Бельфаст: История и Развитие Города

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Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland, and throughout its modern history has been a major commercial and industrial centre. In the late 20th century manufacturing industries that had existed for several centuries declined, particularly shipbuilding. The city's history has occasionally seen conflict between different political factions who favour different political arrangements between Ireland and Great Britain. Since the Good Friday Agreement, the city has been relatively peaceful and major redevelopment has occurred, especially in the inner city and dock areas.

The first permanent settlements were built in the Iron Age. The Giant's Ring, a 5,000 year old henge, is located near the city, and evidence of Bronze and Iron Age occupation has been found in the surrounding hills. For example, McArt's Fort, an Iron Age hill fort, sits atop Cavehill north of the city. based around the marshy ford where the River Lagan intersects with the River Farset (the location of High Street and Victoria Street today). Belfast's name is the anglicised version of the old Irish Beal Feirste meaning "mouth of the Farset". Belfast was part of the kingdom of Dál Riata from around 500 AD to the late 700s. The Ford of Belfast existed as early as 665 AD, when a battle was recorded as being fought at the site. St. George's Church of Ireland is built on the site of an ancient chapel that was used by pilgrims who were crossing the rivers. The earliest mention of the Chapel of the Ford is in the papal taxation rolls of 1306.

In 1177, during the Norman invasion of Ireland, John de Courcy acquired land in eastern Ulster that included the small village of Belfast. To consolidate his power over the area, de Courcy ordered fortifications to be built in Belfast as well as nearby Carrickfergus resulting in the eventual construction of Belfast Castle and Carrickfergus Castle. The original site of Belfast Castle was roughly where modern day Castle Place and High Street meet in Belfast city centre. The castle was attacked, recovered, destroyed and rebuilt many times. As part of his campaign to establish himself as king of Scotland, Robert Bruce plotted with his brother Edward Bruce to invade Ulster in an attempt to divert English military resources there. Edward landed at Carrickfergus in 1315 and took the town and, eventually, its castle. Some of Ulster's lords and chieftains, including the Earl of Ulster (leader of the O'Neill dynasty and father in law to Robert the Bruce) welcomed the invasion and paid homage to Edward, pledging their fealty to him and giving him the hollow title of King of Ireland. Edward laid siege to Belfast Castle that year and later destroyed it. Edward's bid to become King of Ireland slowly unravelled as a famine weakened his army. His campaign ultimately ended when he was killed in the Battle of Faughart in 1318. A new building was erected on the site of Belfast Castle, only to be dismantled in 1503 by Gerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, then Lord Deputy of Ireland. A new structure was then built by the local people, which Lord Kildare destroyed in 1512. Archaeological excavations inside the former Woolworths building beside Castle Place have discovered a "gully trench" whose lowest strata contains medieval pottery. This provided some of the first physical evidence for dating the medieval occupation of the town. Timbers were recovered from the Ann Street end of the building which were dated to the 16th century. Until the late 16th century most of the land surrounding Belfast was in the hands of the O'Neill clan, led by Brian McPhelim O'Neill. In 1571, during the Enterprise of Ulster, this land was granted to Sir Thomas Smith by Queen Elizabeth I. Over time, Smith would fail fulfill the requirements of his grant by not subduing the area and the land later reverted to the Crown under James I. The 1st Earl of Essex pledged to Elizabeth that he would conquer parts of Ulster at his own expense. In 1573, he set out on his expedition from Liverpool, only to have his convoy get caught in a storm off the coast of Ireland and disperse. Lord Essex was forced to spend the winter in Belfast. In October 1574, Essex lured Sir Brian MacPhelim and his entourage (including his wife) under the pretense of negotiations and a feast in MacPhelim's honour at Belfast Castle. Essex then had MacPhelim's retainers killed and took MacPhelim, his wife and his brother into custody, sending them to Dublin where they were later executed. In 1597, during the Nine Years' War, the English garrison posted at Belfast Castle was captured and killed by Ulster rebels. The castle, village and surrounding Lagan Valley were all devastated during the rebellion.

