Belfast

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{{Infobox UK place | |official_name= Belfast |irish_name= Béal Feirste |scots_name= |local_name= |static_image= ] |static_image_caption= Pro Tanto Quid Retribuamus
"What shall we give in return for so much" |map_type= Northern Ireland |latitude= 54.597 |longitude= -5.930 |population= City Proper:
276,459
[Belfast Metropolitan Area:
579,554
([United Kingdom Census 2001) |irish_grid_reference= J338740 |london_distance= 322 mi (520 km) [Boxing the compass |unitary_northern_ireland= [Belfast City Council |country= Northern Ireland |post_town= BELFAST |postcode_area= BT |postcode_district= BT1-BT17, BT29 (part of), BT58 |dial_code= 028 |constituency_westminster= [Belfast North (UK Parliament constituency)
[Belfast South (UK Parliament constituency)
[Belfast East (UK Parliament constituency)
[Belfast West (UK Parliament constituency) |constituency_ni_assembly= Belfast North (Assembly constituency)
Belfast South (Assembly constituency)
Belfast East (Assembly constituency)
Belfast West (Assembly constituency) |lieutenancy_northern_ireland= [County Antrim
[County Down |website= http://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/ www.belfastcity.gov.uk |area_total_sq_mi=44.4 -->

Belfast () is the capital of Northern Ireland. It is the largest City status in the United Kingdom in Northern Ireland and the province of Ulster, and the second-largest city on the island of Ireland (after Dublin). In the United Kingdom 2001 census the population within the city limits (the Belfast Urban Area) was 276,459, while 579,554 people lived in the wider Belfast Metropolitan Area. This made it the List of largest United Kingdom settlements by population in the United Kingdom, but the List of conurbations in the United Kingdom. The UK's major urban areas, National Statistics

Belfast is situated on Northern Ireland's eastern coast. The city is flanked to the northwest by a series of hills, including Cavehill, which is thought to be the inspiration for Jonathan Swift novel, Gulliver's Travels. He imagined that it resembled the shape of a sleeping giant safeguarding the city. Belfast is also 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 RMS Titanic was built in Belfast in 1912, Harland and Wolff had the largest shipyard in the world. Originally a town in County Antrim, the County borough of Belfast was created when it was granted city status by Queen Victoria in 1888.

Belfast saw the worst of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, with nearly half of the total deaths in the conflict occurring in the city. However, since the Belfast Agreement in 1998, there has been significant urban regeneration in the Belfast City Centre including Victoria Square, Titanic Quarter, Belfast and Laganside as well as the Odyssey (Belfast) complex and the landmark Waterfront Hall. The city is served by two airports: The George Best Belfast City Airport adjacent to Belfast Lough and Belfast International Airport which is near Lough Neagh. Queen's University of Belfast is the main university in the city. The University of Ulster also maintains a campus in the city, which concentrates on fine art and design.

History leaving Belfast for sea trials, 2 April 1912

Belfast is the Anglicisation version of the area's Irish name, meaning "mouth of the Farset River". This refers to the Bar (landform) which formed where the River Farset entered the River Lagan at Donegall Quay and flowed into Belfast Lough. This was the hub around which the city developed. The River Farset also gets its name from the word for ‘sand spit’, feirste in Irish. Superseded by the River Lagan as the more important river, the Farset now languishes in obscurity, under High Street. The Farset formed a dock on High Street until the mid 19th century. The open river can still be seen at the edge of the Shankill Road graveyard. Bank Street in the Belfast City Centre refers not to banking, but to the river bank and Bridge Street was the site of an early a bridge across the Farset.

The site of Belfast has been occupied since the Bronze Age. The Giants Ring, Belfast, a 5000 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 High 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 also built by de Courcy in 1177. The O'Neill (surname) clan had a presence in the area. In the 14th century the Clan Aedh Buidh, descendants of "Yellow" Hugh O'Neill built Grey Castle at Castlereagh, now in the east of the city. Conn O'Neill also owned lands in the area, one remaining link being the Connswater River flowing thorough east Belfast.{{cite news ] and Scottish people settlers during the Plantation of Ulster. 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". 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 nineteenth century, Belfast briefly overtook Dublin as the largest and most industrialised city in Ireland. The Harland and Wolff shipyards became one of the largest shipbuilders in the world, employing up to 35,000 workers. 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. Outside of London, this was the greatest loss of life in a night raid during the Battle of Britain.

