Each of the city’s quarters tells a story – from the history of one of the world’s most famous ships at Titanic Belfast to tales of the city’s past at the Ulster Museum. A dynamic port city with a colourful past, Belfast is a vibrant cultural hub on Northern Ireland’s eastern coast. World-class theatre, music and big ideas take centre stage as Belfast showcases its creativity.

Dublin

In those days Belfast’s shipyards dominated global shipbuilding, and it is no surprise therefore that Titanic, ‘the biggest ship in the world’, was built here. You’ll find Belfast just over two hours north of Dublin travelling by car/train or bus – see the ‘Getting to Belfast’ info below — and an hour and a half from Giant’s Causeway on the North Coast. Belfast is the largest city in Northern Ireland and while it is famous for the Belfast Titanic museum and ‘Troubles Tours’ around The Falls Road and Shankill areas, there is quite a bit more to city cabs belfast enjoy about the city. We respect your time – no spam, just the good stuff. This one time seed warehouse is one of Belfast’s landmark buildings, just a short walk to Titanic Quarter, Cathedral Quarter, Victoria Square…

• The Linen Quarter’, an area south of City Hall once dominated by linen warehouses, now includes, in addition to cafés, bars and restaurants, a dozen hotels (including the 23-storey Grand Central Hotel), and the city’s two principal Victorian-era cultural venues, the Grand Opera House and the Ulster Hall.
• Celebrate Belfast’s dynamic arts scene at this popular festival in the city’s cultural heart.
• From "leafy" avenues of increasingly substantial (and in the course of time "mixed") housing, the Upper Malone broadened out into areas of parkland and villas.
• Get out in the fresh air and enjoy a relaxing walk with the family in Belfast, and beyond this…
• Watch classic movies in immersive locations – and look out for the next Spielberg or Tarantino!

The Blitz and post-war development

Built in the Romanesque-style on the site of an earlier neo-classical church, St Anne’s Church of Ireland Cathedral was consecrated in 1904. Next door, its successor, Marks and Spencers, is housed behind the red sandstone, Florentine Gothic, facade (1869) of a rival linen business that was burned out in the Blitz. The Baroque revival City Hall was finished in 1906 on the site of the former White Linen Hall, and was built to reflect Belfast’s city status, granted by Queen Victoria in 1888. Of the much larger Victorian city a substantial legacy has survived the Blitz, The Troubles and planning and development. Of the various markets, including those for the sale and shipping of livestock, from which it derives its name, only one survives, the former produce market, St George’s Market, now a food and craft market popular with visitors to the city.

Things to Do & Events

Guinness is served on tap in the beer tents, while The Errigle Inn and The Pavillion (sometimes called the Big House) bars on nearby Ormeau Rd are popular haunts for prematch tipples and postmatch celebratory toasts. Northern Ireland has a rich sporting heritage, and watching one of the local professional teams in action is an exhilarating way to kick off a night on the town. At the same complex, Banana Block is an innovative commercial and community events space in a former linen mill.

Sadly this local hero met an untimely death after being hit by a lorry but he is now immortalised in this lovely piece of street art. The Victorian market opens Friday to Sunday and is the place to go for fresh produce, ‘street-food’ dining, live music and of course shopping for gifts and gadgets. But we guess you didn’t come to Belfast for Vietnamese or Thai food?

Board settings

Celebrate Belfast’s dynamic arts scene at this popular festival in the city’s cultural heart. Celebrate local life with a lively year-round calendar of events If you like live gigs, fun nightclubs or even a spot of classy jazz, you’ll find it here. Discover a wilder, greener side to Belfast with walks, cycles and fabulous local food. Explore Belfast’s world-class museums, rich history, varied art scene and lush parks. Centuries of history combined with memorable experiences – what will you discover first?

Catch a ride on a hop-on hop off  bus tour

The Greater Shankill area, including Crumlin and Woodvale, is over the line from the Belfast North parliamentary/assembly constituency, but is physically separated from the rest of Belfast West by an extensive series of separation barriers—peace walls—owned (together with five daytime gates into the Falls area) by the Department of Justice. Together with areas of more substantial housing in the Oldpark district, these are wedged between Protestant working-class housing stretching from Tiger’s Bay out the Shore Road on one side, and up the Shankill (the original Antrim Road) on the other. To the north, it stretched out along roads which drew into the town migrants from Scots-settled hinterland of County Antrim. In 1997, unionists lost overall control of Belfast City Council for the first time in its history. Beginning in 1970 with the Falls curfew, and followed in 1971 by internment, this included counterinsurgency measures directed chiefly at the Provisional Irish Republican Army. At the end of the Second World War, the Unionist government undertook programmes of "slum clearance" (the Blitz had exposed the "uninhabitable" condition of much of the city’s housing) which involved decanting populations out of mill and factory built red-brick terraces and into new peripheral housing estates.

In the greatest loss of life in any air raid outside of London, more than a thousand people were killed. In addition to the shipyards and the Short & Harland aircraft factory, the Belfast Blitz severely damaged or destroyed more than half the city’s housing stock, and devastated the old town centre around High Street. Until "troubles" returned at the end of the 1960s, it was not uncommon in Belfast for the Ulster Unionist Party to have its council and parliamentary candidates returned unopposed. Industry drew in a new Catholic population settling largely in the west of the town—refugees from a rural poverty intensified by Belfast’s mechanisation of spinning and weaving and, in the 1840s, by famine. While other Irish towns experienced a loss of manufacturing, from the 1820s Belfast underwent rapid industrial expansion.

For tips from those in the know head to Visit Belfast and discover a wealth of things to do in Northern Ireland’s capital city. It’s home to the city’s Botanic Gardens and also No Alibis, Northern Ireland’s only independent crime fiction bookshop. Away from the centre, discover Belfast’s quieter, budget-friendly options close to Queen’s University. Join in the festive cheer in Belfast – explore the magic of Christmas with twinkling market stalls and sparkling illuminations. Get a flavour for Belfast with tours to its top food and drink spots, from cosy dining and gin jaunts to off-the-beaten-track surprises. From bobbing along in an inflatable water zorb to paddling on a two-person kayak – take to Belfast’s River Lagan for an adventurous and adrenaline-filled time.

Barhop in the Cathedral Quarter

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. What is sometimes referred to as the Catholic equivalent of the Orangemen, the much smaller Ancient Order of Hibernians, confines its parades to nationalist areas in west and north Belfast, as do republicans commemorating the Easter Rising. While some local feeder and return marches have a history of sectarian disturbance, in recent years, events have generally passed off without serious incident. It has grown from its original August Féile on the Falls Road, to a year-round programme with a broad range of arts events, talks and discussions. The city has a number of community arts, and arts education, centres, among them the Crescent Arts Centre in south Belfast, the Irish-language Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich in west Belfast, The Duncairn in north Belfast and, in the east of the city, EastSide Arts.

In 1997, unionists lost overall control of Belfast City Council for the first time in its history, with the Alliance Party holding the balance of power. Her duties include presiding over meetings of the council, receiving distinguished visitors to the city, representing and promoting the city on the national and international stage. Formerly known as Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education, it specialises in vocational education.