Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland, and with its 286 000 inhabitants it is the largest city in Northern Ireland, second largest on the island of Ireland and the eighteenth in the UK measured by population. Belfast was given city status in 1888The city has been the capital of Northern Ireland since 1921 and has, since the 17th century, been a place for financial growth and industry. The town is also the place where the world famous ocean liner Titanic was built in the early 1900, and today the Harland and Wolff shipyard who built the ship is the world’s biggest dry dock. And there has been built a monument in the city called “Titanic Belfast” and the exhibits in this building tells the story of RMS Titanic’s maiden voyage and her fate.
The city was heavily bombed during World War Two and many people were killed or became homeless. The biggest loss of lives happened in one raid in 1941, were approximately one thousand people were killed. The only other city that lost more people during a night raid in the Blitz was London. In the years between 1969 and 1998, Belfast experienced many conflicts between the Catholic and Protestants in the town. These conflicts, often referred to as the Troubles, cost over 1600 lives and gave the city its nickname “European Capital of Terrorism”. Fortunately there have been a lot less political violence in the last years, and because of this the city’s truism have grown and the economy has also improved. The city is actually considered so safe that it was recently awarded the accolade for being the safest city in the UK. However, there are still remains of that dark period of time to be found in Belfast, the “Peace Lines” or “Peace Walls” can still be seen and they divides the inner city into 14 districts.
