Belfast
Belfast names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Belfast a seaport and municipal and parliamentary borough of Ireland
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
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 a 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 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 wards, chemical works, rope works, etc. The commerce large. Some 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.
Belfast the chief commercial and manufacturing city of Ireland
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the chief commercial and manufacturing city of Ireland. It is situated at the head of a bay on the northeast coast of the island, and is nearer to Glasgow than to Liverpool. The country round about is strongly Protestant. Belfast is scarcely less Presbyterian than is Glasgow. It is situated on low ground made by the alluvial deposits of a small river. As late as 1612 it consisted of 120 mud huts thatched with straw, so that it did not have much the start of Boston. Its present population is about two-thirds as great as that of Boston. The country round about is productive, and insures the city a thriving trade. The region is noted for the production of a superior quality of flax, which has made Belfast the leading linen city of the world. Immense factories are engaged in flax spinning and in linen weaving. Oil mills, distilleries, flouring mills, shipyards, foundries, sawmills, printing offices, manufactories of felt and tobacco, and rope works add to the business interests of the city. Commercially it is the fifth city in the United Kingdom . The city is built of brick. The streets are spacious and well kept. Five bridges span the river. There are evidences of commercial thrift, churchgoing, and education on every hand, as well as signs of vagabondage and poverty; but the antiquities for which the tourist looks in a European city are wanting. There are several educational institutions including Queens' College and the Presbyterian Theological College. See Ireland ; Linen
Belfast city, port of entry
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
city, port of entry, and county-seat of Waldo co., Me.; at the head of Penobscot Bay, and on the Maine Central railroad; 30 miles from the ocean, and 132 miles N. E. of Portland. It has a fine harbor, a large domestic trade, and important manufactures. The most notable industry is shipbuilding, which was begun here in 1793. There are also a number of other industrial establishments. Belfast was settled in 1770; was invested by the British in 1815, and was given a city charter in 1853. Pop. (1910) 4,618; (1920) 5,083.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote in 1921 that Belfast "returns four members to Parliament," that Parliament was about to change: the partition of Ireland that year made Belfast the capital of Northern Ireland, with its own parliament opening in June 1921 and moving to Stormont in 1932. The two industries both accounts lead with have gone — linen spinning collapsed after the mid-twentieth century, and Harland & Wolff, which had launched the Titanic in 1911, stopped building ships in 2003 and went into administration in 2019, its cranes now a skyline landmark beside the Titanic Belfast museum opened in 2012. The "factional fights between Catholics and Protestants" of 1864, 1872 and 1886 that Collier's lists became the Troubles of 1968–1998, ended by the Good Friday Agreement; the German Blitz of April–May 1941 killed around 900 people in a single night's raid. The city's population, 393,000 in 1917, peaked around mid-century and now stands near 345,000 within the city boundary. Belfast, Maine, meanwhile, has grown only modestly, to roughly 7,000, and builds no ships.
Written for this edition, 2026.