Editing Belfast (section)

== History ==
{{Main|History of Belfast}}

=== Name ===
[[File:Ground Plan of Belfast (1685).png|thumb|A 1685 plan of Belfast by the military engineer [[Thomas Phillips (engineer)|Thomas Phillips]], showing the town's ramparts and [[Belfast Castle#Plantation Castle|Lord Chichester's castle]], which was destroyed in a fire in 1708|left|200x200px]]The name Belfast derives from the Irish {{lang|ga|Béal Feirste}} ({{IPA|ga|bʲeːlˠ ˈfʲɛɾˠ(ə)ʃtʲə}}),<ref name="Logainm">{{cite web |title=Placenames Database of Ireland – Belfast: '''view the scanned records''' |url=http://www.logainm.ie/118005.aspx |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130702093937/http://www.logainm.ie/118005.aspx |archive-date=2 July 2013 |access-date=25 May 2014 |publisher=Logainm.ie }}</ref> "Mouth of the [[River Farset|Farset]]",<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hogan |first=Edmund |url=http://publish.ucc.ie/doi/locus/B |title=Onomasticon Goedelicum |year=1910 |location=Dublin |access-date=1 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717183101/http://publish.ucc.ie/doi/locus/B |archive-date=17 July 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref> a river whose name in the Irish, ''Feirste,'' refers to a sandbar or tidal ford.<ref name="Belfast name">{{cite web |title=Placenames/Logainmneacha – Belfast |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/irish/blas/education/beginnersblas/1belfast.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090115045404/http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/irish/blas/education/beginnersblas/1belfast.shtml |archive-date=15 January 2009 |access-date=17 May 2007 |website=BBC Northern Ireland – Education |publisher=BBC }}</ref> This was formed where the river ran—until culverted late in the 18th century, down High Street—<ref name="townbook-1892">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/townbookofcorpor00belf#page/n5/mode/2up |title=The Town Book of the Corporation of Belfast |publisher=Marcus Ward |year=1892 |editor-last=Young |editor-first=Robert M. |location=Belfast |access-date=16 August 2012 }}</ref> into the Lagan. It was at this crossing, located under or close to the current Queen's Bridge, that the early settlement developed.<ref name=":22">{{Cite book |last=Ó Baoill |first=Ruairí |title=Hidden History Below Our Feet: The Archaeological Story of Belfast |publisher=Tandem Design, Northern Ireland Environment Agency |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-9569671-0-7 |location=Belfast }}</ref>{{rp|74–77}}

The compilers of [[Ulster Scots dialects|Ulster-Scots]] use various transcriptions of local pronunciations of "Belfast" (with which they sometimes are also content)<ref>{{cite web |title=North-South Ministerial Council: 2010 Annual Report in Ulster Scots |url=http://www.northsouthministerialcouncil.org/annual_report_2010_ulster_scots.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130227120523/http://www.northsouthministerialcouncil.org/annual_report_2010_ulster_scots.pdf |archive-date=27 February 2013 |access-date=2 August 2014 }}</ref> including ''Bilfawst'',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.linenhall.com/pages/irish-and-reference |title=Ulster Scots Language & Dialects of Ulster |publisher=The Linen Hall Library |access-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130225140201/https://www.linenhall.com/pages/irish-and-reference |archive-date=25 February 2013 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.northsouthministerialcouncil.org/web_2006_ulster_scots_report.pdf 2006 annual report in Ulster-Scots] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130227120556/http://www.northsouthministerialcouncil.org/web_2006_ulster_scots_report.pdf |date= 27 February 2013}} North/South Ministerial Council.</ref> ''Bilfaust''<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/ulsterscots/library/switherin-agen BBC Ulster-Scots Library – Switherin agen] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120724110325/http://www.bbc.co.uk/ulsterscots/library/switherin-agen |date= 24 July 2012}} Ullans Speakers Association. Retrieved 6 October 2011.</ref> or ''Baelfawst.''<ref>{{cite web |title=Equality Impect Assessment o tha Draft Ullans Leid Policy |url=https://www.midulstercouncil.org/getmedia/b944e065-0b67-4eb7-bca7-09c694caf3f2/Final-EQIA-Equality-Impact-Assessment-in-Ulster-Scots_11.pdf?ext=.pdf |publisher=Mid Ulster District Council |access-date=16 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180109091019/https://www.midulstercouncil.org/getmedia/b944e065-0b67-4eb7-bca7-09c694caf3f2/Final-EQIA-Equality-Impact-Assessment-in-Ulster-Scots_11.pdf?ext=.pdf |archive-date=9 January 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

As a legacy of emigration, Belfast has lent its name to more than a dozen settlements in the United States, of which the largest is [[Belfast, Maine]], and to one each [[Belfast, Victoria|in Australia]], [[Belfast, Prince Edward Island|Canada]], [[Belfast, New Zealand|New Zealand]] and [[Belfast, Mpumalanga|South Africa]].

