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The Belfast Blitz was the high-casualty German air raids on Belfast in April and May 1941 during World War II. The first was on the night of Easter Tuesday, 15 April 1941. Two hundred bombers of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) attacked the city of Belfast in Northern Ireland. Some 900 people died as a result of the bombing and 1,500 were injured. In terms of property damage, half of the houses in Belfast were damaged or destroyed. Outside of the city of London, this was the greatest loss of life in a night raid during the blitz.^[1][2] The second high casualty raid was on the night of Sunday 4 May 1941 when 150 were killed.

Background[link]

Belfast had an enviable engineering tradition. As the United Kingdom was preparing for the conflict, the factories and shipyards of Belfast were gearing up. Belfast made a considerable contribution towards the Allied war effort, producing many naval ships, aircraft and munitions; therefore, the city was deemed a suitable bombing target by the Luftwaffe.

Meanwhile, unlike Northern Ireland, the rest of Ireland was no longer part of the UK. The Free State had declared its neutrality during the Second World War. Although it arrested German spies that its police and military intelligence services caught, the state never broke off diplomatic relations with Axis nations: the German Legation in Dublin stayed open throughout the war.

Government[link]

The Government of Northern Ireland lacked the will, energy and capacity to cope with a major crisis when it came. James Craig, Lord Craigavon, who was Prime Minister of Northern Ireland since its inception in 1921, until his death on 24 November 1940, had become senile.^[3] Richard Dawson Bates, was the Home Affairs Minister. According to Sir Wilfred Spender, the cabinet secretary was "incapable of giving his responsible officers coherent directions on policy" – actually, he was drunk for most of each day. It appears that Sir Basil Brooke, the Minister of Agriculture, was the only active minister. He successfully busied himself with the task of making Northern Ireland a major supplier of food to Britain in her time of need.^[4]

John Clarke MacDermott, the Minister of Public Security, after the first bombing, initiated the “Hiram Plan” to evacuate the city and to return Belfast to 'normality' as quickly as possible. It was MacDermott who sent the telegram to de Valera seeking assistance. There was unease with the complacent attitude of the government, which led to resignations:

• John Edmond Warnock, the parliamentary secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs, resigned from the Northern Ireland government on 25 May 1940. He said "I have heard speeches about Ulster pulling her weight but they have never carried conviction." and "the government has been slack, dilatory and apathetic."
• Lt. Col. Alexander Robert Gisborne Gordon, Parliamentary and Financial Secretary at the Ministry of Finance (i.e. Chief Whip), resigned on 13 June 1940, explaining to the Commons that the government was "quite unfitted to sustain the people in the ordeal we have to face."

Lord Craigavon died on 24 November 1940. He was succeeded by John Miller Andrews, then 70 years old, who was no more capable of dealing with the situation than his predecessor. The minutes of his cabinet meetings show more discussion on protecting the bronze statue of Carson than the provision of air-raid shelters. On 28 April 1943, six members of the Government threatened to resign, forcing him from office. He resigned on 1 May.

Manufacturing facilities[link]

• Harland and Wolff was one of the largest shipbuilding yards in the world. Its yards constructed many ships for the Royal Navy, including aircraft carriers such as HMS Formidable and HMS Unicorn; the cruisers, HMS Belfast and the HMS Penelope as well as 131 other naval vessels. Up to 35,000 people were employed.^[5]
• During the war years, Belfast shipyards built or converted over 3,000 naval vessels, repaired more than 22,000 vessels and launched over half a million tons of merchant shipping - over 140 merchant vessels.
• Short Brothers manufactured aircraft. They are best known for the Short Sunderland flying boat and the Short Stirling long-range heavy bomber. Up to 20,000 people were employed. They were re-equipping as early as 1936 for the manufacture of 189 Handley Page Hereford bombers
• James Mackie & Sons were re-equipped in 1938. They were the primary supplier of Bofors anti-aircraft shells.
• Harland’s Engineering works built tanks. They designed the Churchill tank.
• Aero linen for covering aircraft, such as the Hawker Hurricane, and military glider frames was manufactured by a number of Belfast flax spinning mills, such as The York Street Flax Spinning Co.; Brookfield Spinning Co.; Wm. Ewart's Rosebank Weaving Co.; and the Linen Thread Co.
• Other Belfast factories manufactured gun mountings, ordnance pieces, aircraft parts and ammunition.

War materials and food were sent by sea from Belfast to Britain, some under the protection of the neutral Irish tricolour. The M.V. Munster, operated by the Belfast Steamship Company plied between Belfast and Liverpool under the tricolour, until she hit a mine and was sunk outside Liverpool.^[6]

Preparation[link]

Sir James Craig,
former Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. HMSO image

Government preparation[link]

There was little preparation for the conflict with Germany.^[7] However at the time James Craig, Lord Craigavon, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland since its inception in 1921, said: "Ulster is ready when we get the word and always will be." He was asked, in the N.I. parliament: "if the government realized 'that these fast bombers can come to Northern Ireland in two and three quarter hours". His reply was: “We here today are in a state of war and we are prepared with the rest of the United Kingdom and Empire to face all the responsibilities that imposes on the Ulster people. There is no slacking in our loyalty.”

Dawson Bates, the Home Affairs Minister, simply refused to reply to army correspondence and when the Ministry of Home Affairs was informed by imperial defence experts that Belfast was a certain Luftwaffe target, nothing was done.^[8]

Air-raid shelters[link]

Belfast, the city with the highest population density had the lowest proportion of air-raid shelters. Prior to the "Belfast Blitz" there were only 200 public shelters, although 4,000 households had built their own shelters. No searchlights were set up, as they only arrived on 10 April. There were no night-fighters. On the night of the raid, no RAF aircraft took to the air. There were only 22 anti-aircraft guns, six light, and sixteen heavy. On the night, only seven were operated for a short time. There was no smokescreen ability. There were some barrage balloons.