Belfast has been the capital of Northern Ireland since its creation in 1920 by the Government of Ireland Act 1920. Since it began to emerge as a major city, it has been the scene of much sectarian conflict between its Roman Catholic Church and Protestantism populations. These opposing groups in this conflict are now often termed 'Republicanism#Ireland' and 'Ulster Loyalism' respectively, although are also referred to as 'Irish nationalism' and 'Unionism (Ireland)'. The most recent example of this is known as the Troubles - a civil conflict that raged from c.1969 to the late 1990s. Belfast saw the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, particularly in the 1970s, with rival paramilitary groups forming on both sides. Bombing, assassination and street violence formed a backdrop to life throughout The Troubles. The IRA detonated 22 bombs, all in a confined area in the city centre in 1972, on what is known as "Bloody Friday (1972)", killing nine people. Loyalists paramilitaries, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Ulster Defence Association (UDA) retaliated to the Provisional IRA campaign 1969-1997 by a series of killings. 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.

One legacy of the Troubles in Northern Ireland is that both Irish Republicanism in Northern Ireland and Ulster loyalism paramilitary groups have been involved in organised crime and racket (crime) in Belfast. On 20 December, 2004, Pound sterling26.4 million was stolen from the headquarters of the Northern Bank robbery in Belfast City Centre, the largest cash robbery at the time in the United Kingdom. The police investigation linked the robbery to the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Policing in Belfast is provided by the Police Service of Northern Ireland. They reported annual decreases in recorded crime in East Belfast, North Belfast, and South Belfast between 2002 and 2006. West Belfast showed an increase in recorded crime during the same period.

Governance Belfast was granted Borough status in the United Kingdom by James I of England in 1613 and official City status in the United Kingdom by Queen Victoria in 1888. Since 1971 it has been a Local Government (Boundaries) Act (Northern Ireland) 1971 under local administration by Belfast City Council. 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 (European Parliament constituency).

Local government The city of Belfast has a Mayors in the United Kingdom form of municipal government. The City's officials are the Lord Mayor, Deputy Lord Mayor and High Sheriff who are elected from fifty-one councillors. The first Lord Mayor of Belfast was Daniel Dixon, who was elected in 1892. As of June 2007, the Lord Mayor of Belfast is Ulster Unionist Party politician, Jim Rodgers (politician), who previously served in the same office in 2001. His duties, as mayor of Belfast, 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.

In 1997, Unionism in Ireland 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 Irish nationalism and Unionists. This position was confirmed in the council elections of United Kingdom local elections, 2001 and United Kingdom local elections, 2005. Since then it has had three Nationalist mayors, two from the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and one from Sinn Féin.

In the 2005 local government elections, the voters of Belfast elected fifty-one councillors to Belfast City Council from the following political parties: 15 Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), 14 Sinn Féin, 8 Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), 7 Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), 4 Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, 2 Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), and 1 Independent.

Northern Ireland Assembly and Westminster As Northern Ireland's capital city, Belfast is host to the Northern Ireland Assembly at Parliament Buildings (Northern Ireland), the site of Devolution#Northern Ireland legislature in Northern Ireland. Belfast is divided into four Northern Ireland Assembly and Parliament of the United Kingdom constituencies: North Belfast (constituency), West Belfast (constituency), South Belfast (constituency) and East Belfast (constituency). All four extend beyond the city boundaries including into parts of Castlereagh Borough Council, Lisburn City Council and Newtownabbey Borough Council districts. In the Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2007, Belfast elected 24 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), 6 from each List of Parliamentary constituencies in Northern Ireland. The MLA breakdown consisted of 8 Sinn Féin, 6 Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), 4 Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), 3 Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), 2 Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, and 1 Progressive Unionist Party (PUP). In the United Kingdom general election, 2005, Belfast elected one Member of Parliament#United Kingdom from each constituency to the British House of Commons at Westminster, London. This was comprised of 2 DUP, 1 SDLP, and 1 Sinn Féin.