In 1603, after the rebellion, Gaelic chieftain Conn O'Neill (son of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone) was holding a Christmas feast at his stronghold of Castlereagh. After three days of revelry, he and his guests ran out of wine and he ordered his men into the village of Belfast to steal more drink. O'Neill's men got into a quarrel then skirmished with English soldiers en route, killing one of them. O'Neill was subsequently arrested for "making war against the Queen's soldiers" and thrown into a dungeon at Carrickfergus Castle. O'Neill was then sentenced to death for the wine incident. A secret agreement between O'Neill, Richard Hamilton and Hugh Montgomery, a Scottish lord, saw O'Neill escape from imprisonment. Hamilton seduced the daughter of O'Neill's jailer and Montgomery had Lady O'Neill smuggle in rope inside a large cheese wheel. O'Neill then used the rope to escape down the sea cliff side of the castle, where a boat was waiting. Impressed by his daring, the newly crowned King James I offered O'Neill a pardon on condition he honour his terms with the Scottish lords who helped him escape and divide his lands in Ulster between himself, Montgomery and Hamilton. O'Neill kept the land Belfast was on. Montgomery, in turn, encouraged the migration of common people from Scotland to Ulster. When King James became aware of this popular movement, he officially involved the monarchy. James decided to make the already occurring human migration royal policy and escalated its pace and scale. In 1605, Sir Arthur Chichester was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland by James I. He was already serving as Governor of Carrickfergus in 1598 after his brother, Sir John Chichester, was killed in the Battle of Carrickfergus. Chichester was later granted lands that included Carrickfergus, Belfast and the Lagan Valley. Belfast was still a small village (with one inn) that had been affected by the Nine Years' War. At that time, Belfast consisted mostly of Scots, English and Manx who lived in timber houses. Chichester was determined to transform the village into a proper town and set about finding ways to develop the area. He brought masons and smiths over from Britain and ordered the firing of over a million bricks for new construction. James granted Irish lands and titles to those who were loyal to him in Britain as well as to the loyal Gaelic lords he deemed "worthy" in Ireland. In 1611, Chichester replaced the old castle with one made of stone and timber, built on the same spot as the previous fortifications. This was the final version of Belfast Castle on the original site; the building was destroyed by fire on 25 April 1708. Instead of building yet another structure at this location, a new stone mansion was constructed on Cave Hill in north Belfast in 1870 and dubbed Belfast Castle. This modern, off site version of the castle still stands today and is a popular tourist attraction. Belfast Castle is situated by the entrance to the Cave Hill hiking trails and is often used as a venue for weddings and other formal occasions. In recognition of his efforts, King James formally granted the town of Belfast and its castle, together with some large estates, to Chichester creating Baron Chichester by letters patent. The new importance of Belfast was demonstrated in 1613 when the town was constituted a corporation of a sovereign, with twelve burgesses and a commonalty, which included the privilege of sending two representatives to Parliament. The first sovereign appointed in Belfast was Thomas Vesey, and the first representatives sent to parliament were Sir John Blennerhasset, Baron of the Exchequer, and George Trevillian. and the 1612 patent styles it as a town, or village.|group="NB" Thomas Wentworth, then Lord Deputy of Ireland, purchased the Carrickfergus trade monopolies (namely, paying one third of the import duty paid by other locations in the kingdom) and endowed them to Belfast. The customs house was also moved to Belfast around this time. With the relocation of the Customs House, trade was effectively redirected to Belfast at the expense of Carrickfergus. The clergy present argued back that they found the Book of Common Prayer and other practices too close to Roman Catholicism and "pope ish" in nature. Many ministers who refused to implement the Bishop's measures would later attempt to find religious freedom in the American Colonies, though some were turned back to Scotland by a storm near Newfoundland. As result, relations gradually worsened between common Ulster Scots people and their Gaelic Irish neighbours. contributing to what became known as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Belfast was saved when the insurgents were driven back from Lisburn. For their further protection, the town's Presbyterians looked, not to the new parliamentarian regime in England, but rather to Scotland whose parliament still acknowledged the House of Stuart. In 1644, the town was occupied Scottish army under Robert Monro that in battling the rebels laid waste to much of Antrim and Down. In 1649, the Belfast Presbytery was sufficiently emboldened to rebuke the government in London for violating its Solemn League and Covenant with the Scots and for executing the king. It drew upon Belfast, whose "obscurity" til then had never came to his "hearing", the vitriol of John Milton. Outraged that these "false prophets" and "unhallowed priestlings" should defy "the sovereign majesty of England", Milton denounced the Scottish residents of the town as "ungrateful and treacherous guests". On 30 September 1649, after four days resistance, Belfast fell to an English army under Oliver Cromwell's lieutenant, Robert Venables. He briefly considered sending the town's Scottish and Presbyterian residents into permanent exile. Many of the Scottish soldiers later settled in Belfast, which enjoyed relative peace and prosperity following the Stuart Restoration.