These air-raid shelters were Anderson shelters. They were just sheets of corrugated galvanised iron. Since most casualties were caused by falling masonry rather than by blast, they provided effective shelter for those who had them.

Children[link]

Unlike other British cities, few children had been evacuated. The "Hiram Plan" initiated by Dawson Bates, the Home Affairs Minister, had failed to materialise. Fewer than 4,000 women and children were evacuated. There were still 80,000 children in Belfast. Even the children of soldiers had not been evacuated, with calamitous results when the married quarters of Victoria Barracks received a direct hit.

German Preparation[link]

From papers recovered after the war, we know of a Luftwaffe reconnaissance flight over Belfast on 30 November 1940. The Germans established that Belfast was defended by only seven anti-aircraft batteries, which made it the most poorly defended city in the United Kingdom. From their photographs, they identified suitable targets:

• Harland and Wolff Ltd shipyard
• Die Tankstelle Conns Water
• Short and Harland aircraft factory
• The power station of Belfast
• Rank & Co mill
• Belfast waterworks
• Victoria Barracks

Earlier raids[link]

There had been a number of small bombings, probably by planes that missed their targets over the Clyde or the cities of the north-west of England.

On 24 March 1941, John MacDermott, Minister for Security, wrote to the Prime Minister, John Andrews expressing his concerns that Belfast was so poorly protected. "Up to now we have escaped attack. So had Clydeside until recently. Clydeside got its blitz during the period of the last moon. There [is] ground for thinking that the ... enemy could not easily reach Belfast in force except during a period of moonlight. The period of the next moon from say the 7th to the 16th of April may well bring our turn." Unfortunately, McDermott was proved right.

The first deliberate raid took place on the night of 7 April. (Some authors count this as the second raid of four). It targeted the docks. Neighbouring residential areas were also hit. Six Heinkel He 111 bombers, from Kampfgruppe 26, flying at 7,000 feet, dropped incendiaries, high explosive and parachute-bombs. By British blitz experience, casualties were light. Thirteen lost their lives, including a soldier killed when an anti-aircraft battery, at the Balmoral show-grounds, misfired. The most significant loss was a 4½ acre factory floor for manufacturing the fuselages of Short Stirling bombers. The Royal Air Force announced that Squadron Leader J. W.C. Simpson shot down one of the Heinkels over Downpatrick.

The Luftwaffe crews returned to their base in Northern France and reported that Belfast's defences were, "inferior in quality, scanty and insufficient".

The Easter Tuesday Blitz[link]

William Joyce (known as "Lord Haw-Haw") announced in radio broadcasts from Hamburg that there will be “Easter eggs for Belfast”.

Junkers Ju-88

On Easter Tuesday 15 April 1941, spectators watching a football match at Windsor Park noticed a lone Luftwaffe Junkers Ju-88 aircraft circling overhead.^[9] There was no military response. Distillery F.C. defeated Linfield F.C. by 3 goals to 1.

That evening up to 200 bombers left their bases in northern France and the Netherlands and headed for Belfast. There were Heinkel He 111s, Junkers Ju 88s and Dorniers.

At 10:40pm the air raid sirens sounded. Accounts differ as to when flares were dropped to light up the city. The first attack was against the city's waterworks, which had been attacked in the previous raid. High explosives were dropped. Initially it was thought that the Germans had mistaken this reservoir for the harbour and shipyards, where many ships, including HMS Ark Royal were being repaired. However that attack was not an error. Three vessels nearing completion at Harland and Wolff's were hit as was its power station. Wave after wave of bombers dropped their incendiaries, high explosives and land-mines. When incendiaries were dropped the city burned as water pressure was too low for firefighting.

Public buildings destroyed or badly damaged included Belfast City Hall's Banqueting Hall, the Ulster Hospital for Women and Children and Ballymacarrett library both on Templemore Avenue, Strand Public Elementary School, the LMS Railway Station and the adjacent Midland Hotel on York Road, and Salisbury Avenue Tram Depot.

Churches destroyed or wrecked included Macrory Memorial Presbyterian in Duncairn Gardens, Duncairn Methodist, Castleton Presbyterian on York Road, St Silas's on the Oldpark Road, St James's on the Antrim Road, Newington Presbyterian on Limestone Road, Crumlin Road Presbyterian, Holy Trinity on Clifton Street and Clifton Street Presbyterian, York Street Presbyterian and York Street Non-Subscribing Presbyterian, Newtownards Road Methodist, and Rosemary Street Prebyterian (not rebuilt).

Streets heavily bombed in the city centre included High Street, Anne Street, Callender Street, Chichester Street, Castle Street, Tomb Street, Bridge Street (effectively obliterated), Rosemary Street, Waring Street, North Street, Victoria Street, Donegall Street, York Street, Gloucester Street, and East Bridge Street.

In the east of the city, Westbourne and Newcastle Streets on the Newtownards Road, Thorndyke Street off the Albertbridge Road and Ravenscroft Avenue were bombed or destroyed.