Coat of Arms and motto The city of Belfast has the Latin motto "Pro tanto quid retribuamus". This can be translated as "What shall we give in return for so much" (literally "Having received so much, what return shall we make") and is taken from Psalms 116 Verse 12 in the Latin Vulgate. The Queen's University Belfast Students' Union Rag Week publication PTQ derives its name from the first three words of the motto. The city's coat of arms shows a central shield, bearing a ship and a bell, flanked by a chained wolf (or wolfhound) on the left and a seahorse on the right. A smaller seahorse sits at the top. This crest dates back to 1613, when James I of England granted Belfast town status. The seal was used by Belfast merchants throughout the seventeenth century on their signs and trade-coins. A large stained glass window in the Belfast City Hall displays the seal, 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, Arthur Chichester, and refer to his own coat of arms.

Geography , a basaltic hill overlooking the city.Belfast is situated on Northern Ireland's eastern coast at . 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 Solstice in June, when the sun sets after 22:00 and rises before 05:00.

Belfast is also located at the eastern end of Belfast Lough and at the mouth of the River Lagan. In 1994, a Lagan 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(). The area of Belfast Local Government District is .

The city is flanked on the north and northwest by a series of hills, including Divis, Black Mountain (Belfast) and Cavehill thought to be the inspiration for Jonathan Swift 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. 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 16th century chieftain who controlled the area at that time. The Castlereagh Hills overlook the city on the southeast.

A former Catholic Bishop of Down and Connor, Dr William Philbin, who was also a noted poet, wrote this of Belfast: "Belfast is a city walled in by mountains, moated by sees, and undermined by deposits of history".

Climate Belfast has a temperate climate. Average daily temperatures are 18 °C (64 °F) in July, 6 °C (43 °F) in January. The highest temperature recorded in Belfast was 30.8 °C (87.4 °F) on 12 July 1983. The city gets significant precipitation (greater than 0.25 mm/0.01 in) on 213 days in an average year with an average annual rainfall of , less than the Lake District#Climate or the Scottish Highlands, but higher than Dublin or the south-east coast of Ireland. As an urban and coastal area, Belfast typically gets snow on fewer than 10 days per year. Climate change is also affecting Belfast, with July, September 2006 and April 2007 breaking records for the warmest such months on record, and June 2007 being one of the wettest months ever.

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Areas and districts , part of QUB. The David Keir Building of Queen's University is in the foreground. The yellow fasciad Belfast City Hospital is visible in the centre background, with the city's current tallest building Windsor House in the right background.Much of what is now known as Greater Belfast existed as separate towns and villages before the city's expansion. Including the Belfast City Centre, the city can be divided into five areas with North Belfast, East Belfast, South Belfast, and West Belfast. Each of these is also a Westminster (UK Parliament constituency). Belfast remains segregated by walls (known as “peace lines”) erected by the British Army after August 1969, which still divide fourteen neighbourhoods in the inner-city. In June 2007, a Pound sterling16 million programme was announced which will transform and redevelop streets and public spaces in the city centre. Major arterial roads (quality bus corridors) into the city include the Antrim Road, Shore Road, Holywood Road, Newtownards Road, Castlereagh Road, Cregagh Road, Belfast Ormeau (UK Parliament constituency), Malone Road, Lisburn Road, Falls Road (Belfast), Springfield Road, Shankill Road, and Crumlin Road.

Belfast City Centre is divided by two postcodes, BT1 for the area lying north of the Belfast City Hall, and BT2 for the area to its south. The industrial estate and docklands share BT3. The rest of the BT postal area are set out in a clockwise system. Although BT stands for Belfast, it is used across the whole of Northern Ireland.

Since 2001, boosted by increasing numbers of tourists, the city has also developed a number of cultural "Belfast Quarters":

The Cathedral Quarter, Belfast takes its name from St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast (Church of Ireland) and has taken on the mantle of the city's key cultural locality. It hosts a yearly Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival. Custom House Square is one of the city's main outdoor venues for free concerts and street entertainment.
The Gaeltacht Quarter, Belfast is an area around the Falls Road (Belfast) in West Belfast which promotes and encourages the use of the Irish language.
The Queen's Quarter, Belfast in South Belfast is named after Queen's University Belfast. The area has a large student population and hosts the annual Belfast Festival at Queen's each autumn. It is also home to Belfast Botanic Gardens and the Ulster Museum, closed for major redevelopment until 2009. Golden Mile (Belfast) is the name given to the mile between Belfast City Hall and Queen's University. Taking in Gt. Victoria St, Shaftesbury Square and Bradbury Place, it contains some of the best bars and restaurants in the city. Since the Belfast Agreement in 1998, the nearby Lisburn Road has developed into the city's most exclusive shopping strip.