=== Early settlements ===
The site of Belfast has been occupied since the [[Bronze Age]]. The [[Giants Ring, Belfast|Giant's Ring]], a 5,000-year-old [[henge]], is located near the city,<ref name=":22" />{{rp|42–45}}<ref>{{cite news |title=A walk on the outskirts of Belfast: Giant's Ring Trail, Northern Ireland |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=12 May 2012 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2012/may/12/giants-ring-trail-belfast-walk |access-date=1 June 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131030002902/http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2012/may/12/giants-ring-trail-belfast-walk |archive-date=30 October 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> and the remains of [[Iron Age]] [[hill fort]]s can still be seen in the surrounding hills. At the beginning of the 14th century, [[Papacy|Papal]] tax rolls record two churches: the "Chapel of Dundela" at Knock (Irish: {{lang|ga|[[wikt:cnoc|cnoc]]}}, meaning "hill") in the east,<ref>{{cite book |last=Reeves |first=Rev. William |url=https://archive.org/stream/ecclesiasticalan00reev#page/6/mode/2up/search/ford |title=Ecclesiastical antiquities of Down, Connor, and Dromore, consisting of a taxation of those dioceses, compiled in the year MCCCVI; with notes and illustrations |publisher=Hodges and Smith |year=1847 |location=Dublin |page=7 |access-date=31 March 2013 }}</ref> connected by some accounts to the 7th-century evangelist [[Columba|St. Colmcille]],<ref name=":21">{{Cite book |last=Maguire |first=W. A. |title=Belfast |date=1993 |publisher=Keele University Press |isbn=1-85331-060-3 |pages= }}</ref>{{rp|11}}and, the "Chapel of the Ford", which may have been a successor to a much older parish church on the present [[Shankill Road|Shankill ''(Seanchill'', "Old Church") Road]],<ref name=":22" />{{rp|63–64}} dating back to the 9th,<ref>{{Cite web |date=5 January 2022 |title=150 years of history and beyond |url=https://www.qub.ac.uk/News/Allnews/2022/150yearsofhistoryandbeyond.html |access-date=7 March 2024 |website=qub.ac.uk }}</ref> and possibly to [[Saint Patrick|St. Patrick]] in the mid 5th, century.<ref>{{cite web |title=Shankill 455AD |url=http://greatershankillpartnership.org/shankill/history.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402144113/http://greatershankillpartnership.org/shankill/history.html |archive-date=2 April 2015 |access-date=22 December 2013 |website=Greater Shankill Partnership }}</ref>

A [[Normans in Ireland|Norman]] settlement at the ford, comprising the parish church (now [[St George's Church, Belfast|St. George's]]), a watermill, and a small fort,<ref name=":162">{{Cite book |last1=MacDonald |first1=Philip |title=Belfast 400: People, Place and History |isbn=978-1-84631-635-7 |editor-last=Connolly |editor-first=S. J. |location=Liverpool |publication-date=2012 |pages=91–122 |chapter=The Medieval Settlement }}</ref> was an outpost of [[Carrickfergus Castle]]. Established in the late 12th century, {{convert|11|mi|km}} out along the north shore of the Lough, Carrickfergus was to remain the principal English foothold in the north-east until the [[scorched earth|scorched- earth]] [[Nine Years' War (Ireland)|Nine Years' War]] at the end of the 16th century broke the remaining Irish power, the [[O'Neill dynasty|O'Neills]].<ref name=":202">{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=Basil C. S. |title=Belfast: The Origin and Growth of an Industrial City |publisher=British Broadcasting Corporation |year=1967 |editor-last=Beckett |editor-first=J. C. |location=London |pages=14–25 |chapter=The Birth of Belfast |editor-last2=Glasscock |editor-first2=R. E. }}</ref>

=== Developing port, radical politics ===
With a commission from [[James VI and I|King James VI and I]], in 1613 [[Arthur Chichester, 1st Baron Chichester|Sir Arthur Chichester]] undertook the [[Plantations of Ireland|Plantation]] of Belfast and the surrounding area, attracting mainly English and [[Isle of Man|Manx]] settlers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Beckett |first=J. C. |title=Belfast: The Making of the City |publisher=Appletree Press |year=1983 |isbn=0-86281-100-7 |location=Belfast |pages=15 }}</ref> The subsequent arrival of [[Ulster Scots people|Scottish Presbyterians]] embroiled Belfast in its only recorded siege: denounced from London by [[John Milton]] as "ungrateful and treacherous guests",<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1813 |title=The Answer of John Milton to the Representation of the Presbytery of Belfast, Published at Page 95 of Our Last Number |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30074456 |journal=The Belfast Monthly Magazine |volume=10 |issue=56 |pages=(207–215) 215 |jstor=30074456 |issn=1758-1605 }}</ref> in 1649 the newcomers were temporarily expelled by an English [[Roundhead|Parliamentarian]] army.<ref name=":16">{{Cite book |last1=Connolly |first1=S. J. |title=Belfast 400: People, Place and History |last2=McIntosh |first2=Gillian |publisher=Liverpool University Press |isbn=978-1-84631-635-7 |editor-last=Connolly |editor-first=S. J. |location=Liverpool |publication-date=2012 |pages= |chapter=Imagining Belfast }}</ref>{{rp|21}}<ref name=":26">{{Cite book |last=Maguire |first=William |title=Belfast: A History |publisher=Carnegie Publishing |year=2009 |isbn=9781859361894 |location=Lancaster |publication-date=2009 |pages=}}</ref>{{rp|32}} In 1689, Catholic [[Jacobitism|Jacobite]] forces, briefly in command of the town,<ref>Childs, John (2007). ''The Williamite Wars in Ireland''. London: Hambledon Continuum, p. 150. {{ISBN|978-1-85285-573-4 }}</ref> abandoned it in advance of the landing at Carrickfergus of [[William III of England|William, Prince of Orange]], who proceeded through Belfast to his celebrated victory on 12 July 1690 at [[Battle of the Boyne|the Boyne]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=King William in Ulster {{!}} Museum of Orange Heritage |url=https://www.orangeheritage.co.uk/king-william-in-ulster |access-date=3 March 2024 |website=Museum |archive-date=3 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240303145641/https://www.orangeheritage.co.uk/king-william-in-ulster |url-status=live }}</ref>