By 1667, Belfast was producing half of Ireland's supply of butter, which was heavily used by the Irish people. Butter also sold at a premium in Europe, with the Dutch paying the highest prices and the French ordering the largest quantities. During the Williamite War in Ireland, Belfast changed hands twice between the forces of James II and William of Orange. After being seized by Protestants during an uprising against the rule of the Catholic James II in 1689, it was captured without a fight following the Break of Dromore by Richard Hamilton and the mainly Catholic Irish Army. Later the same year, a large Williamite expeditionary force arrived in Belfast Lough landing and laying siege to Carrickfergus. Belfast was captured by a detachment led by Henry Wharton after the Jacobites abandoned it without a fight. Frederick Schomberg's landed and marched south eventually setting up Dundalk Camp. Combined with the earlier Jacobite failure at the Siege of Derry, James' forces were compelled to withdraw from most of Ulster. Belfast remained in Williamite hands through the end of the war. When Schomberg set up his military camp in Dundalk, his army found themselves pitching their tents next to a bog. The acrid air of the swamp led to many of his soldiers contracting diseases like dysentery and illness ravaged the camp. Many troops were sent back to the "great hospital" in Belfast for treatment and a substantial number died in transit. Contemporary accounts described ships full of nothing but dead men and that some soldiers' limbs were so rotten that they fell off while being bandaged. The Dundalk Camp debacle resulted in 3,762 recorded deaths. William of Orange landed in Carrickfergus on 14 June 1690 with a large force of Dutch, German, Danish and French Huguenot soldiers and was reinforced by English raw recruits and Ulster skirmishers. The Ulster Protestants who joined William's army were so ill equipped that one general remarked that they were "half naked" with pistols hanging from their belts. Within hours of landing, William arrived unexpectedly in Belfast to a stunned crowd of onlookers. Accounts tell that, at first, many people stared in awed silence at William and his glamorous entourage to where many in the his party were unnerved. It was not until someone in the gathering had the mind to cheer that applause quickly reverberated through the crowd, to the relief of William's group. William was met by a representative of the Belfast Corporation who implored him to "pull the stiff neck of every papist down." William responded in broken English that he "came to see the people of Ireland settled in a lasting peace." importing goods from Great Britain and exporting linen products in increasing volume. Linen at the time was made by small producers in rural areas. Belfast also suffered from the great frost, followed by drought, that hit Ireland in 1740. That winter, Belfast was reported to have been covered in snow by a powerful blizzard. On 23 December 1771, aggrieved by high rents and evictions, the exclusively Protestant Hearts of Steel gang gathered in a meeting house in Templepatrick. The group, mostly farmers, armed themselves with pitchforks, firelock rifles and pistols and made for nearby Belfast. Twelve hundred men entered through Belfast's north gate and surrounded the barracks where a farmer was being held for not paying his rent. Dr. Alexander Haberday, who was in the crowd, made his way to the barracks in an effort to peacefully negotiate the release of the prisoner. Suddenly, the gates flew open and a detachment of soldiers fired into the crowd, killing five people including Haberday, and wounding nine others. These deaths resulted in violence across Belfast which moved to the house of Waddell Cunningham and Hercules Lane (now Royal Ave). The Sovereign (mayor) of Belfast believed the whole town was burning and released the prisoner, fearing further destruction. The revolt spilled over into mid Ulster with the Hearts of Oak combining forces with the Hearts of Steel. Eventually, the Irish Parliament had to pass a special act and send troops into Ulster to put down the unrest. On 13 April 1778, during the American Revolution, a privateer ship called "The Ranger", captained by John Paul Jones, appeared in Belfast Lough. The American ship engaged and captured the Royal Navy vessel stationed there, HMS Drake. The Sovereign of Belfast, Stuart Banks, sent word to Dublin Castle asking for military assistance. When no help materialised, the Irish began to form their own militias, independent of the government, to defend their land. Many Ulster Scots had relatives in the American colonies, which made them sympathetic to their cause; John Hancock had ancestors from County Down and Charles Thomson, who designed the Great Seal of the United States, was from Maghera. But they nonetheless formed militias to defend Ireland from possible