In the west and north of the city, streets heavily bombed included Percy Street, York Park, York Crescent, Eglinton Street, Carlisle Street, Ballyclare, Ballycastle and Ballynure Streets off the Oldpark Road, Southport Street, Walton Street, Antrim Road, Annadale Street, Cliftonville Road, Hillman Street, Atlantic Avenue, Hallidays Road, Hughenden Avenue, Sunningdale Park, Shandarragh Park, and Whitewell Road. Burke Street, in the New Lodge area was wiped off the map with all its houses destroyed and most of the occupants killed.^[10]

There was no opposition. In the mistaken belief that they might damage RAF fighters, the seven anti-aircraft batteries ceased firing. But the RAF had not responded. The bombs continued to fall until 5 am.

Fifty-five thousand houses were damaged leaving 100,000 temporarily homeless. Outside of London, with some 900 dead, this was the greatest loss of life in a night raid during the Blitz.^[11] A stray bomber attacked Derry killing 15. Another attacked Bangor killing 5.

By 4 am the entire city seemed to be in flames. At 4:15 am MacDermott, the Minister of Public Security managed to contact Basil Brooke (then Agriculture Minister), seeking permission to seek help from the Éire Government. Brooke noted in his diary "I gave him authority as it is obviously a question of expediency". Since 1:45 am all telephones had been cut. Fortunately, the railway telegram from Belfast to Dublin was still operational. The telegram was sent at 4:35 am, asking the Irish Taoiseach, de Valera for assistance.

Human cost[link]

Over 900 lives were lost, 1,500 people were injured, 400 of them seriously. Fifty-thousand houses, more than half the houses in the city, were damaged. Eleven churches, two hospitals and two schools were destroyed. These figures are based on newspaper reports of the time, personal recollections and other primary sources, such as:-
Jimmy Doherty, an air raid warden (who later served in London during the V1 and V2 blitz), who wrote a book on the blitz;
Emma Duffin, a nurse at the Queen’s University Hospital, (who previously served during the Great War), who kept a diary;
and Major Seán O'Sullivan, who produced a detailed report for the Dublin government. There are other diarists and narratives. Dr. Brian Barton of Queen's University, Belfast has written most on this topic.

Instructions[link]

When the bombs fell, the population did not know what to do. There were few bomb shelters. An air raid shelter on the Hallidays Road received a direct hit killing all those taking shelter within it. Many people who were dug out of the rubble alive had taken shelter underneath their stairs and were fortunate enough that their homes had not received a direct hit or had even caught fire. The population did not know whether to run, hide or stay in their beds.

In the New Lodge area people had taken refuge in a mill, which presumably appeared to them to be a sturdy building. Tragically 35 were crushed to death when the mill wall collapsed. In another mill, the York Street Mill, one of its massive sidewalls collapsed on to Sussex and Vere Streets killing all those who still remained in their homes.

Major O'Sullivan reported "In the heavily ‘blitzed’ areas people ran panic-stricken into the streets and made for the open country. As many were caught in the open by blast and secondary missiles, the enormous number of casualties can be readily accounted for. It is perhaps true that many saved their lives running but I am afraid a much greater number lost them or became casualties."

That night almost 300 people, many from the Protestant Shankill, took refuge in the Clonard Monastery in the Catholic Falls Road area. The crypt under the sanctuary and the cellar under the working sacristy, had been fitted out and opened to the people, as an air-raid shelter. Prayers were said and hymns sung by the mainly Protestant women and children during the bombing.

Mortuary[link]

The mortuary services had emergency plans to deal with only 200 bodies. In the event, the public baths on the Falls Road and on Peter's Hill, and the large fruit market, Saint George's market, were used as mortuaries. One hundred and fifty corpses remained in the Falls Road baths for three days before they were buried in a mass grave, with 123 still unidentified. Two hundred and fifty-five corpses were laid out in St George's Market. Many bodies and body parts could not be identified.^[12] Mass graves for the unclaimed bodies were dug in the Milltown and City Cemeteries.

Nurse Emma Duffin[link]

Nurse Emma Duffin, who had served in the Great War, contrasted death in that conflict with what she saw:

“ (Great War casualties) had died in hospital beds, their eyes had been reverently closed, their hands crossed to their breasts. Death had to a certain extent been ... made decent. It was solemn, tragic, dignified, but here it was grotesque, repulsive, horrible. No attendant nurse had soothed the last moments of these victims; no gentle reverent hand had closed their eyes or crossed their hands. With tangled hair, staring eyes, clutching hands, contorted limbs, their grey-green faces covered with dust, they lay, bundled into the coffins, half-shrouded in rugs or blankets, or an occasional sheet, still wearing their dirty, torn twisted garments. Death should be dignified, peaceful; Hitler had made even death grotesque. I felt outraged, I should have felt sympathy, grief, but instead feelings of revulsion and disgust assailed me.”

Major Seán O'Sullivan[link]

Major Seán O'Sullivan reported^{[citation needed]} on the intensity of the bombing in some areas, such as the Antrim Road, where bombs “fell within fifteen to twenty yards of one another.” The most heavily-bombed area was that which lay between York Street and the Antrim Road, north of the city centre.

O'Sullivan felt that the whole civil defence sector was utterly overwhelmed. Heavy jacks were unavailable. He described some distressing consequences, such as how “in one case the leg and arm of a child had to be amputated before it could be extricated.”