Together with French [[Huguenots]], the Scots introduced the production of [[linen]], a [[flax]]-spinning industry that in the 18th century carried Belfast trade to the Americas.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bardon |first=Jonathon Bardon |title=The Plantation of Ulster |publisher=Gill & Macmillan |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-7171-4738-0 |location=Dublin |pages=322 }}</ref> Fortunes were made carrying rough linen clothing and salted provisions to the [[slave plantation]]s of the [[West Indies]]; sugar and rum to [[Baltimore]] and New York City; and for the return to Belfast [[flax]]seed and tobacco from [[Thirteen Colonies|the colonies]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=McMaster |first=Richard |date=2011 |title=Scotch-Irish Merchants in Colonial America: The Flaxseed Trade and Emigration from Ireland, 1718–1755 |url=http://www.booksireland.org.uk/store/all-departments/scotch-irish-merchants-in-colonial-america-ebook |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210522182339/http://www.booksireland.org.uk/store/all-departments/scotch-irish-merchants-in-colonial-america-ebook |archive-date=22 May 2021 |access-date=22 May 2021 |website=Ulster Historical Foundation }}</ref> From the 1760s, profits from the trade financed improvements in the town's commercial infrastructure, including the [[Lagan Canal]], new docks and quays, and the construction of the White Linen Hall which together attracted to Belfast the linen trade that had formerly gone through [[Dublin]]. [[Abolitionism|Abolitionist]] sentiment, however, defeated the proposal of the greatest of the merchant houses, [[Waddell Cunningham|Cunningham and Greg]], in 1786 to commission ships for the [[Middle Passage]].<ref name="Rodgers">{{cite journal |last1=Rodgers |first1=Nini |date=1997 |title=Equiano in Belfast: a study of the anti-slavery ethos in a northern town |journal=Slavery and Abolition |volume=xviii |pages=82–84 }}</ref>[[File:Bastille-day-belfast-1791.jpg|upright=0.90|thumb|left|Volunteer Corps parade down High Street, [[Bastille Day]], 1792|200x200px]]As "Dissenters" from the [[Church of Ireland|established Anglican church]] (with its [[episcopacy]] and ritual), [[Presbyterian Church in Ireland|Presbyterians]] were conscious of sharing, if only in part, the [[Penal Laws against Irish Catholics|disabilities]] of Ireland's dispossessed [[Catholic Church in Ireland|Roman Catholic]] majority; and of being denied representation in the [[Parliament of Ireland|Irish Parliament]]. Belfast's two [[Member of parliament|MPs]] remained nominees of the Chichesters ([[Marquess of Donegall|Marquesses of Donegall]]). With their emigrant kinsmen in America, the region's Presbyterians were to share a growing disaffection from [[The British Crown|the Crown.]]<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Cochrane |first=Feargal |title=Belfast, the Story of a City and its People |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-0-300-26444-9 |location=London |publication-date=2023 }}</ref>{{rp|55–61}}<ref>{{cite book |last=F.X. Martin |first=T.W. Moody |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781856351089/page/232 |title=The Course of Irish History |publisher=Mercier Press |year=1980 |isbn=1-85635-108-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781856351089/page/232 232–233] }}</ref>

When early in the [[American Revolutionary War|American War of Independence]], [[North Channel Naval Duel|Belfast Lough was raided]] by the [[privateer]] [[John Paul Jones]], the townspeople assembled their own [[Irish Volunteers (18th century)|Volunteer militia]]. Formed ostensibly for defence of [[Kingdom of Ireland|the Kingdom]], Volunteer corps were soon pressing their own protest against "taxation without representation". Further emboldened by the [[French Revolution]], a more radical element in the town, the [[Society of United Irishmen]], called for [[Catholic emancipation]] and a representative national government.<ref name="Connolly">{{Cite book |title=Divided Kingdom; Ireland 1630–1800 |first=Sean J. |last=Connolly |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-19-958387-4 |pages=434–449 }}</ref> In hopes of French assistance, in 1798 the Society organised a republican insurrection. The rebel tradesmen and tenant farmers were defeated north of the town at the [[Battle of Antrim]] and to the south at the [[Battle of Ballynahinch]].<ref name=":11">[[ATQ Stewart|Stewart, A.T.Q.]] (1995), ''The Summer Soldiers: The 1798 Rebellion in Antrim and Down'' Belfast, Blackstaff Press, 1995,{{ISBN|978-0-85640-558-7}}.</ref>

