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Belfast (Seaport and municipal)

a seaport and municipal and parliamentary borough of Ireland (in 1888 declared a city), principal town of Ulster, and county town of Antrim, built on low, alluvial land on the left bank of the Lagan, at the head of Belfast Lough. Ballymacarret, in county Down, on the right bank of the Lagan, D suburb. The chief Episcopal churches are St. Ann's, Trinity, and St.

George's, but the most magnificent is the Roman Catholic, St. Peter's. The chief educational institutions are Queen's College and the theological colleges of the Presbyterians and Methodists. Chief a public buildings include the town hall the county court house, the Commerical Buildings and Exchange, etc. In the suburbs are extensive public parks, and a botanic garden. Belfast Lough is about 12 miles long, and 6 miles broad at the entrance, gradually narrowing as it approaches the town. The harbor and dock accommodation is extensive.

Belfast is the center of the Irish linen trade, and has the majority of spinning mills and power loom factories in Ireland. Previous to about 1830 the cotton manufacture was the leading industry of Belfast. The shipbuilding trade is also of importance, and there are breweries, distilleries, flour mills, oil mills, foundries, print works, tan yards, chemical works, rope works, etc. The commerce is large. Some direct trade is carried on with British North America, the Mediterranean, France, Belgium, Holland, and the Baltic, besides the regular traffic with the principal ports of the British Islands. Belfast is comparatively a modern town, its prosperity dating from the introduction of the cotton trade in 1777. It has suffered severely at various times from factional fights betweeen Catholics and Protestants, the more serious having been in the years 1864, 1872, and 1886. It returns four members to Parliament. Pop. (1917) 393,000.