In his opinion, the greatest want was the lack of hospital facilities. He went to the Mater Hospital at 2PM in the afternoon, 9 hours after the raid ended, to find the street with a traffic jam of ambulances waiting to admit their casualties. He spoke with Professor Flynn, (Theodore Thomson Flynn, an Australian based at the Mater Hospital and father of actor Errol Flynn), head of the casualty service for the city, who told him of "casualties due to shock, blast and secondary missiles, such as glass, stones, pieces of piping, etc." O'Sullivan reported: “There were many terrible mutilations among both living and dead - heads crushed, ghastly abdominal and face wounds, penetration by beams, mangled and crushed limbs etc”. His report concluded with: "a second Belfast would be too horrible to contemplate".^{[citation needed]}

Refugees[link]

Two hundred and twenty thousand people fled from the city. Many “arrived in Fermanagh having nothing with them only night shirts”. Ten thousand “officially” crossed the border. Over 500 received care from the Irish Red Cross in Dublin. The town of Dromara saw its population increase from 500 to 2,500. In Newtownards, Bangor, Larne, Carrickfergus, Lisburn and Antrim many thousands of Belfast citizens took refuge either with friends or strangers.

Major O'Sullivan reported on a

“continuous trek to railway stations. The refugees looked dazed and horror stricken and many had neglected to bring more than a few belongings” … “Any and every means of exit from the city was availed of and the final destination appeared to be a matter of indifference.

Train after train and bus after bus were filled with those next in line. At nightfall the Northern Counties Station was packed from platform gates to entrance gates and still refugees were coming along in a steady stream from the surrounding streets ... Open military lorries were finally put into service and even expectant mothers and mothers with young children were put into these in the rather heavy drizzle that lasted throughout the evening. On the 17th I heard that hundreds who either could not get away or could not leave for other reasons simply went out into the fields and remained in the open all night with whatever they could take in the way of covering.”

Moya Woodside noted in her diary: “Evacuation is taking on panic proportions. Roads out of town are still one stream of cars, with mattresses and bedding tied on top. Everything on wheels is being pressed into service. People are leaving from all parts of town and not only from the bombed areas. Where they are going, what they will find to eat when they get there, nobody knows.”

Dawson Bates informed the Cabinet of rack-renting of barns, and over thirty people per house in some areas.^[13]

Newspaper reaction[link]

The Irish Times editorial on 17 April:

"Humanity knows no borders, no politics, no differences of religious belief. Yesterday for once the people of Ireland were united under the shadow of a national blow. Has it taken bursting bombs to remind the people of this little country that they have common tradition, a common genius and a common home? Yesterday the hand of good-fellowship was reached across the Border. Men from the South worked with men from the North in the universal cause of the relief of suffering."

Aftermath[link]

Southern reaction[link]

By 6am, within two hours of the request for assistance, 71 firemen with 13 fire tenders from Dundalk, Drogheda, Dublin, and Dún Laoghaire were on their way to cross the Irish border to assist their Belfast colleagues. In each station volunteers were asked for, as it was beyond their normal duties. In every instance, all volunteered. They remained for three days, until they were sent back by the Northern Ireland government. By then 250 fire men from Clydeside had arrived.^[14]

Taoiseach Éamon de Valera formally protested to Berlin.^[15] He followed up with his "they are our people" speech, made in Castlebar, County Mayo, on Sunday 20 April 1941 (Quoted in the Dundalk Democrat dated Saturday 26 April 1941):

Frank Aiken, the Irish Minister for the Co-ordination of Defensive Measures was in Boston, Massachusetts at the time. He gave an interview^{[citation needed]} to the press there, saying: “the people of Belfast are Irish people too”.

German response[link]

Initial German radio broadcasts celebrated the raid. A Luftwaffe pilot gave this description "We were in exceptional good humour knowing that we were going for a new target, one of England's last hiding places. Wherever Churchill is hiding his war material we will go ... Belfast is as worthy a target as Coventry, Birmingham, Bristol or Glasgow." William Joyce "Lord Haw-Haw" announced that "The Führer will give you time to bury your dead before the next attack ... Tuesday was only a sample."

However Belfast was not mentioned again by the Nazis. After the war, instructions from Joseph Goebbels were discovered ordering it not to be mentioned. It would appear that Adolf Hitler, in view of de Valera's negative reaction, was concerned that de Valera and Irish American politicians might encourage the United States to enter the war.^{[citation needed]}

Eduard Hempel, the German Minister called to the Irish Ministry for External Affairs, to offer sympathy and attempt an explanation. J.P. Walshe, assistant secretary, recorded that the German was "clearly distressed by the news of the severe raid on Belfast and especially of the number of civilian casualties." He stated that "he would once more tell his government how he felt about the matter and he would ask them to confine the operations to military objectives as far as it was humanly possible. He believed that this was being done already but it was inevitable that a certain number of civilian lives should be lost in the course of heavy bombing from the air".

Recriminations[link]

Among the people of Northern Ireland, reactions tended to blame their government for inadequate precautions. Tommy Henderson, an Independent Unionist MP in the House of Commons of Northern Ireland, summed up their feelings when he invited the Minister of Home Affairs to Hannahstown and the Falls Road, saying "The Catholics and the Protestants are going up there mixed and they are talking to one another. They are sleeping in the same sheugh (ditch), below the same tree or in the same barn. They all say the same thing, that the government is no good."

One widespread criticism was that the Germans located Belfast by heading for Dublin, which was not observing a blackout and following the railway lines north. In The Blitz: Belfast in the war years, Dr Brian Barton wrote: "Government Ministers felt with justification, that the Germans were able to use the unblacked out lights in the south to guide them to their targets in the North." Barton insisted that Belfast was "too far north" to use radio guidance.

Other writers, such as Tony Gray in The Lost Years state that the Germans did follow their radio guidance beams. Several accounts point out that Belfast, standing at the end of the long inlet of Belfast Lough, would be easily located.

Another claim was that the Catholic population in general and the IRA in particular guided the bombers. Dr Barton wrote: "the Catholic population was much more strongly opposed to conscription, was inclined to sympathise with Germany", "...there were suspicions that the Germans were assisted in identifying targets, held by the Unionist population.