Britain seized on the rebellion to abolish the [[Parliament of Ireland|Irish Parliament]], unlamented in Belfast, and to [[Acts of Union 1800|incorporate Ireland]] in a [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]].<ref name=":25">{{Cite web |last=Bardon |first=Jonathan |date=2012 |title=The Act of Union |url=http://www.actofunion.ac.uk/actofunion.htm |access-date=30 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415061235/http://www.actofunion.ac.uk/actofunion.htm |archive-date=15 April 2012 }}</ref> In 1832, British [[Reform Act 1832|parliamentary reform]] permitted the town its first electoral contest<ref>{{Cite web |title=Belfast {{!}} History of Parliament Online |url=https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/constituencies/belfast |access-date=10 February 2022 |website=historyofparliamentonline.org |archive-date=10 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220210164506/https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/constituencies/belfast |url-status=live }}</ref> – an occasion for an early and lethal [[Sectarianism|sectarian]] riot.<ref name=":18">{{Cite book |last=Bardon |first=Jonathan |title=Belfast, An Illustrated History |publisher=The Balckstaff Press |year=1982 |isbn=0-85640-272-9 |location=Belfast |pages= }}</ref>{{rp|87}}

=== Industrial expansion, sectarian division ===
[[File:High Street, Belfast (5785358121).jpg|thumb|right|High Street, c. 1906]]
While other Irish towns experienced a loss of manufacturing, from the 1820s Belfast underwent rapid industrial expansion. After a cotton boom and bust, the town emerged as the global leader in the production of [[linen]] goods (mill, and finishing, work largely employing women and children),<ref name="Belfast, The Making of the City 32">{{cite book |last=Beckett |first=JC |title=Belfast, The Making of the City. Chapter 3: "Linenopolis": the rise of the textile industry |author2=Boyle, E |publisher=Appletree Press Ltd |year=2003 |isbn=0-86281-878-8 |location=Belfast |pages=41–56 }}</ref> winning the moniker "[[Economy of Belfast|Linenopolis]]".<ref>{{Cite web |last=ConnollyCove |date=12 August 2019 |title=Linenopolis: The Linen Quarter of Belfast {{!}} Connolly Cove {{!}} |url=https://www.connollycove.com/linenopolis-linen-quarter-belfast/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210214064424/https://www.connollycove.com/linenopolis-linen-quarter-belfast/ |archive-date=14 February 2021 |access-date=6 November 2019 |website=Connolly Cove }}</ref> Shipbuilding led the development of heavier industry.<ref name="Johnson2020">{{cite book |author1-last=Johnson |author1-first=Alice |title=Middle-Class Life in Victorian Belfast |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-78962-449-6 |series=Reappraisals in Irish History LUP |page=277 |chapter=A British or an Irish city? The identity of Victorian Belfast }}</ref> By the 1900s, her shipyards were building up to a quarter of the total United Kingdom tonnage,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Eoin |first=O'Malley |date=1981 |title=The Decline of Irish Industry in the Nineteenth Century |url=http://www.tara.tcd.ie/bitstream/handle/2262/68696/v13n11981_2.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |journal=The Economic and Social Review |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=(21–42) 22 |via=Trinity College Dublin |archive-date=28 January 2024 |access-date=28 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240128100059/http://www.tara.tcd.ie/bitstream/handle/2262/68696/v13n11981_2.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |url-status=live }}</ref> and on the eve of the [[World War I|Great War]], in 1914, close one eighth of world production.<ref name=":26" />{{rp|167}} This included from the yard of [[Harland & Wolff]] the ill-fated RMS ''[[Titanic]],'' at the time of her launch in 1911 the largest ship afloat.''<ref name="Titanic In History">{{cite web |title=Introduction To Titanic – Titanic in History |url=http://www.titanicinbelfast.com/template.aspx?pid=342&area=1&parent=321 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070817040144/http://www.titanicinbelfast.com/template.aspx?pid=342&area=1&parent=321 |archive-date=17 August 2007 |access-date=18 May 2007 |work=Titanic. Built in Belfast |publisher=Ulster Folk and Transport Museum }}</ref>'' Other major export industries included textile machinery, rope, tobacco and mineral waters.<ref name=":21" />{{rp|59–88}}

Industry drew in a new Catholic population settling largely in the west of the town—refugees from a rural poverty intensified by Belfast's mechanisation of spinning and weaving and, in the 1840s, by [[Great Famine (Ireland)|famine]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kelly |first1=Mary |date=April 2013 |title=Historical Internal Migration in Ireland |url=https://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/~gisteac/proceedingsonline/GISRUK2013/gisruk2013_submission_63.pdf |url-status=live |journal=GIS Research UK |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180817225743/https://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/~gisteac/proceedingsonline/GISRUK2013/gisruk2013_submission_63.pdf |archive-date=17 August 2018 |access-date=17 August 2018 }}</ref> The plentiful supply of cheap labour helped attract English and Scottish capital to Belfast, but it was also a cause of insecurity.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Heatley |first=Fred |title=Belfast, The Making of the City |publisher=Appletree Press |year=1983 |isbn=0-86281-100-7 |editor-last=Beckett |display-editors=etal |editor-first=J. C. |location=Belfast |pages=129–142 |chapter=Community relations and religious geography 1800-86 }}</ref> Protestant workers organised and dominated the apprenticed trades<ref name=":9">{{Cite journal |last=Munck |first=Ronald |date=1985 |title=Class and Religion in Belfast – A Historical Perspective |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/260533 |journal=Journal of Contemporary History |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=241–259 |doi=10.1177/002200948502000203 |jstor=260533 |s2cid=159836923 |issn=0022-0094 }}</ref> and gave a new lease of life to the once largely rural [[Orange Order]].<ref name=":8">{{Cite book |last=Foster |first=R. F. |title=Modern Ireland 1600–1972 |publisher=Allen Lane |year=1988 |isbn=0-7139-9010-4 |location=London |pages=389–396 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Farrell |first=Sean |url=https://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=upk_european_history |title=Rituals and Riots: Sectarian Violence and Political Culture in Ulster, 1784–1886 |date=2000 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |pages=125–150 |access-date=19 January 2024 |archive-date=6 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200506135301/https://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=upk_european_history |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> Sectarian tensions, which frequently broke out in riots and workplace expulsions, were also driven by the "constitutional question": the prospect of a restored Irish parliament in which Protestants (and northern industry) feared being a minority interest.<ref name=":9" />

