen\'s University. Taking in Gt. Victoria St, Shaftesbury Square and Bradbury Place, it contains some of the best bars and restaurants in the city.The Golden Mile: Pub Crawl. Virtual Belfast. Retrieved on 2007-05-25. Since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, the nearby Lisburn Road has developed into the city\'s most exclusive shopping strip. Shopping At A Glance. Visit South Belfast. South Belfast Partnership. Retrieved on 2007-05-18.Burns, Gemma. "A passion for preserving Belfast’s beauty", South Belfast News, 2007-02-28. Retrieved on 2007-03-12. Finally, The Titanic Quarter covers 75 hectares of reclaimed land adjacent to Belfast harbour, formerly known as Queen\'s Island. Named after the Titanic, which was built here in 1912, work has begun which promises to transform some former shipyard land into "one of the largest waterfront developments in Europe".Corporate Message: The Vision. About Us at Titanic Quarter. Titanic Quarter (2006). Retrieved on 2007-05-18. Plans also include new apartments, a riverside entertainment district, and a major Titanic-themed museum.
Belfast has over forty public parks. The Forest of Belfast is a partnership between government and local groups, set up in 1992 to manage and conserve the city\'s parks and open spaces. They have commissioned more than 30 public sculptures since 1993.Forest of Belfast. Belfast City Council. Retrieved on 2007-05-18. In 2006, the City Council set aside UK£8 million to continue this work.Your City, Your Space. Belfast City Council. Retrieved on 2007-05-18. The Belfast Naturalists\' Field Club was founded in 1863 and is administered by National Museums and Galleries of Northern Ireland. About the Field Club. Belfast Naturalists\' Field Club. Retrieved on 2007-05-18.
With 700,000 visitors in 2005,[not in citation given]Hansard 27 April 2006. House of Commons. Retrieved on 2007-10-01. one of the most popular parksBotanic Gardens. Belfast City Council. Retrieved on 2007-05-18.[dead link] is Botanic Gardens in the Queen\'s Quarter. Built in the 1830s and designed by Sir Charles Lanyon, Botanic Gardens Palm House is one of the earliest examples of a curvilinear and cast iron glasshouse.Palm House Botanic Gardens, Belfast City. Houses, Castles and Gardens of Ireland. Retrieved on 2007-05-18. Other attractions in the park include the Tropical Ravine, a humid jungle glen built in 1889, rose gardens and public events ranging from live opera broadcasts to pop concerts. U2 played here in 1997 and the Tennents ViTal festival takes place in the gardens each summer. Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park, to the south of the city centre, attracts thousands of visitors each year to its International Rose Garden.Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park and City of Belfast International Rose Garden. Go To Belfast. Retrieved on 2007-05-18. Rose Week in July each year features over 20,000 blooms.Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park. Discover Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland Tourist Board. Retrieved on 2007-05-18. It has an area of 128 acres (0.52 km²) of meadows, woodland and gardens and features a Princess Diana Memorial Garden, a Japanese Garden, a walled garden, and the Golden Crown Fountain commissioned in 2002 as part of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebrations.
| Northern Ireland 2001 census | ||
| Belfast | Northern Ireland | |
| Protestant | 49% | 53% |
| Roman Catholic | 47% | 44% |
| Male | 47% | 49% |
| Under 16 years old | 22% | 24% |
| Between 20 and 44 years old | 37% | 37% |
| Over 65 years old | 15% | 13% |
| Ethnically white | 99% | 99% |
Belfast experienced a huge growth in population around the first half of the twentieth century. This rise slowed and peaked around the start of the Troubles with the 1971 census showing almost 600,000 people in the Belfast Urban Area.Stephen, Roulston (2006). Urban Structure: Growth of Belfast. Geography in Action. National Grid for Learning. Retrieved on 2007-05-18. Since then, the inner city numbers have dropped dramatically as people have moved to swell the Greater Belfast suburb population. The 2001 census population within the same Urban Area, had fallen to 277,391 people, with 579,554 people living in the wider Belfast Metropolitan Area. The population density in the same year was 24.15 persons per hectare (compared to 1.19 for the rest of Northern Ireland).Local Government District Information for Belfast LGD. Northern Ireland Neighbourhood Information Service (NINIS). Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (2003). Retrieved on 2007-06-01. 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 the Central Business District, with a pronounced wedge of affluence extending out the Malone Road to the south. An area of greater deprivation extends to the west of the city. The areas around the Falls and Shankill Roads are the most deprived wards in Northern Ireland.Northern Ireland Multiple Deprivation Measure (PDF). Department of Finance and Personnel (2005-05). Retrieved on 2007-05-18.
Despite a period of relative peace, most areas and districts of Belfast still reflect the divided nature of Northern Ireland as a whole. Many areas are still highly segregated along ethnic, political and religious lines, especially in working class neighbourhoods.Stephen, Roulston (2006). Ethnic Diversity: Segregation in Belfast. Introduction to Ethnic Diversity in Belfast. Geography in Action. National Grid for Learning. Retrieved on 2007-05-18. These zones ‘Catholic’ or ‘Protestant’, ‘Republican’ or ‘Loyalist’ are invariably marked by flags, graffiti and murals. Segregation has been present throughout the history of Belfast, but has been maintained and increased by each new outbreak of violence in the city. This escalation in segregation, described as a "ratchet effect", has shown little sign of decreasing during times of peace.Lloyd, C; Shuttleworth, I; McNair, D (2003). "Measuring local segregation in Northern Ireland". Centre for Spatial Territorial Analysis and Research (C-STAR). School of Geography, Queen’s University. Retrieved on 2006-03-12. When violence flares, it tends to be in interface areas. The highest levels of segregation in the city are in West Belfast with many areas greater than 90% Catholic. Opposite but comparatively high levels are seen in the predominantly Protestant East Belfast.Doherty, P; Poole, M (1995). "Ethnic Residential Segregation in Belfast". Centre for the Study of Conflict: Chapter 8. University of Ulster, Coleraine. Retrieved on 2006-03-12. Areas where segregated working-class areas meet are known as interface areas.