This view was probably influenced by the decision of the IRA Army Council to support Germany. However they were not in a position to communicate with the Germans. Information recovered from Germany after the war showed that the planning of the blitz was based entirely on their own aerial reconnaissance.

Firemen return south[link]

After three days, sometime after 6pm the fire crews from south of the border began making up their hose and ladders to head for home. By then most of the major fires were under control and the firemen from Clydeside and other British cities were arriving. Some had received food, others were famished. All were exhausted. Two of the crews received refreshments in Banbridge; others were entertained in the Ancient Order of Hibernians hall in Newry.

In 1995 on the fiftieth anniversary of the ending of the Second World War an invitation was received by the Dublin Fire Brigade for any survivors of that time to attend a function at Hillsborough Castle and meet Prince Charles. Only four were known still to be alive, and one, Tom Coleman, attended to receive recognition for his colleagues' solidarity at such a critical time.

Second major raid[link]

There was a second massive air raid on Belfast on Sunday 4/5th May 1941, three weeks after that on Easter Tuesday. Around 1am, Luftwaffe bombers flew over the city concentrating their attack on the Harbour Estate and Queen's Island. Nearby residential areas in east Belfast were also hit when "203 metric tonnes of high explosive bombs, 80 land mines attached to parachutes, and 800 firebomb canisters containing 96,000 incendiary bombs"^[10] were dropped. Over 150 people lost their lives in what became known as the Fire Blitz. Casualties were lower partly because the sirens had sounded at 11.45 pm while the Luftwaffe more cautiously attacked from a greater height. St George's Church in High Street was damaged by fire.

Again the Irish emergency services crossed the border, this time without waiting for an invitation. On 31 May 1941 German bombers bombed neutral Dublin in error.

See also[link]

• The Blitz
• Aerial bombing of cities
• Harland and Wolff
• Belfast
• The Emergency
• Bombing of Dublin in World War II
• Ulster Defence Volunteers

References[link]

• Barton, Brian (1989). The Blitz: Belfast in the war years. The Universities Press Ltd. ISBN 0-85640-426-8. 
• Barton, Brian (1995). Northern Ireland in the Second World War. Ulster Historical Foundation. ISBN 978-0-901905-69-7. 
• R.S. Davison, ‘The Belfast Blitz’, The Irish Sword, Vol. XVI, No.63 (1985)
• R. Fisk, In Time of War: Ireland, Ulster and the price of neutrality 1939-45 (Dublin 1983).
• Tony Gray, The Lost Years: The Emergency in Ireland 1939-1945. ISBN 0-7515-2333-X
• Brian Moore, Emperor of Ice Cream novel set in the Belfast Blitz.
• Wills, Clair (2007). That Neutral Island. Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-22105-9. 
• Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Historical Topics Series 2, The Belfast Blitz, 2007, http://www.proni.gov.uk/historical_topics_series_-_02_-_the_belfast_blitz.pdf

External links[link]

• History Ireland
• BBC
• Extracts from an article on The Belfast Blitz, 1941. By Jonathan Bardon. Lecturer of History, Queens University, Belfast
  Account of the Belfast Blitz from a history of "THE DUBLIN FIRE BRIGADE." By Tom Geraghty & Trevor Whitehead.
• Clydeside's Ordeal by Fire by M. Chadwick
• The Government of Northern Ireland
• Second World War NI (Learning resources from Museums Service, Public Records Office and others.)

Coordinates: 54°35′49″N 5°55′48″W / 54.597°N 5.930°W / 54.597; -5.930

Belfast
Irish: Béal Feirste
Top: Belfast skyline, Middle: Ulster Museum, Victoria Square, Great Victoria Street, Albert Clock, Bottom Belfast City Hall, Harland & Wolff
Belfast shown within Northern Ireland
Area	44.4 sq mi (115 km2)
Population	City of Belfast: 267,500[1]  Urban area: 483,418[2] Metropolitan area: 641,638[3]
Irish grid reference	J338740
District	City of Belfast
County	County Antrim County Down
Country	Northern Ireland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BELFAST
Postcode district	BT1–BT17, BT29 (part), BT36 (part), BT58
Dialling code	028
Police	Northern Ireland
Fire	Northern Ireland
Ambulance	Northern Ireland
EU Parliament	Northern Ireland
UK Parliament	Belfast North Belfast South Belfast East Belfast West
NI Assembly	Belfast North Belfast South Belfast East Belfast West
Website	www.belfastcity.gov.uk
List of places: UK • Northern Ireland •

Belfast (from Irish: Béal Feirste, meaning "mouth of the shoal")^[10] is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the fourteenth largest city in the United Kingdom^[11] and second largest on the island of Ireland. It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly.^[12] The city of Belfast has a population of 267,500^[1] and lies at the heart of the Belfast urban area, which has a population of 579,276. The Larger Urban Zone, as defined by the European Union, has a total population 641,638. Belfast was granted city status in 1888.

Historically, Belfast has been a centre for the Irish linen industry (earning the nickname "Linenopolis"), tobacco production, rope-making and shipbuilding: the city's main shipbuilders, Harland and Wolff, which built the well-known RMS Titanic, propelled Belfast on to the global stage in the early 20th century as the biggest and most productive shipyard in the world. Belfast played a key role in the Industrial Revolution, establishing its place as a global industrial centre until the latter half of the 20th century. Industrialisation and the inward migration it brought made Belfast, if briefly, the biggest city in Ireland at the turn of the 20th century and the city's industrial and economic success was cited by Ulster unionist opponents of Home Rule as a reason why Ireland should shun devolution and later why Ulster in particular would fight to resist it.