The Titanic Quarter, Belfast covers 75 hectares of reclaimed land adjacent to Port of Belfast, formerly known as Queen's Island. Named after the RMS Titanic, which was built here in 1912, work has begun which promises to transform the former shipyard into "one of the largest waterfront developments in Europe". Plans also include new apartments, a riverside entertainment district, and a major Titanic-themed museum.

Parks and gardens . The Palm House was designed by Charles Lanyon, and built in 1840 by Richard Turner (iron-founder).Belfast has over forty public parks. The Forest of Belfast is a partnership between government and local groups, set up in 1992 to manage and conserve the city's parks and open spaces. They have also commissioned more than 30 public sculptures since 1993. In 2006, the Belfast City Council also set aside Pound sterling8 million to continue this work. The Belfast Naturalists' Field Club was founded in 1863 and is administered by National Museums and Galleries of Northern Ireland.

With 700,000 visitors in 2005, one of the most popular parks is Belfast Botanic Gardens in the Queen's Quarter, Belfast. Built in the 1830s and designed by Charles Lanyon, Botanic Gardens Palm House is one of the earliest examples of a curvilinear and cast iron Greenhouse. Attractions in the park also include the Tropical Ravine, a humid jungle glen built in 1889, rose gardens and public events ranging from live opera broadcasts to pop concerts. U2 played here in 1997 and the Tennents ViTal festival takes place in the gardens each summer.

Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park, to the south of the city centre, attracts thousands of visitors each year to its International Rose Garden. Rose Week in July each year features over 20,000 blooms. It has an area of 128 acres of meadows, woodland and gardens and also features a Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Garden, a Japanese Garden, a walled garden, and the Golden Crown Fountain commissioned in 2002 as part of the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II celebrations.

Demography {| cellpadding="1" border="0" style="float: right; margin: 0em 1em 1em 0em; border: 1px #bbbbbb solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 90%;"|- align="center" bgcolor=#EDD5A3| colspan="3" | Demographics of Northern Ireland from the 2001 United Kingdom census|- align="center" | ||Belfast||Northern Ireland|- align="center"|Protestant||49%||53%|- align="center"|Roman Catholic||47%||44%|- align="center"|Male||47%||49%|- align="center"|Under 16 years old||22%||24%|- align="center"|Between 20 and 44 years old||37%||37%|- align="center"|Over 65 years old||15%||13%|- align="center"|Ethnically white||99%||99%|}Belfast experienced a huge growth in population around the first half of the twentieth century. This rise slowed and peaked around the start of the Troubles with the 1971 census showing almost 600,000 people in the Belfast Urban Area. Since then, the inner city numbers have dropped dramatically as people have moved to swell the Greater Belfast suburb population. The United Kingdom 2001 census population within the same Urban Area, had fallen to 277,391 people, with 579,554 people living in the wider Belfast Metropolitan Area. The population density in the same year was 24.15 persons per hectare (compared to 1.19 for the rest of Northern Ireland).

As with many cities, Belfast's inner city is currently characterised by the elderly, students and single young people, while families tend to live on the periphery. Socio-economic areas radiate out from the Belfast City Centre, with a pronounced wedge of affluence extending out the Malone Road to the South Belfast. An area of greater deprivation extends to the West Belfast of the city. In fact, the areas around the Falls Road (Belfast) and Shankill Road Roads are the most deprived wards in Northern Ireland.

Despite a period of relative peace, most areas and districts of Belfast still reflect the divided nature of Northern Ireland as a whole. Many areas are still highly segregated along ethnic, political and religious lines, especially in working class neighbourhoods. These zones, ‘Roman Catholic Church’ or ‘Protestantism’, ‘Irish Republicanism in Northern Ireland’ or ‘Ulster loyalism’ are invariably marked by Northern Ireland flags issue, graffiti and Northern Irish murals. Segregation has been present throughout the history of Belfast, but has been maintained and increased by each new outbreak of violence in the city. This escalation in segregation, described as a "rachet effect", has shown little sign of decreasing during times of peace. When violence flares, it tends to be in interface areas. The highest levels of segregation in the city are in West Belfast with many areas greater than 90% Roman Catholic Church. Opposite but comparatively high levels are seen in the predominantly Protestantism East Belfast.