Ethnic minority communities have been in Belfast since the 1930s.Ethnic minorities: Who lives here? (PDF). Northern Ireland Learning: Teacher\'s Notes. BBC. Retrieved on 2007-05-24. The largest groups are Chinese and Irish travellers. Since the expansion of the European Union, numbers have been boosted by an influx of Eastern European immigrants. Census figures (2001) showed that Belfast has a total ethnic minority population of 4,584 or 1.3% of the population. Over half of these live in South Belfast with numbers reaching 2.63% of the population. The majority of the estimated 5000 MuslimsAbout Us. Belfast Islamic Centre (2007). Retrieved on 2007-05-24. and 200 Hindu familiesHinduism. Primary Focus: Programme 1 - Indian Community. BBC. Retrieved on 2007-10-08. living and working in Northern Ireland live in the Greater Belfast area.
Other major developments include the regeneration of the Titanic Quarter, and the erection of the Obel Tower, a skyscraper set to be the tallest tower on the island until eclipsed by the U2 Tower in Dublin."U2 Tower strikes bad chord with residents", BBC News, 2006-08-07. Retrieved on 2007-03-13. In 2007, Belfast launched its vision for a World Trade Centre—currently a \'virtual\' centre but with plans to become a physical building—which aims to promote the city to the international business market.World Trade Centre Belfast. Belfast City Council. Retrieved on 2007-05-18.
Today, Belfast is Northern Ireland\'s educational and commercial hub. In February 2006, Belfast\'s unemployment rate stood at 4.2%, lower than both the Northern IrelandMonthly Labour Market Report. Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (2006-02-15). Retrieved on 2007-05-18. and the UK average of 5.5%. Employment. National Statistics. Office of National Statistics (2006-03). Retrieved on 2007-05-18. Over the past 10 years employment has grown by 16.4 per cent, compared with 9.2 per cent for the UK as a whole."From bombs and bullets to boom towns", Guardian Unlimited, 2007-04-01. Retrieved on 2007-05-16.
Northern Ireland\'s peace dividend has led to soaring property prices in the city. In 2007, Belfast saw house prices grow by 50%, the fastest rate of growth in the UK.University of Ulster (2007-11-15). "Northern Ireland Reaches Watershed in House Price Growth". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-12-10. In March 2007, the average house in Belfast cost £191,819, with the average in South Belfast being £241,000.Carson, Helen. "Typical price of Ulster home edges ever closer to UK£200,000", Belfast Telegraph, 2007-02-28. Retrieved on 2007-03-13. In 2004, Belfast had the lowest owner occupation rate in Northern Ireland at 54%.Halifax (2004-11-19). "House Owner Occupation Rates". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-05-18.
Peace has also boosted the numbers of tourists coming to Belfast. There were 6.4 million visitors in 2005, which was a growth of 8.5% from 2004. The visitors spent £285.2 million, supporting over 15,600 jobs.Belfast 2005: Tourism Facts and Figures, Belfast: Belfast City Council, 2006, <http://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/tourism/docs/FactsFigures2005.pdf>. Retrieved on 18 May 2007 Visitor numbers rose by 6% to reach 6.8 million in 2006, with tourists spending £324 million, an increase of 15% on 2005."Record number of visitors come to Belfast", GO Belfast, July/August 2007, p. 6. The city\'s two airports have help make the city one of the most visited weekend destinations in Europe.Invest in Belfast: A 2007 City Guide for Investors. Belfast City Council. Retrieved on 2007-05-18.
When the population of Belfast town began to grow in the seventeenth century, its economy was built on commerce.Beckett, JC; et al. (2003). Belfast, The Making of the City. Chapter 1: Belfast to the end of the eighteenth century. Belfast: Appletree Press Ltd, pp13-26. 0862818788. It provided a market for the surrounding countryside and the natural inlet of Belfast Lough gave the city its own port. The port supplied an avenue for trade with Great Britain and later Europe and North America. In the mid-seventeenth century, Belfast exported beef, butter, hides, tallow and corn and it imported coal, cloth, wine, brandy, paper, timber and tobacco. Around this time, the linen trade in Northern Ireland blossomed and by the middle of the eighteenth century, one fifth of all the linen exported from Ireland was shipped from Belfast. The present city however is a product of the Industrial Revolution. (2005) The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition.. Columbia University Press. It was not until industry transformed the linen and shipbuilding trades that the economy and the population boomed. By the turn of the nineteenth century, Belfast had transformed into the largest linen producing centre in the world,Beckett, JC; Boyle, E (2003). Belfast, The Making of the City. Chapter 3: "Linenopolis": the rise of the textile industry. Belfast: Appletree Press Ltd, pp41-56. 0862818788. earning the nickname "Linenopolis".
Short Brothers plc is a British aerospace company based in Belfast. It was the first aircraft manufacturing company in the world. The company began its association with Belfast in 1936, with Short & Harland Ltd, a venture jointly owned by Shorts and Harland and Wolff. Now known as Shorts Bombardier it works as an international aircraft manufacturer located near the Port of Belfast.Coprorate Series Northern Ireland. Corporate Northern Ireland 2007. Coprorate Series. Retrieved on 2007-12-07. The rise of mass-produced and cotton clothing following World War I were some of the factors w