Today, Belfast remains a centre for industry, as well as the arts, higher education and business, a legal centre, and is the economic engine of Northern Ireland. The city suffered greatly during the period of conflict called the Troubles, but latterly has undergone a sustained period of calm, free from the intense political violence of former years, and substantial economic and commercial growth. Belfast city centre has undergone considerable expansion and regeneration in recent years, notably around Victoria Square. Belfast is served by two airports: George Best Belfast City Airport in the city, and Belfast International Airport 15 miles (24 km) west of the city. Belfast is also a major seaport, with commercial and industrial docks dominating the Belfast Lough shoreline, including the famous Harland and Wolff shipyard. Belfast is a constituent city of the Dublin-Belfast corridor, which has a population of three million, or half the total population of the island of Ireland.

Name[link]

The name Belfast is derived from the Irish Béal Feirsde, which was later spelled Béal Feirste.^[13] The word béal means "mouth" or "rivermouth" while feirsde/feirste is the genitive singular of fearsaid and refers to a sandbar or tidal ford across a river's mouth.^[14][15] The name would thus translate literally as "(river)mouth of the sandbar" or "(river)mouth of the ford".^[14] This sandbar was formed at the confluence of two rivers at what is now Donegall Quay: the Lagan, which flows into Belfast Lough, and its tributary the Farset. This area was the hub around which the original settlement developed.^[16] The Irish name Béal Feirste is shared by a townland in County Mayo, whose name has been anglicised as Belfarsad.^[17]

An alternative interpretation of the name is "mouth of [the river] of the sandbar", an allusion to the River Farset, which flows into the Lagan where the sandbar was located. This interpretation was favoured by Edmund Hogan and John O'Donovan.^[18] It seems clear, however, that the river itself was also named after the tidal crossing.^[14]

In Ulster Scots the name of the city is Bilfawst^[19][20] or Bilfaust,^[21] although "Belfast" is also used.^[22][23]

History[link]

Although the county borough of Belfast was created when it was granted city status by Queen Victoria in 1888,^[24] the city continues to be viewed as straddling County Antrim and County Down.^[25]

Origins[link]

Belfast Castle

The site of Belfast has been occupied since the Bronze Age. The Giant's Ring, a 5,000-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, Cloinne Aodha Buidhe, descendants of Aodh Buidhe O'Neill built Grey Castle at Castlereagh, now in the east of the city.^[26] Conn O'Neill of the Clannaboy O'Neills owned vast lands in the area and was the last inhabitant of Grey Castle, one remaining link being the Conn's Water river flowing through east Belfast.^[27]

Growth[link]

Belfast, looking eastward from Black Mountain

Belfast became a substantial settlement in the 17th century after being established as a town by Sir Arthur Chichester, which was initially settled by Protestant English and Scottish migrants at the time of the Plantation of Ulster. (Belfast and County Antrim, however, did not form part of this particular Plantation scheme as they were privately colonised.) 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". Evidence of this period of Belfast's growth can still be seen in the oldest areas of the city, known as the Entries.

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 19th century, Belfast briefly overtook Dublin as the largest city in Ireland. The Harland and Wolff shipyards became one of the largest shipbuilders in the world, employing up to 35,000 workers.^[28] In 1886 the city suffered intense riots over the issue of home rule, which had divided the city.

In 1920–22, Belfast became the capital of the new entity of Northern Ireland as the island of Ireland was partitioned. The accompanying conflict (the Irish War of Independence) cost up to 500 lives in Belfast, the bloodiest sectarian strife in the city until the Troubles of the late 1960s onwards.^[29]

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. Apart from London, this was the greatest loss of life in a night raid during the Blitz.^[30]

The Troubles[link]

Belfast has been the capital of Northern Ireland since its establishment in 1921 following the Government of Ireland Act 1920. It had been the scene of various episodes of sectarian conflict between its Roman Catholic and Protestant populations. These opposing groups in this conflict are now often termed republican and loyalist respectively, although they are also referred to as 'nationalist' and 'unionist'. The most recent example of this conflict was known as the Troubles – a civil conflict that raged from around 1969 to the late 1990s. Belfast saw some of the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, particularly in the 1970s, with rival paramilitary groups formed on both sides. Bombing, assassination and street violence formed a backdrop to life throughout the Troubles. The Provisional IRA detonated 22 bombs within the confines of Belfast city centre in 1972, on what is known as "Bloody Friday", killing nine people. Loyalist paramilitaries including the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) claimed that the killings they carried out were in retaliation for the IRA campaign. Most of their victims were Roman Catholics with no links to the Provisional IRA.^[31] 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.^[32] Part of the legacy of the Troubles is that both republican and loyalist paramilitary groups in Belfast have become involved in organised crime and racketeering^{[citation needed]}.

Government[link]

Belfast was granted borough status by James I in 1613 and official city status by Queen Victoria in 1888.^[33] Since 1973 it has been a local government district under local administration by Belfast City Council.^[34] 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.

Local government[link]

Belfast City Hall.

Belfast City Council is the local authority with responsibility for the city. The city's elected officials are the Lord Mayor of Belfast, Deputy Lord Mayor and High Sheriff who are elected from among 51 councillors. The first Lord Mayor of Belfast was Daniel Dixon, who was elected in 1892.^[35] The current Lord Mayor is Niall Ó Donnghaile of Sinn Féin, while the Deputy Lord Mayor is Ruth Patterson of the Democratic Unionist Party, both of whom were elected in May 2011 to serve a one year term. The Lord Mayor's duties 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.^[35]

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 three subsequent council elections, with mayors from Nationalist Sinn Féin and Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), and the cross-community Alliance Party regularly elected since. The first nationalist Lord Mayor of Belfast was Alban Maginness of the SDLP, in 1997.