invasion. The Volunteer Corps, formed in Belfast in 1778, was self financed and free from the military chain of command. Originally created to repel invasion, when no action took place, the Volunteer Corps turned its attention to the Irish Parliament, pressuring it to reform. Unreliable source: date=November 2021 Construction was completed by 1788. In the second half of the 18th century, the city underwent much change. It had started to overtake Carrickfergus as the main settlement in the area, so much so that, at some point, Carrickfergus Lough was renamed Belfast Lough. Industries were set up and concentrated in Belfast, which resulted in a high level of internal migration to the town, although Belfast had seen some growth before that. Of the migrants, a fair proportion were Roman Catholics from the west of Ulster, settling mostly in the west of Belfast. Until that point Belfast had been overwhelmingly Protestant. Towards the end of the 18th century, money was raised by collections from both the Presbyterian and Church of Ireland congregations of the town and, together with monies donated by Protestant businessmen, enough was raised to erect the first Roman Catholic church in Belfast – St. Mary's in Chapel Lane: at the first mass on 30 May 1784, the mostly Presbyterian 1st Belfast Volunteer Company paraded to the chapel yard and gave the parish priest a guard of honour, with many of the Protestants of Belfast also present and sharing the event. At the time, the Roman Catholic population of Belfast was only around four hundred. It would rise to some 45,000 by 1886. In 1786 the River Farset was covered over to create High Street, and the ford across the Lagan was removed. In 1789, upon learning of the first waves of uprising in France, the Belfast Newsletter published an editorial praising what would become the French Revolution and its ideals. In 1790, inspired by the events in France, a movement led by Presbyterians lobbied the Irish Parliament for reform; the Northern Whig party was formed. In July 1791, Volunteers gathered at the Exchange on Warring Street in Belfast to celebrate the fall of the Bastille. They marched to the White Linen Hall (modern day Belfast City Hall) where they fired a volley salute to the French revolutionaries. A declaration was presented extolling the French people and inviting their support for revolution in Ireland. This led to the founding of the Society of United Irishmen by Theobald Wolfe Tone, Henry Joy McCracken and others. The first meeting of the Society of United Irishmen was exclusively attended by Protestants. The Society of United Irishmen proved to be a more radical nationalist group vying for further independence, an end to religious discrimination and equal representation for Catholics in Ireland. When the Reign of Terror began in France in 1793, it split the United Irishman, with some condemning the violence and others applauding the action being taken to further revolution. Protestants in Ulster who endorsed Enfranchisement soon found that they knew next to nothing about their Catholic neighbours. Wolfe Tone noted in his diary that many Protestants were "ignorant" of the lifestyle of Catholics. This led to the organising of the Harp gathering in Belfast in 1792 where Gaelic poetry, art, music and language were celebrated. In May 1795, after being implicated in treasonous activity, Wolfe Tone and his family were in Belfast awaiting a ship that would take them into exile. Tone was invited to many dinner parties and excursions by local society. One such outing was a hike up the Cave Hill overlooking the town of Belfast and surrounding areas. It was atop the cliff that Tone and his compatriots vowed that they would not rest until Ireland was free from the "British yoke". Tone's Belfast Presbyterian supporters raised funds to buy his family a small tobacco farm in New Jersey. The United Irishmen and Catholic Defenders were sensationalised by the attempted French invasion and their recruitment doubled in Ulster in 1797. The British government, fearing insurrection, moved to disarm the people, beginning with Ulster. Lieutenant Gerard Lake wrote in his journal that " nothing but terror will keep them [Ulster] in order. It is plain that every act of sedition originates in this town [Belfast]." In March 1797, Lake proclaimed martial law and ordered the citizenry to surrender their arms. Weapon searches began in Belfast and Carrickfergus, with more than 5,000 arms seized in the first ten days. As a result of Lake's harsh methods, the population rose up in revolt culminating in the Irish Rebellion of 1798. On 17 July 1798, United Irishmen revolutionary leader Henry Joy McCracken was tried on Ann Street. When the Crown Prosecutor offered him his life in exchange for the names of the other rebel leaders, McCraken refused. He was then led to Market House at High Street and Corn Market, where he was hanged.