Ethnic minorities in Northern Ireland communities have been living in Belfast since the 1930s. The largest groups are Overseas Chinese and Irish travellers. Since the expansion of the European Union, numbers have been boosted by a large influx of Eastern European immigrants. Census figures (2001) showed that Belfast has a total ethnic minority population of 4,584 or 1.3% of the population. Over half of these live in South Belfast with numbers reaching 2.63% of the population. The majority of the estimated 5000 Muslims and 200 Hindu families living and working in Northern Ireland live in the Greater Belfast area.

Economy When the population of Belfast town began to grow in the 17th century, its economy was built on Trade. It provided a market for the surrounding countryside and the natural inlet of Belfast Lough gave the city its own Port of Belfast. The port supplied an avenue for trade with Great Britain and later Europe and North America. In the mid-seventeenth century, Belfast exported beef, butter, hides, tallow and corn and it imported coal, cloth, wine, brandy, paper, timber and tobacco. Around this time, the linen trade in Northern Ireland blossomed and by the middle of the 18th century, one fifth of all the linen exported from Ireland was shipped from Belfast. The present city however is a product of the Industrial Revolution. It was not until industry transformed the linen and shipbuilding trades that the economy and the population boomed. By the turn of the 19th century, Belfast had transformed into the largest linen producing centre in the world, earning the nickname "Linenopolis".

shipyard. Belfast harbour was dredged in 1845 to provide deeper berths for larger ships. Donegall Quay was built out into the river as the harbour was developed further and trade flourished. The Harland and Wolff shipbuilding firm was created in 1861, and by the time HMS Titanic was built in Belfast in 1912 it had become the largest shipyard in the world.

Short Brothers plc is a British aerospace company based in Belfast. It was the first aircraft manufacturing company in the world. The company began its association with Belfast in 1936, with Short & Harland Ltd, a venture jointly owned by Shorts and Harland and Wolff. Now known as Shorts Bombardier it works as an international aircraft manufacturer located near the Port of Belfast. www.corporateseries.com The rise of mass production and cotton clothing following World War I were some of the factors which led to the decline of Belfast's international linen trade. Like many British cities dependent on traditional heavy industry, Belfast suffered serious decline since the 1960s, exacerbated greatly in the 1970s and 1980s by The Troubles. More than 100,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost since the 1970s. For several decades, Northern Ireland's fragile economy required significant public support from the Exchequer of up to Pound sterling4 billion per year. Ongoing sectarian violence has made it difficult for Belfast to compete with Dublin's Celtic Tiger economy.

Post-Good Friday Agreement However, the Provisional Irish Republican Army#End of the armed campaign in 1994 and the signing of the Belfast Agreement in 1998 have given investors increased confidence to invest in Belfast. This has led to a period of sustained economic growth and large-scale redevelopment of the Belfast City Centre. New developments include Victoria Square, the Cathedral Quarter, Belfast, and the Laganside with the new Odyssey (Belfast) complex and the landmark Waterfront Hall. Other major developments include the regeneration of the Titanic Quarter, Belfast, and the erection the Obel Tower, a skyscraper set to be the tallest tower on the island until eclipsed by the U2 Tower in Dublin. In 2007, Belfast's launched its vision for a Worldwide world trade center (currently a 'virtual' centre but with plans to become a physical building) which aims to promote the city to the international business market.

Today, Belfast is Northern Ireland's educational and commercial hub. In February 2006, Belfast's unemployment rate stood at 4.2%, lower than both the Northern Ireland and the UK average of 5.5%. Over the past 10 years employment has grown by 16.4 per cent, compared with 9.2 per cent for the UK as a whole.

Northern Ireland's peace dividend has also led to soaring property prices in the city. In 2006, Belfast saw house prices grow by 43%, the fastest rate of growth in the UK. In March 2007, the average house in Belfast cost £191,819, with the average in South Belfast being £241,000. In 2004, Belfast had the lowest owner occupation rate in Northern Ireland at 54%.

Peace has also boosted the numbers of tourists coming to Belfast. There were 6.4 million visitors in 2005, which was a growth of 8.5% from 2004. The visitors spent £285.2 million, supporting over 15,600 jobs. Visitor numbers rose by 6% to reach 6.8 million in 2006, with tourists spending £324 million, an increase of 15% on 2005. The city's two airports have also made the city into one of the most visited weekend destinations in Europe.