On 28 September 1912, [[Unionism in Ireland|unionists]] massed at [[Belfast City Hall|Belfast's City Hall]] to sign the [[Ulster Covenant]], pledging to use "all means which may be found necessary to defeat the present [[Conspiracy (political)|conspiracy]] to set up a [[Home Rule]] Parliament in Ireland".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Connell Jr |first=Joseph E.A. |date=2012 |title=The 1912 Ulster Covenant by Joseph E.A. Connell Jr |url=https://www.historyireland.com/the-1912-ulster-covenant-by-joseph-e-a-connell-jr/ |access-date=19 January 2024 |website=History Ireland |archive-date=19 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240119202415/https://www.historyireland.com/the-1912-ulster-covenant-by-joseph-e-a-connell-jr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> This was followed by the drilling and eventual arming of a 100,000-strong [[Ulster Volunteers|Ulster Volunteer Force]] (UVF).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bowman |first=Timothy |date=2013 |title=The Ulster Volunteers 1913–1914: force or farce? |url=https://www.historyireland.com/the-ulster-volunteers-1913-1914-force-or-farce/ |access-date=19 January 2024 |website=History Ireland |archive-date=8 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231208103037/https://www.historyireland.com/the-ulster-volunteers-1913-1914-force-or-farce/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The immediate crisis was averted by the onset of the [[World War I|Great War]]. The UVF formed the [[36th (Ulster) Division]] whose sacrifices in the [[Battle of the Somme]] continue to be commemorated in the city by unionist and [[Ulster loyalism|loyalist]] organisations.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Evershed |first=Jonathan |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvpg869s |title=Ghosts of the Somme: Commemoration and Culture War in Northern Ireland |date=2018 |publisher=University of Notre Dame Press |doi=10.2307/j.ctvpg869s |jstor=j.ctvpg869s |s2cid=243890001 }}</ref>

In 1920–22, as Belfast emerged as the capital of the six counties remaining as [[Northern Ireland]] in the United Kingdom, there was [[The Troubles in Ulster (1920–1922)|widespread violence]]. 8,000 "disloyal" workers were driven from their jobs in the shipyards:<ref>Lynch, Robert. ''The Partition of Ireland: 1918–1925''. Cambridge University Press, 2019. pp.92–93</ref> in addition to Catholics, "rotten Prods" – Protestants whose labour politics disregarded sectarian distinctions.<ref name=":13">{{Cite book |last=Cochrane |first=Feargal |title=Belfast, the Story of a City and its People |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-0-300-26444-9 |location=New Haven }}</ref>{{rp|104–108}} Gun battles, grenade attacks and house burnings contributed to as many as 500 deaths.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Glennon |first=Kieran |date=2020 |title=Facts and fallacies of the Belfast pogrom |url=https://www.historyireland.com/facts-and-fallacies-of-the-belfast-pogrom/ |access-date=19 January 2024 |website=History Ireland |archive-date=19 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240119202415/https://www.historyireland.com/facts-and-fallacies-of-the-belfast-pogrom/ |url-status=live }}</ref> A curfew remained in force until 1924.<ref name=":25" />{{rp|194}} The lines drawn saw off the challenge to "unionist unity" posed by [[Belfast Labour Party|labour]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Walker |first=Graham |date=1984 |title=The Northern Ireland Labour Party in the 1920s |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23195875 |url-status=live |journal=Saothar |volume=10 |pages=19–30 |issn=0332-1169 |jstor=23195875 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231222173839/https://www.jstor.org/stable/23195875 |archive-date=22 December 2023 |access-date=30 January 2024}}</ref> Industry had been paralysed by [[1907 Belfast Dock strike|strikes in 1907]] and again in 1919 (when the city was effectively policed by strikers).<ref>{{Cite news |last=Burke |first=Jason |date=2025-04-18 |title=‘Belfast became an idle place in darkness’: Forgotten event brought city to a halt amid an economic crisis |url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/life/features/belfast-became-an-idle-place-in-darkness-forgotten-event-brought-city-to-a-halt-amid-an-economic-crisis/a334573543.html# |access-date=2025-04-20 |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}}</ref> Until "troubles" returned at the end of the 1960s, it was not uncommon in Belfast for the [[Ulster Unionist Party]] to have its [[:Category:Belfast City Council elections|council]] and [[:Category:General elections to the Parliament of Northern Ireland|parliamentary]] candidates returned unopposed.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Budge |first1=Ian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jIWMCwAAQBAJ |title=Belfast: Approach to Crisis: A Study of Belfast Politics 1613–1970 |last2=O'Leary |first2=Cornelius |date=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-00126-2 |location=173-197 }}</ref><ref>Walker, B.M., ed. (1978). ''Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801–1922''. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy. p. 331. {{ISBN|0-901714-12-7 }}</ref>

