History of 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.
Early history
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.File:Northern Ireland Belfast Giants Ring 001.jpg|thumb|left|The megalithic tomb at the centre of the Giant's Ring
The original settlement of Belfast was a small village, based around the marshy ford where the River Lagan intersects with the River Farset. Belfast's name is the anglicised version of the old Irish Béal Feirste meaning "the approach to the sandbank ford". 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.
Medieval period
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 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.
During the Tudor conquest of Ireland, the castle was rebuilt yet again, then fortified in 1552 by the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir James Croft, during the reign of Edward VI. Croft put this new incarnation of the castle under the command of Hugh Mac Neil Og, who was loyal to the English crown. Mac Neil Og was killed by Scottish raiders in 1555, and Belfast Castle was given to Randolphus Lane. 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 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.
Plantation of Ulster
In 1603, after the rebellion, Gaelic chieftain Conn O'Neill 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.File:ArthurChichester BaronChichesterOfBelfast Belfast Harbour Commissioners.jpg|thumb|upright|The 1st Baron Chichester, Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1605 until 1616.
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 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.
After the Flight of the Earls left Ulster without leadership in 1607, James saw an opportunity to finally Anglicise the last Gaelic province in Ireland. Ulster, up to this point, had accepted royal patrimony and trade but hitherto resisted British cultural influence. 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. James encouraged the increase of migration from Britain to Ireland, promising his subjects work and a new life in what was later dubbed the Plantation of Ulster. Though many came from all over Britain, the largest response was from lowland Scotland. Scottish migrants came to Ulster in droves, honoring the king's conditions to develop existing towns, build roads and found new settlements. This mass migration during the Plantation saw the eventual emergence of the Ulster-Scots.
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. Despite Belfast's seemingly growing significance to the British monarchy, it was still very much a small settlement at this stage. John Speed's 1610 map of Ireland marks Belfast as an insignificant village, and the 1612 patent styles it as a town, or village. Nearby Carrickfergus, successfully held by the English for much longer, was still the more prominent settlement and centre for trade. In 1640 Thomas Wentworth, then Lord Deputy of Ireland, purchased the Carrickfergus trade monopolies 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.
File:Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford by Sir Anthony Van Dyck.jpg|left|thumb|The 1st Earl of Strafford, as he became in January 1640. He was previously known as The 1st Viscount Wentworth. He served as Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1632 until 1640.
Many of the new arrivals to Ulster were Scottish Presbyterian Protestants and, therefore, not members of the Church of England. Since they did not yet have churches buildings of their own, many Scottish Presbyterians attended the more permissive Church of Ireland. Being more Puritan in theology, many Ulster-Scots preferred to keep their worship style simple and plain. Pursuing conformity, The 1st Viscount Wentworth decided to put northern Protestants more in line with the Church of England and its more elaborate form of worship which included chanting and liturgy. On 10 August 1636, Henry Lesley, Bishop of Down, summoned Church of Ireland ministers to a meeting in Belfast and rebuked those who had allowed themselves to be influenced by Presbyterianism. 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.
A new form of sectarian tension began to develop in the early half of the 17th century. Recent brutalities committed by both Irish Rebels and English forces during the Nine Years War lingered in the memories of the common people on both sides. Prejudice and disdain grew between a significant amount of the native Gaelic-Irish population and the new arrivals from Scotland. Scottish Presbyterianism at the time carried strong anti-Catholic sentiments common to Puritanism. For their part, many Gaelic Catholics were anti-Protestant to such a degree that Ireland was used as a staging point for the Counter-Reformation. The discord was exacerbated when both British and Gaelic leaders who publicized depictions of atrocities, both real and exaggerated, perpetrated by the other side. Older stereotypes such as the Irish being "barbarians" and the English being "brutal invaders" caused further division in Ulster. Figures like Chichester, as well as his Gaelic counterparts, purposely stirred up tensions between their respective peoples in order to garner more power and influence for themselves. As result, relations gradually worsened between common Ulster-Scots people and their Gaelic-Irish neighbours.