The last elections to Belfast City Council were held on 5 May 2011, with the City's voters electing fifty-one councillors across nine district electoral areas. The election saw Nationalist councillors outnumber Unionist councillors for the first time, with Sinn Féin becoming the largest party: 16(+2) Sinn Féin, 15(-) Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), 8(-) SDLP, 6(+2) Alliance Party, 3(-4) Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), 2 Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), and 1 Independent (a former deputy mayor who takes the UUP whip was a member of the defunct loyalist paramilitary linked-Ulster Democratic Party).^[36]

The Parliament Buildings at Stormont. Built in 1932 and home to the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Northern Ireland Assembly and Westminster[link]

As Northern Ireland's capital city, Belfast is host to the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont, the site of the devolved legislature for 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 to include 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 DUP, 4 SDLP, 3 UUP, 2 Alliance Party, and 1 PUP.^[37] In the 2005 UK general election, Belfast elected one MP from each constituency to the House of Commons at Westminster, London. This comprised 1 DUP, 1 SDLP, 1 Alliance and 1 Sinn Féin.^[38]

Coat of arms and motto[link]

The city of Belfast has the Latin motto "Pro tanto quid retribuamus." This is taken from Psalm 116 Verse 12 in the Latin Vulgate Bible and is literally "For (Pro) so much (tanto) what (quid) we shall repay (retribuamus)" The verse has been translated in bibles differently – for example as "What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?".^[39] It is also translated as "In return for so much, what shall we give back?"^[40] The Queen's University Students' Union Rag Week publication PTQ derives its name from the first three words of the motto.

The coat of arms of the city are blazoned as Party per fesse argent and azure, in chief a pile vair and on a canton gules a bell argent, in base a ship with sails set argent on waves of the sea proper. This heraldic language describes a shield that is divided in two horizontally (party per fesse). The top (chief) of the shield is silver (argent), and has a point-down triangle (a pile) with a repeating blue-and-white pattern that represents fur (vair). There is also a red square in the top corner (a canton gules) on which there is a silver bell. It is likely that the bell is an example here of "canting" (or punning) heraldry, representing the first syllable of Belfast. In the lower part of the shield (in base) there is a silver sailing ship shown sailing on waves coloured in the actual colours of the sea (proper). The supporter on the "dexter" side (that is, the viewer's left) is a chained wolf, while on the "sinister" side the supporter is a sea-horse. The crest above the shield is also a sea-horse. These arms date back to 1613, when King James I granted Belfast town status. The seal was used by Belfast merchants throughout the 17th century on their signs and trade-coins.^[41] A large stained glass window in the City Hall displays the arms, 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.^[41]

Geography[link]

Cavehill, a basaltic hill overlooking the city.

The River Lagan in Belfast.

The city is flanked to the northwest by a series of hills, including Cavehill. 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 1911/1912, Harland and Wolff had the largest shipyard in the world.^[42] Belfast is situated on Northern Ireland's eastern coast at 54°35′49″N 05°55′45″W / 54.59694°N 5.92917°W / 54.59694; -5.92917. 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.^[43]

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 name^[44] (from Irish: Béal Feirste meaning "The sandy ford at the river mouth").^[15] The area of Belfast Local Government District is 42.3 square miles (110 km²).^[45]

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.^[46] Superseded by the River Lagan as the more important river in the city, the Farset now languishes in obscurity, under High Street. There are no less than eleven other minor rivers in and around Belfast, namely the Blackstaff, the Colin, the Connswater, the Cregagh, the Derriaghy, the Forth, the Knock, the Legoniel, the Milewater, the Purdysburn and the Ravernet.^[47]

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.^[48] 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 17th century chieftain who controlled the area at that time.^[49] 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 seas, and undermined by deposits of history".

Climate[link]

As with all of the British Isles, Belfast has a temperate climate, with a narrow range of temperatures, often windy conditions, and rainfall throughout the year. There are currently 5 weather observing stations in the Belfast area: Helens Bay, Stormont, Newforge, Castlereagh, and Ravenhill Road. Slightly further afield is Aldergrove Airport.^[50]

The highest temperature recorded at any official weather station in the Belfast area was 30.8 °C (87.4 °F) at Shaws Bridge on 12 July 1983.^[51] This is also the highest temperature recorded across Northern Ireland. Belfast also holds the record for Northern Ireland's warmest night time minimum, 19.6 °C (67.3 °F) at Whitehouse on 14 August 2001.^[52]

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 846 millimetres (33.3 in),^[53] less than the Lake District or the Scottish Highlands,^[51] but higher than Dublin or the south-east coast of Ireland.^[54] As an urban and coastal area, Belfast typically gets snow on fewer than 10 days per year.^[51] The city is also renowned for how mild it is during the winter months despite its high latitude.