As a consequence of the Rebellion of 1798 and the re organisation of Britain and Ireland into the United Kingdom, the Irish Parliament was pressured to abolish itself. From that point on, Irish representatives would be sent to Westminster and direct rule would be imposed. Many in Ireland were skeptical of these events, especially when equal rights for Catholics failed to materialise. Presbyterians were also wary of the new United Kingdom but, within a generation, many of these Protestants became ardent supporters of the union, having benefited from it economically. In the 19th century, Belfast became Ireland's pre eminent industrial city with booming industries in linen, heavy engineering, tobacco and shipbuilding dominating trade. Belfast, situated at the western end of Belfast Lough and the mouth of the River Lagan, was an ideal location for the shipbuilding industry, which would eventually manifest in the Harland and Wolff company. Harland and Wolff were one of the largest shipbuilders in the world employing up to 35,000 workers. Beginning in the early 19th century, migrants seeking work came to Belfast from across Ireland, Scotland and England, but particularly from rural Ulster, where sectarian tensions ran deep. The same period saw the first outbreaks of sectarian riots, which have recurred regularly since. Belfast was the one place on the island where the industrial revolution had a permanent effect. Belfast Lough received fuel and raw materials for its various industries by sea. Cotton was spun by steam machine or water power into mill yarn which was then taken to hand loom weavers along the River Lagan in places like Ballymacarrett and the Catholic Short Strand in east Belfast. It was calculated that, by 1811, there were 150,000 power spindles, producing over 70 million lengths of yarn and employing about 30,000 people. Ten hundred ton ships brought 6,000 tonnes of coal a year to keep the mills powered. The Belfast cotton industry began to lose momentum after demand decreased at the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. Then, it was discovered in Preston, England in 1825 that deep soaked flax could be made into yarn by power spinning machine. Mulholland's Cotton Mill on York Street accidentally burned down 10 June 1828 and was rebuilt and upgraded to spin deep soaked flax. This mill was enormous, five stories high with three steam engines, 15,300 spindles and a 186 foot tall chimney. The mill rendered 700 tonnes of yarn from flax each year, making a massive profit. Other flax mills were eventually built throughout Belfast. Industry made Belfast the fastest growing urban centre in the United Kingdom with the population increasing from 19,000 in 1801 to over 70,000 in 1841. By 1836, Belfast had a vibrant chamber of commerce and top level banking network, which included the Northern Bank, Ulster Bank and Belfast Bank. Though it added to the prosperity of Belfast and its surrounding areas, this mechanised production of material combined with imports from England devastated the cottage industries of Ireland, who failed to compete. This later contributed to rural families' dependence on the potato crop as a staple of their diet. This would have disastrous results in the Great Famine of the 1840s. For the Battle of the Boyne commemorations on 12 July 1829, Orange Institution parades in Belfast were banned, leading to demonstrations and serious rioting in the city. These spread to County Armagh and County Tyrone, lasting several days and resulting in at least 20 deaths. In July 1837, the steam locomotives "Express" and "Fury" were delivered to Belfast Harbour from Manchester and were drawn up from Belfast docks by horse to eventually be placed on the new railway line laid Between Belfast and Lisburn. Nearly 1,600 spectators gathered at 4 am to watch the test runs of each machine. Later, local Presbyterian clergy would condemn the running of trains on Sundays, saying "its business was sending souls to the devil at the rate of 6 pence apiece." The general public largely ignored these protests by the ministers and rode the train. Daniel O'Connell launched his Repeal the Act of Union movement in 1840 and was invited to speak in Belfast in January 1841. Rev. Henry Cooke, a spokesman for northern Presbyterians, said that "repeal" was "just a discreet word for Rome ish ascendancy and Protestant extermination." He went on to comment that O'Connell was a "great, bad man engaged in a great, bad cause ". O'Connell abandoned his plans to enter Belfast in the midst of a large crowd of supporters. Anticipating trouble, troops and artillery were called into town to quell any unrest. O'Connell slipped into Belfast on 16 January in disguise. He did not attempt to leave his hotel in Donegall Place to attend mass. He appeared on the balcony of Kern's Hotel on 19 January to speak to a crowd while wearing a flamboyant, repeal themed outfit complete with white velvet collar and embroidered shamrocks, wolf hounds and round towers. The crowd was mixed, with people either jeering or cheering O'Connell in a cacophony of sound so loud that O'Connell's speech could not be heard. That night, O'Connell attended an event in the May Street Music Hall, while some Belfast locals outside pelted each other with stones and others smashed windows. One stone went through the window at the Kern's Hotel, where O'Connell was staying, and shattered the great chandelier inside. At the office of The Vindicator, the repeal journal in Belfast, it was reported that hardly a pane of glass was left unbroken by rioters, who had to be repelled by the police. O'Connell left Belfast the next day, escorted by four cars full of police. A few days later, Rev. Cook, speaking to a crowd of supporters, extolled the growth of industry and population in Belfast and connected its prosperity directly to its being a part of the United Kingdom. predicted the devastating effect the blight would have on the common people of Ireland, particularly in rural areas. The potato crop in 1845 largely failed all over Ireland, with the exception of the west coast and parts of Ulster. One third of the crop was inedible and fears that the spuds in storage had been contaminated were soon realized. In October 1846, Belfast journal The Vindicator made an appeal on behalf of the starving, writing that their universal cry was "give us food or we perish". The publication went on to scold the United Kingdom for not meeting the basic needs of its people. By 1847, the British government was feeding three million famine victims a day, though many still died from disease brought on by malnutrition. Many of the poor moved eastward from rural areas into Belfast and Dublin, bringing with them famine related diseases. Dr. Andrew Malcolm, working in Belfast at the time, wrote of the influx of the starving into the town, their horrific appearance and the "plague breath" they carried with them. The Belfast Newsletter reported in July 1847 that the town's hospitals were overflowing and that some of the emaciated were stretched out on the streets, dead or dying. This new channel fed the growth of Belfast industry, enabling new development, despite being completed during the last years of the Great Famine. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, along with the Prince of Wales, visited Belfast in August 1849, sailing up Victoria Channel and venturing into the town. They were received jubilantly by the people of Belfast with fanfare and decorations adorning the streets. The royal family moved up High Street amidst rapturous cheers and well wishing. On the same street, a 32 foot high arch had been built with a misspelled rendering of Irish Gaelic greeting "Céad Míle Fáilte" (a hundred thousand welcomes) written on it. In the White Linen Hall, the Queen viewed an exhibition of Belfast's industrial goods. The royals made their way to Lisburn Road and the Malone Turnpike where Victoria inspected the new Queen's College (later, Queen's University). After touring Andrew Mulholland's mill, Victoria and her entourage returned to their vessel. Belfast was recovering from a cholera epidemic at the time of the Royal visit, and many credited Victoria and Albert with lifting the spirits of the town during a difficult period. During the summer of 1872, about 30,000 nationalists held a demonstration at Hannahstown in Belfast, campaigning for the release of Fenian prisoners, which led to another series of riots between Catholics and Protestants. In 1874, the issue of Home Rule became mainstream in Irish politics. The Newsletter denounced a number of MPs on the eve of the election, writing that "Home Rule was simply 'Rome Rule'" and that Protestants would not support a new Dublin parliament. In June 1886, Protestants celebrated the defeat of the First Home Rule Bill in the House of Commons, leading to rioting on the streets of Belfast and the deaths of seven people, with many more injured. In the same year, following The Twelfth Orange Institution parades, clashes took place between Catholics and Protestants, and also between Loyalists and police. Thirteen people were killed in a weekend of serious rioting which continued sporadically until mid September with an official death toll of 31 people. (For more information see: 1886 Belfast riots) Although the county borough of Belfast was created when it was granted city status by Queen Victoria in 1888, the city continues to be viewed as straddling County Antrim and County Down with the River Lagan generally being seen as the line of demarcation. Charles Vane Tempest Stewart made a grand visit to Belfast on behalf of the Queen to give it official recognition as a city. Belfast at this time was Ireland's largest city and the third most important port (behind London and Liverpool) in the United Kingdom; and the leader in world trade at the time. Belfast had become a world class industrial city and the center of linen production for the whole planet. In 1893, a Second Home Rule Bill passed through the House of Commons but was struck down in the House of Lords. Wary Protestants celebrated and, as had happened seven years earlier, Catholics were attacked in Belfast's shipyards. An article in the Daily Chronicle (28 April 1893) stated: "Catholic workmen were savagely set upon, kicked, beaten with belts, and chased and pelted with brickbats, stones and iron nuts, with the result that the greater body of the Catholics, who number six hundred, have cleared out to save their lives." On 14 January 1899, large crowds gathered to watch the launch of the RMS Oceanic, which had been ordered by the White Star Line for trans Atlantic passenger travel. The dispute saw 10,000 workers on strike and a mutiny by the police, who refused to disperse the striker's pickets. In 1911, Carson and the UCC voted for the first disbursement of funds to be used in the acquisition of arms. Conservative Party leader Bonar Law visited Belfast on Easter Tuesday 1912. Special trains brought over 100,000 Unionist demonstrators who paraded past the stage in turn at the Balmoral Grounds in Belfast. Those gathered then observed prayers led by the Church of Ireland's Archbishop of Armagh and the Presbyterian Moderator. The largest Union Jack ever created was then unfurled and Bonar Law gave a speech comparing contemporary unionists with their forebears who were besieged in Derry in 1689. Two days later, on 11 April 1912, Prime Minister H. H. Asquith introduced the Home Rule Bill in the Commons. People continued to sign the Covenant past 11pm, with women signing their own separate declaration. Signatures totaled 471,414 men and women who could prove they were born in Ulster (over 30,000 more women signed than men). Despite this, the Ulster Division advanced with remarkable speed, crashing in force into the German 4th line. The Ulstermen came under intense fire from German machine guns and some were accidentally shelled by their own side. On what would be the first day of the Battle of the Somme, Britain suffered over 54,000 casualties; the Ulster Division alone had 5,700 killed or wounded (over 10% of the day's total losses). Unionists portrayed themselves as making a "great sacrifice" by conceding 26 counties, three of which were part of Ulster. In reality, the arrangement actually suited their interests, as it consolidated their power as a Protestant majority over the North. Some British authorities assumed that having two "Home Rule" parliaments in Ireland would be an acceptable compromise for Nationalists, who were not informed of the proposal beforehand. Counties County Tyrone and County Fermanagh had Nationalist majorities, yet were to be included in Northern Ireland. Despite Edward Carson suggesting that the four most Protestant counties would be viable in 1914, Unionists persisted in including these counties as part of the desired six. On 23 December 1920, amidst political unrest, the Government of Ireland Act 1920 entered the statute book, officially creating Northern Ireland. Partition did little to settle political turmoil in Ireland. Many Irish Republicans rejected the "British" Dublin parliament and, instead, Sinn Féin took their majority and founded their own separatist assembly, the Dáil Éireann. From January 1919, guerrilla fighting between security forces and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) increased, eventually escalating into the Anglo Irish War. With the creation of Northern Ireland, violence in Ireland only intensified, though conflict would take on two distinct natures in the north and in the south.