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

The Belfast City Hall was finished in 1906 and was built to reflect Belfast’s City status in the United Kingdom, granted by Queen Victoria in 1888. The Edwardian Baroque architecture architectural influenced the Victoria Memorial (India) in Calcutta, India, and Durban City Hall in South Africa. The dome is 53 metres (173 ft) high and figures above the door state “Hibernia encouraging and promoting the Commerce and Arts of the City”. 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, Belfast in Chichester Street are home to Northern Ireland's Courts of Northern Ireland. Many of Belfast's oldest buildings are found in the Cathedral Quarter, Belfast area, which is currently undergoing redevelopment as the city's main cultural and tourist area. Windsor House, 80 metres (262 ft) high, has twenty-three floors and is the tallest building (as distinct from structure) in Ireland. Work has started on the taller Obel Tower and in 2007, plans were approved for the Aurora building. At 37 storeys and 109 m (358 ft) high, this will surpass both previous buildings.

The ornately decorated The Crown Liquor Saloon in Great Victoria Street is the only bar in the UK owned by the List of National Trust properties in Northern Ireland. It was made internationally famous as the setting for the classic film, Odd Man Out, starring James Mason. The restaurant panels in the Crown Bar were originally made for Britannic, the sister ship of the HMS Titanic, built in Belfast. The Harland and Wolff shipyard is now the location of the world's largest dry dock, where the giant cranes, Samson and Goliath (Cranes) 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 (Belfast) 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. Lyric Players' Theatre, the only full-time producing theatre in the country, is where film star Liam Neeson began his career. In Your Pocket - Lyric Theatre The Ulster Hall (1859-1862) was originally designed for grand dances but is now used primarily as a concert and sporting venue. Lloyd George, Charles Stewart Parnell and Patrick Pearse all attended political rallies there.

Image:Ulster Hall Belfast.jpg]Image:Belfast Castle2.jpg|Belfast CastleImage:Albert Clock from Queen's Square.jpg]Image:Lagan Weir South.jpg|The Lagan WeirImage:Belfast City Hall - Under Construction.jpg] during constructionImage:H&W Cranes2.jpg|Samson and Goliath (cranes)Image:Crown Bar Belfast.jpg|Crown Liquor SaloonImage:Windsor House Belfast.jpg]

Infrastructure Utilities Most of Belfast's water is supplied from the Silent Valley Reservoir in County Down, created to collect water from the Mourne Mountains. The rest of the city's water is sourced from Lough Neagh, via Dunore Water Treatment Works in County Antrim. The citizens of Belfast pay for their water in their Rates (tax) bill. Plans to bring in additional water tariffs have been deferred by Northern Ireland Assembly in May 2007. Belfast has approximately 1,300 km of sewers, which are currently being replaced in a project costing over Pound sterling100 million and due for completion in 2009

Northern Ireland Electricity is the company responsible for transmitting electricity in Northern Ireland. Belfast's electricity comes from Kilroot Power Station, a 520 Megawatt#Megawatt, dual coal and oil fired power station, near Carrickfergus. Phoenix Natural Gas has been granted the licence for the transportation of natural gas across the Irish Sea from Stranraer to supply Greater Belfast from a base station near Carrickfergus.

Rates (tax) in Belfast (and the rest of Northern Ireland) were reformed in April 2007. The new discrete Capital (economics) value system means rates bills are determined by the capital value of each domestic property as assessed by the Valuation and Lands Agency. The recent dramatic rise in house prices has made these reforms unpopular.

Healthcare The Belfast Trust is one of five new National Health Service trusts which were created on 1 April, 2007 by the Department of Health. Belfast contains most of Northern Ireland's regional specialist centres. The Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, serving mainly West Belfast, is an internationally renowned centre of excellence in trauma care and provides specialist trauma care for all of Northern Ireland. It also provides the city's specialist neurosurgical, ophthalmology, Otolaryngology, and Dentistry services. The Belfast City Hospital, serving South Belfast, is the regional specialist centre for Haematology and is home to the most modern equipped regional Cancer Centre in the UK. The Mary G McGeown Regional Nephrology Unit at the Belfast City Hospital is the Kidney Transplant Centre and provides regional renal services for N.Ireland.Musgrave Park Hospital in South Belfast specialises in orthopaedics, rheumatology, sports medicine and rehabilitation. It's also home to Northern Ireland's first Traumatic brain injury Unit, costing Pound sterling9 million and opened by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall in May, 2006. Other hospitals in Belfast include the Mater Infirmorum Hospital in North Belfast, the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, and the Ulster Hospital, Dundonald.