The absolute maximum temperature at the weather station at Stormont is 29.7 °C (85.5 °F), set during July 1983.^[55] In an average year the warmest day will rise to a temperature of 24.4 °C (75.9 °F)^[56] with a day of 25.1 °C (77.2 °F) or above occurring roughly once every two in three years.^[57]

The absolute minimum temperature at Stormont is −9.9 °C (14.2 °F), during January 1982,^[58] although in an average year the coldest night will fall no lower than −4.5 °C (23.9 °F) with air frost being recorded on just 26 nights.^[59] The lowest temperature to occur in recent years was −8.8 on 22 December 2010.^[60]

The nearest weather station for which sunshine data and longer term observations are available is Belfast International Airport (Aldergrove). Perhaps not surprisingly, temperature extremes here have slightly more variability due to the more inland location. The average warmest day at Aldergrove for example will reach a temperature of 25.4 °C (77.7 °F),^[62] (1.0 celsius higher than Stormont) and 2.1 days^[63] should attain a temperature of 25.1 °C (77.2 °F) or above in total. Conversely the coldest night of the year averages −6.6 °C (20.1 °F)^[64] (or 1.9 celius lower the Stormont) and 39 nights should register an air frost.^[65] -Some 13 more frosty nights than Stormont. The minimum temperature at Aldergrove is −14.2 °C (6.4 °F), during December 2010.

Areas and districts[link]

View of Belfast from The Ashby Building, part of QUB. The David Keir Building of Queen's University is in the foreground. The orange façade of Belfast City Hospital is visible in the centre background, with the city's second tallest building Windsor House in the right background.

Drydock of the Titanic

Belfast expanded very rapidly from being a market town to becoming an industrial city during the course of the 19th 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. Belfast remains segregated by walls, commonly known as "peace lines", erected by the British Army after August 1969, and which still divide 14 districts in the inner city.^[66] In 2008 a process was proposed for the removal of the 'peace walls'.^[67] In June 2007, a £16 million programme was announced which will transform and redevelop streets and public spaces in the city centre.^[68] Major arterial roads (quality bus corridor) 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.^[69]

Belfast city centre is divided into two postcode districts, BT1 for the area lying north of the City Hall, and BT2 for the area to its south. The industrial estate and docklands BT3. The rest of the Belfast post town is divided in a broadly clockwise system from BT3 in the north-east round to BT15, with BT16 and BT17 further out to the east and west respectively. Although BT derives from Belfast, the BT postcode area extends across the whole of Northern Ireland.^[70]

Since 2001, boosted by increasing numbers of tourists, the city council 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.^[71] It hosts a yearly visual and performing arts festival.

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.^[72] The Queen's Quarter in south Belfast is named after Queen's 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, which was reopened in 2009 after major redevelopment.^[73] The Golden Mile is the name given to the mile between Belfast City Hall and Queen's University. Taking in Dublin Road, Great Victoria Street, Shaftesbury Square and Bradbury Place, it contains some of the best bars and restaurants in the city.^[74] Since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, the nearby Lisburn Road has developed into the city's most exclusive shopping strip.^[75][76] Finally, the Titanic Quarter covers 0.75 km² (0 sq mi) of reclaimed land adjacent to Belfast Harbour, formerly known as Queen's Island. Named after RMS Titanic, which was built here in 1912,^[42] work has begun which promises to transform some former shipyard land into "one of the largest waterfront developments in Europe".^[77] Plans also include apartments, a riverside entertainment district, and a major Titanic-themed museum.^[77]

Cityscape[link]

Architecture[link]

The architectural style of Belfast's buildings range from Edwardian, like the City Hall, to modern, like Waterfront Hall. Many of the city's Victorian landmarks, including the main Lanyon Building at Queen's University Belfast and the Linenhall Library, were designed by Sir Charles Lanyon.

The City Hall was finished in 1906 and was built to reflect Belfast's city status, granted by Queen Victoria in 1888. The Edwardian architectural influenced the Victoria Memorial in Calcutta, India, and Durban City Hall in South Africa.^[78][79] The dome is 173 ft (53 m) high and figures above the door state "Hibernia encouraging and promoting the Commerce and Arts of the City".^[80] Among the city's grandest buildings are two former banks: Ulster Bank in Waring Street (built in 1860) and Northern Bank, in nearby Donegall Street (built in 1769). The Royal Courts of Justice in Chichester Street are home to Northern Ireland's Supreme Court. Many of Belfast's oldest buildings are found in the Cathedral Quarter area, which is currently undergoing redevelopment as the city's main cultural and tourist area.^[71] Windsor House, 262 ft (80 m) high, has 23 floors and is the second tallest building (as distinct from structure) in Ireland.^[81] Work has started on the taller Obel Tower, which already surpasses the height of Windsor House in its unfinished state. In 2007, plans were approved for the Aurora building. At 37 storeys and 358 ft (109 m) high, this will surpass both previous buildings.^[82]

Belfast Skyline at dusk

The ornately decorated Crown Liquor Saloon, designed by Joseph Anderson in 1876, in Great Victoria Street is the only bar in the UK owned by the National Trust. It was made internationally famous as the setting for the classic film, Odd Man Out, starring James Mason.^[83] The restaurant panels in the Crown Bar were originally made for Britannic, the sister ship of the Titanic,^[80] built in Belfast. The Harland and Wolff shipyard is now the location of the world's largest dry dock,^[84] where the giant cranes, Samson and Goliath stand out against Belfast's skyline. Including the Waterfront Hall and the Odyssey Arena, Belfast has several other venues for performing arts. The architecture of the Grand Opera House has a distinctly oriental theme and was completed in 1895. It was bombed several times during the Troubles but has now been restored to its former glory.^[85] The Lyric Theatre, (re-opened 1 May 2011 after undergoing a rebuilding programme) the only full-time producing theatre in the country, is where film star Liam Neeson began his career.^[86] The Ulster Hall (1859–1862) was originally designed for grand dances but is now used primarily as a concert and sporting venue. Lloyd George, Parnell and Patrick Pearse all attended political rallies there.^[80]