In 1922, the Northern Ireland government sought to establish its authority; it started by suppressing 21 Nationalist local authorities who had pledged their allegiance to the Dail. In July, legislation was rushed through to abolish proportional representation in local government elections. This went unchecked by Westminster, as Prime Minister David Lloyd George was preoccupied with the divisions in his coalition government and was unwilling to intervene. As Nationalist groups refused to cooperate with the NI government, Unionists found themselves in a position to determine electoral districts without being challenged. This free hand resulted in blatant gerrymandering in favor of the Unionist Party. For example, in one district, Nationalists cast 5,381 more votes than Unionists but the electoral boundaries gave Unionists a majority of 18 seats over Nationalists. Joseph Devlin, the MP from west Belfast, concluded that Nationalists could no longer afford to abstain from taking their seats, effectively giving Unionists free rein, and decided to attend the NI Parliament to mitigate any further damage. But Article 12 proved to be too vague, making provisions for the will of the people as well as economic and geographical ties. The argument was then made that Derry and Newry were too financially bound to Belfast to be separated and therefore had to stay in the six counties. A leaked report published in the Morning Post newspaper on 7 November 1925 detailed the conclusions of the commission. Parts of Donegal and Monaghan were conceded to Northern Ireland, with only the town of Crossmaglen going to the Free State; the population of NI would ultimately be reduced by only 1.8%. The speech was condemned by a Catholic MP, who sought an official rebuke. When the Catholic MP appealed to James Craig, the Prime Minister replied that he did not know of one person who did not agree with the sentiments of the Unionist MP. Craigavon went on to state that he was "an Orange Man first and a politician and member of this Parliament afterwards. The honorable member must remember that, in the South, they boasted of a Catholic state. All that I boast is that we are Protestant parliament and a Protestant state." The year 1935 saw another summer of tension as the Church of Ireland Bishop of Down appealed to the public to forget the "unhappy past" and endeavor to work together. In response, at the Belmont Field, Orange Order Grand Master Sir Joseph Davidson asked rhetorically "are we to forget that the flag of Empire is described as foreign flag? And our beloved King insulted by Mr. De Valera? Are we to forget that the aim of these people is to establish an all Ireland, Roman Catholic state in which Protestantism is to be crushed out of existence?" The British government had thought that Northern Ireland would be safe from German bombing because of its distance from German positions, and so had done very little to prepare Belfast for air raids. Few bomb shelters were built and the few anti aircraft guns the city possessed had been sent to England. The Belfast Blitz occurred on Easter Tuesday, 15 April 1941. Two hundred German Luftwaffe bombers attacked the city, pounding working class areas of Belfast around the shipyards and north Belfast, in particular, the New Lodge and Antrim Road areas. About a thousand people died and many more were injured. Of Belfast's housing stock, 52% was destroyed. Outside London, this was the greatest loss of life in a single raid during the war. Roughly 100,000 of the population of 415,000 became homeless. Citing examples like Michael Collins' Northern IRA campaign to undermine the Belfast government during the Anglo Irish War, Protestants in the 1960s feared Catholics would attempt to topple the Northern Ireland government in hopes that the country would become a failed state, be severed from the United Kingdom and subsequently join with the Republic of Ireland. These fears were exacerbated as protest marches and demonstrations were organised across the country. One such march in August 1968 near Derry was violently broken up by the Royal Ulster Constabulary, and the melee was filmed and broadcast on the evening news. In the immediate aftermath, violence erupted across the country and sectarian rioting broke out in the city of Belfast. In response to RUC actions outside Derry, Catholic and Protestant students from Queen's University and other civil rights activists organised a protest against police brutality but the march was halted by loyalists spurred on by the Rev. Ian Paisley, who called for Ulstermen to stand up against "insurrection". but as of 2011 it was almost evenly balanced. This fundamental demographic change has been attributed to higher Catholic birth rates and