In 1932, the opening of the new buildings for [[Parliament of Northern Ireland|Northern Ireland's devolved Parliament]] at [[Stormont Buildings|Stormont]] was overshadowed by the protests of the unemployed and ten days of running street battles with the police. The government conceded increases in [[Outdoor relief|Outdoor Relief]], but labour unity was short lived.<ref name=":18" />{{rp|219–220}} In 1935, celebrations of [[George V|King George V]]'s Jubilee and of the annual Twelfth were followed by deadly riots and expulsions, a sectarian logic that extended itself to the interpretation of darkening events in Europe.<ref name=":18" />{{rp|226–233}} [[Northern Ireland Labour Party|Labour candidates]] found  support for the [[Anti-clericalism|anti-clerical]] [[Second Spanish Republic|Spanish Republic]] (marked today by a [[No Pasaran|''No Pasaran!'']] stained glass window in City Hall)<ref>{{Cite news |date=10 November 2015 |title=Honouring Belfast men who died for democracy of Spain |url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/news-analysis/honouring-belfast-men-who-died-for-democracy-of-spain/34183759.html |access-date=15 February 2024 |work=BelfastTelegraph.co.uk |issn=0307-1235}}</ref> characterised as another instance of [[Popery|No-Popery]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Harbinson |first=John Fitzsimons |date=1966 |title=Extract from A History of the Northern Ireland Labour Party, 1891-1949 (Queens University Belfast thesis). |url=http://geocities.com/irelandscw/docs-Midgley.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091028150414/http://geocities.com/irelandscw/docs-Midgley.htm |archive-date=28 October 2009 |access-date=15 February 2024 }}</ref>

In 1938, nearly a third of industrial workers were unemployed, [[malnutrition]] was a major issue, and at 9.6% the city's [[infant mortality]] rate (compared with 5.9% in [[Sheffield]], England) was among the highest in United Kingdom.<ref name="episode 48">{{cite episode |series=A Short History of Ireland |author=Dr. Jonathan Bardon |number=48 |publisher=BBC Audio |year=2006 }}</ref>

=== The Blitz and post-war development ===
{{Main|Belfast Blitz}}
[[File:AIR RAID DAMAGE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM 1939-1945 - H 9476.jpg|thumb|Aftermath of the Blitz in May 1941|left|160x160px]]
In the spring of 1941, the German ''[[Luftwaffe]]'' appeared twice over Belfast. In addition to the shipyards and the [[Short and Harland|Short & Harland]] aircraft factory, the [[Belfast Blitz]] severely damaged or destroyed more than half the city's housing stock, and devastated the old town centre around High Street.<ref name="BBC11042001">{{cite news |date=11 April 2001 |title=The Belfast blitz is remembered |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/1269206.stm |url-status=live |access-date=12 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090111212052/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/1269206.stm |archive-date=11 January 2009 }}</ref> In the greatest loss of life in any air raid outside of London, more than a thousand people were killed.<ref name="BBC11042001"/>

At the end of the [[Second World War]], the Unionist government undertook programmes of [[Slum clearance in the United Kingdom|"slum clearance]]" (the Blitz had exposed the "uninhabitable" condition of much of the city's housing) which involved decanting populations out of mill and factory built red-brick terraces and into new peripheral housing estates.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Post-War Housing in Northern Ireland |url=http://www.progressivepulse.org/post-war-housing-in-northern-ireland |access-date=25 May 2021 |website=Progressive Pulse |archive-date=25 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210525205938/http://www.progressivepulse.org/post-war-housing-in-northern-ireland |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Citation |last=Gaffikin |first=Frank |title=New and Shifting Populations in Belfast: Analysis and Impact |date=2014 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBfXRLB8hek |access-date=21 January 2024 |publisher=Northern Ireland Assembly |archive-date=4 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241204160628/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBfXRLB8hek |url-status=live }}</ref> At the same time, a British-funded [[welfare state]] "revolutionised access" to education and health care.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wichert |first=Sabine |title=Northern Ireland Since 1945 |publisher=Longman |year=1991 |isbn=0-582-02392-0 |location=London |pages=43–49 }}</ref> The resulting rise in expectations; together with the uncertainty caused by the decline of the city's [[Victorian era|Victorian-era]] industries, contributed to growing protest, and counter protest, in the 1960s over the [[Government of Northern Ireland (1921–1972)|Unionist government]]'s record on civil and political rights.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Northern Ireland 1963–1998 {{!}} Irish history Live |url=https://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/irishhistorylive/IrishHistoryResources/Articlesandlecturesbyourteachingstaff/NorthernIreland1963-1998/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210524213142/https://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/irishhistorylive/IrishHistoryResources/Articlesandlecturesbyourteachingstaff/NorthernIreland1963-1998/ |archive-date=24 May 2021 |access-date=24 May 2021 |website=qub.ac.uk }}</ref>