Transportation Belfast is a relatively car-dependent city, by European standards, with an extensive road network including the ten lane M2 motorway (Northern Ireland). A recent survey of how people travel in Northern Ireland showed that people in Belfast made 77% of all journeys by car, 11% by public transport and 6% on foot. It also showed that Belfast has 0.70 cars per household compared to figures of 1.18 in the East and 1.14 in the West of Northern Ireland.

A significant road improvement scheme in Belfast began early in 2006, with the upgrading of two junctions along the Westlink Belfast dual carriageway to grade separation standard. The Westlink, a dual carriageway skirting the western edge of the City Centre, connects all three Belfast motorways and often suffers from chronic congestion. The work will cost Pound sterling103.9 million and is scheduled for completion in 2009. Commentators have argued that this may simply create a new bottleneck at York Street, the next at-grade intersection, until that too is upgraded (planned for 2011).

Hackney carriage are common in the city, operating on a Share taxi basis in some areas. However, these are outnumbered by private hire Taxicabs of the United Kingdom#Private hire ('Minicabs'). Bus and rail public transport in Northern Ireland is operated by subsidiaries of Translink (Northern Ireland). Bus services in the city proper and the nearer suburbs are operated by Metro (Belfast), with services focusing on linking residential districts with the City Centre on twelve quality bus corridors running along main radial roads, resulting in poor connections between different suburban areas. More distant suburbs are served by Ulsterbus. Northern Ireland Railways provides Belfast Suburban Rail along three lines running through Belfast’s northern suburbs to Carrickfergus and Larne, eastwards towards Bangor, County Down and south-westwards towards Lisburn and Portadown. This service is known as the Belfast Suburban Rail system. Belfast also has a direct rail connection with Dublin called Enterprise (train) which is operated jointly by NIR and Iarnród Éireann, the state railway company of the Republic of Ireland.

The city has two airports: The Belfast International Airport offers domestic, European and transatlantic flights and is located north of the city, near Lough Neagh while the George Best Belfast City Airport is closer to the city centre, adjacent to Belfast Lough. In 2005, Belfast International Airport was the 11th busiest commercial airport in the UK, accounting for just over 2% of all UK terminal passengers while the George Best Belfast City Airport was the 16th busiest and had 1% of UK terminal passengers.

Belfast also has a large Port of Belfast, used for exporting and importing goods and for passenger ferry services. Stena Line run regular services to Stranraer in Scotland using their HSS (High Speed Service) vessel (with a crossing time of around 90 minutes) and/or their conventional vessel with a crossing time of around 3hrs 45 minutes. Norfolkline (formally Norse Merchant Ferries) run a passenger/cargo ferry to and from Liverpool, with a crossing time of 8 hours and a seasonal sailing to Douglas, Isle of Man is operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet company (formally SeaCat).

Culture Belfast's population is evenly split between its ‘Roman Catholic Church’ and ‘Protestantism’ residents (politically ‘Irish Republicanism in Northern Ireland’ and ‘Unionism in Ireland’). These two distinct vibrant cultural communities have both contributed significantly to the city's culture. Throughout the Troubles, Belfast artists continued to express themselves through poetry, art and music. In the period since the Belfast Agreement in 1998, Belfast has begun a social, economic and cultural transformation giving it a growing international cultural reputation.

In 2003, Belfast had a unsuccessful bid for the 2008 European Capital of Culture. The bid was run by an independent company, Imagine Belfast, who boasted that it would "make Belfast the meeting place of Europe's legends, where the meaning of history and belief find a home and a sanctuary from caricature, parody and oblivion." According to The Guardian the bid may have been wrecked by the History of Belfast and volatile politics.

In 2004-05, art and cultural events in Belfast were attended by 1.8 million people (400,000 more than the previous year). The same year, 80,000 people participated in culture and arts activities, twice as many as in 2003-04. A combination of relative peace, international investment and an active promotion of arts and culture is also attracting more tourists to Belfast than ever before. In 2004-05, 5.9 million people visited Belfast, a 10% increase from the previous year, and spent Pound sterling262.5 million.

The Ulster Orchestra, based in Belfast, is Northern Ireland's only full-time

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