rising prosperity, together with Protestant emigration, both internal, e. g., to North Down, and external. The Ulster Volunteer Force killed 15 people in the McGurk's Bar bombing in 1971. In an attempt to maintain order, the British Government re introduced internment; in August 1971, the British Army launched Operation Demetrius which rounded up 343 suspected Republican terrorists. They did not detain anyone from the Loyalist side. In response to the events of Bloody Sunday, which also led to the eventual demise of the NICRA, the PIRA detonated twenty two bombs, all in a confined area in the Belfast city centre in July 1972, killing nine people, on what became known as "Bloody Friday". Ten days later, British security forces carried out Operation Motorman which aimed to re take no go areas in Belfast and Derry. The general decline in European manufacturing of the early 1980s, exacerbated by political violence, devastated the city's economy. In 1981, Bobby Sands a native of Greater Belfast, was the first of ten Republican prisoners to die on hunger strike in pursuit of political status. The event provoked major rioting in nationalist areas of the city. Compelled by civic strife, failed government initiatives and the Christian principle of peacemaking, Catholic priests Father Alec Reid and Father Gerry Reynolds of Clonard Monastery decided to attempt a grassroots peace process. Realising that many of the relevant leaders would lose the support of their constituencies were it known that they were negotiating, the would be peace process was kept secret. Clandestine meetings were arranged in a side room of Clonard between John Hume (representing the SDLP and more moderate nationalists) and Gerry Adams speaking for Sinn Féin and the more extreme Republican movement. When terms were agreed on the Catholic side, Protestant leaders were invited into the talks. Not being comfortable meeting in a Catholic institution, unionist and loyalist leaders met with Reid and Reynolds in a private home in a mixed area on the Springfield Road. The secret peace talks were unknowingly threatened during a series of notorious incidents that took place within two weeks in 1988. First, three IRA members were killed in Gibraltar by the SAS in what republicans termed an assassination. Their remains were returned to Belfast, where the funeral for the slain IRA members was attacked by loyalist Michael Stone. (see Milltown Cemetery attack) The following week at the funerals of Stone's victims, two off duty soldiers were lynched in the "corporals killings". Father Alec Reid was photographed administering last rites before unsuccessfully pleading with a gunman to spare their lives. However, instead of derailing the peace talks, these events added extra fervor for leaders to seek reconciliation, culminating in the ceasefires of 1994 and the ultimate peace deal of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. In 2021, sporadic rioting broke out in pockets of Belfast and elsewhere in relation to the Northern Ireland Protocol, a by product of Brexit. Some Loyalist influencers, fearing that Northern Ireland would receive different treatment than that of Britain when it came to trade, encouraged area youths to riot, a demonstration of their ability to disturb the peace. Influencers in Republicans responded in kind with their young people be pressured to also riot. In areas like West Belfast, Loyalist and Republican based youths were separated by the Peace Wall and contained by police lines with officers in riot gear. On the Springfield Road, water cannons were deployed and eventually used to disperse the agitants (the first time a water cannon had been used in 6 years). Unrest dissipated with Loyalists calling an end to the uproar on their side out of respect to the Royal Family regarding the death of Prince Philip. Duke of Edinburgh. In May 2023, Sinn Féin won an over whelming victory in the NI Assembly elections with Michele O'Neill taking the post of First Minister. This was the first time a Nationalist party gained a majority in a Northern Ireland election. The DUP would go on to refuse to form a government with Sinn Féin as part of their Stormont Boycott as a protest over the Northern Ireland Protocol. On 18 January 2024, over 100,000 workers from the National Health Service, Translink NI and teachers' unions stage the Public Sector Strike over pay in many towns and cities including Belfast. After two years of suspension, the NI Assembly meet on 3 February 2024 and appoint Michelle O'Neill as First Minister and Emma Little Pengelly as Deputy First minister. This is the first time in the history of Northern Ireland that a republican has become First Minister as well as the top two posts both being held by women.