=== The Troubles ===
{{Main|The Troubles}}
For reasons that [[Irish nationalism|nationalists]] and [[Unionism in Ireland|unionists]] dispute,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Roche |first1=Patrick |title=The Northern Ireland Question: Perspectives on Nationalism and Unionism |last2=Brian Barton |publisher=Wordzworth Publishing |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-78324-145-3 }}</ref> the public protests of the late 1960s soon gave way to communal violence (in which as many as 60,000 people were intimidated from their homes)<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Shirlow |first1=Peter |title=Belfast: Segregation, Violence and the City |last2=Murtagh |first2=Brendan |publisher=Pluto |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-7453-2480-7 |location=London |pages= }}</ref>{{rp|70}} and to [[Ulster loyalism|loyalist]] and [[Irish republicanism|republican]] [[Paramilitary|paramilitarism]]. Introduced onto the streets in August 1969, the [[Operation Banner|British Army]] committed to the longest continuous deployment in its history, [[Operation Banner]]. Beginning in 1970 with the [[Falls Curfew|Falls curfew]], and followed in 1971 by [[Operation Demetrius|internment]], this included [[counterinsurgency]] measures directed chiefly at the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army]]. The PIRA characterised their operations, including the bombing of Belfast's commercial centre, as a struggle against British occupation.<ref>Holland, Jack (1999). ''Hope Against History: The Course of Terrorist trouble in Northern Ireland''. [[Henry Holt and Company]]. {{ISBN|978-0-8050-6087-4 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=CAIN: Background Essay on the Northern Ireland Conflict |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/landon.htm |access-date=26 May 2021 |website=cain.ulster.ac.uk |archive-date=8 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508154443/https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/landon.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

Preceded by loyalist and republican ceasefires, the 1998 [[Good Friday Agreement|"Good Friday" Belfast Agreement]] returned a new [[Power sharing|power-sharing]] [[Northern Ireland Assembly|legislative assembly]] and [[Northern Ireland Executive|executive]] to Stormont.<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 January 2019 |title=20 years on: What was agreed in the Good Friday Agreement? |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/good-friday-agreement-what-it-northern-ireland-belfast-1998-sinn-fein-troubles-a8278156.html |access-date=26 May 2021 |website=The Independent |archive-date=22 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922211443/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/good-friday-agreement-what-it-northern-ireland-belfast-1998-sinn-fein-troubles-a8278156.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In the intervening years in Belfast, some 20,000 people had been injured, and 1,500 killed.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|73}}<ref>{{cite news |date=11 April 2001 |title=Sutton Index of Deaths |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/search.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927075228/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/search.html |archive-date=27 September 2011 |access-date=9 July 2013 |publisher=CAIN |quote=Search for Belfast in "Text Search of Description (and key words)" }}</ref>

Eighty-five percent of the conflict-related deaths had occurred within 1,000 metres of the communal [[Interface area|interfaces]], largely in the north and west of the city.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|73}} The security barriers erected at these interfaces are an enduring physical legacy of the Troubles.<ref name=":1">{{Citation |last=Bryan |first=Dominic |title=Titanic Town: Living in a Lndscape of Conflict |date=2012 |url=https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/publications/titanic-town-living-in-a-lndscape-of-conflict |work=Belfast 400: People Place and History |pages=317–353 |editor-last=Connolly |editor-first=Sean |access-date=17 January 2024 |place=Liverpool |publisher=Liverpool University Press (BHS) |isbn=978-1-84631-636-4 }}</ref> The 14 neighbourhoods they separate are among the 20 most deprived [[Ward (electoral subdivision)|wards]] in Northern Ireland.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A history of the peace walls in Belfast |url=https://www.theweek.co.uk/northern-ireland/952591/a-history-of-the-peace-walls-in-belfast |access-date=22 June 2021 |website=The Week UK |date=21 April 2021 |archive-date=11 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711192824/https://www.theweek.co.uk/northern-ireland/952591/a-history-of-the-peace-walls-in-belfast |url-status=live }}</ref> In May 2013, the [[Northern Ireland Executive]] committed to the removal of all peace lines by mutual consent.<ref>{{cite web |date=31 July 2017 |title=Department of Justice Interface Programme – Department of Justice |url=https://www.justice-ni.gov.uk/articles/department-justice-interface-programme |access-date=13 April 2019 |website=Justice |archive-date=31 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190531115700/https://www.justice-ni.gov.uk/articles/department-justice-interface-programme |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Cathy Gormley-Heenan, Duncan Morrow and Jonny Byrne |title=Removing Peace Walls and Public Policy Brief (1): the challenge of definition and design |publisher=Northern Ireland Assembly |year=2015 }}</ref> The target date of 2023 was passed with only a small number dismantled.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Leebody |first=Christopher |date=9 December 2020 |title=Belfast interface residents remain divided over peace walls |work=belfasttelegraph |url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/belfast-interface-residents-remain-divided-over-peace-walls-39846514.html |access-date=22 June 2021 |issn=0307-1235 |archive-date=11 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711194325/https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/belfast-interface-residents-remain-divided-over-peace-walls-39846514.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Carroll |first=Rory |last2= |first2= |date=7 April 2023 |title=Belfast's peace walls: potent symbols of division are dwindling – but slowly |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/07/belfasts-peace-walls-potent-symbols-of-division-are-dwindling-but-slowly |access-date=16 January 2024 |work=The Guardian |issn=0261-3077 }}</ref>

The more affluent districts escaped the worst of the violence, but the city centre was a major target. This was especially so during the first phase of the PIRA campaign in the early 1970s, when the organisation hoped to secure quick political results through maximum destruction.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|331–332}} Including [[car bomb]]s and incendiaries, between 1969 and 1977 the city experienced 2,280 explosions.<ref name=":16" />{{rp|58}} In addition to the death and injury caused, they accelerated the loss of the city's Victorian fabric.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Patton |first=Marcus |title=Central Belfast, A Historical Gazetteer |publisher=Ulster Architectural Heritage Society |year=1993 |isbn=0-900457-44-9 |location=Belfast |pages=xii }}</ref>

=== 21st century ===
Since the turn of the century, the loss of employment and population in the city centre has been reversed.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Peyronel |first=Valérie |date=2009 |title=Urban Regeneration in Belfast: Landscape and Memory |url=https://www.efacis.eu/sites/default/files/ISE%202_Olinder,%20Huber%20vol%20II-37-46.pdf |journal=Irish Studies in Europe |volume=2 |pages=37–46 |archive-date=18 January 2024 |access-date=18 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240118162514/https://www.efacis.eu/sites/default/files/ISE%202_Olinder%2C%20Huber%20vol%20II-37-46.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> This reflects the growth of the [[service economy]], for which a new district has been developed on former dockland, the [[Titanic Quarter]]. The growing tourism sector paradoxically lists as attractions the [[Murals in Northern Ireland|murals]] and peace walls that echo the violence of the past.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|350.352}} In recent years, "Troubles tourism"<ref name=":3" />{{rp|180–189}} has presented visitors with new territorial markers: flags, murals and graffiti in which [[Ulster loyalism|loyalists]] and [[Irish republicanism|republicans]] take opposing sides in the [[Israeli–Palestinian conflict|Israeli-Palestinian conflict]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=31 October 2023 |title=Flags and murals as N. Irish pick sides in Israel-Hamas war |url=https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20231031-flags-and-murals-as-n-irish-pick-sides-in-israel-hamas-war |access-date=23 January 2024 |website=France 24 }}</ref>

The demographic balance of some areas has been changed by immigration (according to the 2021 census just under 10% of the city's population was born outside the British Isles),<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency |url=https://www.nisra.gov.uk/system/files/statistics/census-2021-main-statistics-for-northern-ireland-phase-1-statistical-bulletin-country-of-birth.pdf |title=Census 2022: Main statistics for Northern Ireland, Statistical bulletin, Country of birth |year=2022 |location=Belfast |pages=7 |archive-date=22 September 2022 |access-date=18 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220922093436/https://www.nisra.gov.uk/system/files/statistics/census-2021-main-statistics-for-northern-ireland-phase-1-statistical-bulletin-country-of-birth.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> by local differences in births and deaths between Catholics and Protestants, and by a growing number of, particularly younger, people no longer willing to self-identify on traditional lines.<ref name=":2" />

In 1997, unionists lost overall control of [[Belfast City Council]] for the first time in its history. The election in 2011 saw Irish nationalist councillors outnumber unionist councillors, with [[Sinn Féin]] becoming the largest party, and the cross-community [[Alliance Party of Northern Ireland|Alliance Party]] holding the balance of power.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Belfast City Council, 1993–2011 |url=https://www.ark.ac.uk/elections/lgbelfast.htm |access-date=18 January 2024 |website=ark.ac.uk |archive-date=25 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180625115017/http://www.ark.ac.uk/elections/lgbelfast.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the [[2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum|2016 Brexit referendum]], Belfast's four parliamentary constituencies returned a substantial majority (60 percent) for remaining within the [[European Union]], as did Northern Ireland as a whole (55.8), the only [[UK regions|UK region]] outside London and Scotland to do so.<ref>{{Cite web |title=EU Referendum Results – BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/eu_referendum/results |access-date=25 January 2024 |website=bbc.co.uk |archive-date=10 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210110082319/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/eu_referendum/results |url-status=live }}</ref> In February 2022, the [[Democratic Unionist Party]], which had actively campaigned for Brexit, withdrew from the power-sharing executive and collapsed the Stormont institutions to protest the 2020 UK-EU [[Northern Ireland Protocol]]. With the promise of equal access to the British and European markets, this designates Belfast as a point of entry to the [[European single market|European Single Market]] within whose regulatory framework local producers will continue to operate.<ref>{{Cite web |last=O'Carroll |first=Lisa |date=3 February 2022 |title=Northern Ireland first minister resigns over Brexit checks on goods |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/feb/03/northern-ireland-first-minister-poised-to-quit-over-brexit-reports-say |access-date=15 May 2022 |website=the Guardian |archive-date=4 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220204042921/https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/feb/03/northern-ireland-first-minister-poised-to-quit-over-brexit-reports-say |url-status=live }}</ref> After two years, the standoff was resolved with an agreement to eliminate routine checks on UK-destined goods.<ref>{{Cite news |date=30 January 2024 |title=Northern Ireland: Stormont stage set for return of devolution |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-68136950 |access-date=31 January 2024 |work=BBC News |archive-date=30 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240130221810/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-68136950 |url-status=live }}</ref>