Belfast

“ BELFAST TO THE CAUSEWAY THE Lough of Belfast has a reputation for beauty almost as great as that of the Bay of Dublin; but though, on the day I left Belfast for Larne, the morning was fine, and the sky clear and blue above, an envious mist lay on the water, which hid all its beauties from the dozen of passengers on the Larne coach. ”

“ Below him, by the sea, were the handsome houses which the richer class of merchants were already beginning to build for themselves on the shores of the lough. Between Carnmoney and Belfast he passed the bleach greens of the linen weavers, where the long webs of the cloth, for which Belfast was afterwards to become famous, lay white or yellow on the grass. On his right rose the rugged sides of the Cave Hill. High above its rocks towered MacArt’s fort, where Wolfe Tone, M’Cracken, Samuel Neilson, and his new friend, James Hope, with others, had sworn the oath of the United Irishmen. ”

“ They call Belfast the Irish Liverpool: if people are for calling names, it would be better to call it the Irish London at once—the chief city of the kingdom, at any rate. It looks hearty, thriving, and prosperous, as if it had money in its pockets and roast beef for dinner: it has no pretensions to fashion, but looks mayhap better in its honest broadcloth than some people in their shabby brocade. The houses are as handsome as at Dublin, with this advantage, that people seem to live in them. ”

“ Belfast is the center of a great manufacturing district. Each factory is surrounded by groups of neat two-story brick cottages, with gardens, churches, schoolhouses, and shops, which are very different from the rest of Ireland, and are similar to those in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Belfast ranks high among the manufacturing cities of the world. It is proud of the title of “The Chicago of Ireland.” The people are as boastful of their progress, their wealth, and their prosperity as those of its namesake. ”

“ Every man you meet tells you that a hundred years ago Belfast had only fifteen thousand population, while to-day it has nearly four hundred thousand; that its wealth has doubled six times in the last twenty-five years; that it has the largest shipyards, the largest tobacco factory, the largest spinning mills, and the largest rope walk in the world. ”

“ The stranger will be struck by the good looks not only of these spinsters, but of almost all the young women in the streets. I never saw a town where so many women are to be met—so many and so pretty—with and without bonnets, with good figures, in neat homely shawls and dresses. The grisettes of Belfast are among the handsomest ornaments of it; and as good, no doubt, and irreproachable in morals as their sisters in the rest of Ireland. ”

“ BELFAST AND ARMAGH THE stranger to Ireland will never imagine, as the result of his visit to Belfast, that the land is the home of the effete civilization that some English writers would have him believe.
Belfast, more than all other centres of population in Ireland, more even than Dublin, the capital, is the equal of any city of its size in the known world for transportation facilities of a thoroughly up-to-date order. ”

“ The Ulster people have nothing but contempt for us, and they ram Belfast down our throats until we're [Pg 389] sick of it. And a lot of their prosperity is just good luck and ... and favour. They've been well looked after by the English, and they're near everything ... coalfields and Lancashire. Do you think if Galway was where Belfast is, it wouldn't be as prosperous? If they're so almighty clever as they say they are, why don't they come and lead us, instead of clinging on to England like a pampered kid?..."
Henry listened patiently to John. ”

“ Ascending to the very summit of this hill, Mike turned the aeroplane in one of his familiar circles, and we made another wide sweep over Belfast. Below us we could see Belfast Castle. The Earl of Shaftesbury, grandson of the famous philanthropist, lives in this Castle, which is a modern mansion, as everything is around Belfast. The Earl has inherited some of the sterling qualities of his illustrious grandfather, and is a public spirited citizen. He was elected Lord Mayor of Belfast in 1907. Belfast is a remarkable city, different from any other city in Ireland. ”

“ In Belfast the interdependence of the linen and the ship-building trades—in one of which the men, while in the other the women, of many families are employed—is one of the most powerful instruments of social progress. The narrow sea which separates it from Scotland and the geographical conformation of Belfast Lough have, moreover, a great bearing on its prosperity. ”

“ I should like to tell you about some of the admirable charitable institutions of Belfast—in which I became interested—and describe some of the beautiful scenery of the neighborhood, but I have so many things and places to speak of in this chapter, that I must not allow myself to linger longer here.
While at Belfast, we made a delightful excursion to Shane's Castle, the seat of Lord O'Neil.
The O'Neils were for many centuries kings of Ulster, and were a very proud and warlike race. ”

“ Having left Belfast amid the wonderful scenes described in the last chapter, Carson, Londonderry, F.E. Smith, Beresford, and the rest of the distinguished visitors awoke next morning—if the rollers of the Irish Sea permitted sleep—in the oily waters of the Mersey, to find at the landing-stage a crowd that in dimensions and demeanour seemed to be a duplicate of the one they had left outside the dock gates at Belfast. ”

“ It has a public library. Among the industries of Belfast are trade with the surrounding country, the manufacture of shoes, leather boards, axes, and sashes, doors and blinds, and the building and repairing of boats. Its exports in 1908 were valued at $285,913 and its imports at $10,313. Belfast was first settled (by Scottish-Irish) in 1769, and in 1773 was incorporated as a town under its present name (from Belfast, Ireland) . The town was almost completely destroyed by the British in 1779, but its rebuilding was begun in the next year. ”

“ The extraordinarily rapid growth of Belfast shows what manufactures can do for a city, for without them it would still be hardly more important than any of the provincial towns of Ulster. It has an excellent harbour, and besides its linen manufactures, it has become one of the most important ship-building places in the world. ”

“ Belfast is very like Chicago. If a Belfast man were taken while asleep and transported on a magic carpet to Chicago, he would not, on waking up, feel that anything very strange had happened to him. The outward circumstances of life would indeed be different, but he would find himself in all essential respects at home. ”

“ Look at the wonderfully rapid rise of Belfast, originating in the enterprise of individuals, and developed by the earnest and anxious industry of the inhabitants of Ulster!
"God save Ireland!" By all means. But Ireland cannot be saved without the help of the people who live in it. God endowed men, there as elsewhere, with reason, will, and physical power; and it is by patient industry only that they can open up a pathway to the enduring prosperity of the country. There is no Eden in nature. ”

“ But Belfast is the only large Irish town in which the traveller is not disgusted by the loathsome aspect and odour of long lines of human dens far inferior in comfort and cleanliness to the dwellings which, in happier countries, are provided for cattle. ”

“ Within the immediate vicinity of Belfast—at least within the area of the great city’s influence—is the sleepy old town of Carrickfergus, once the site of one of the most powerful fortresses in Ireland. Now it is but a memory, so far as its impregnability goes, though its remains are suggestive enough of the position it once occupied; one of great strategic value when the means of ancient warfare are considered. ”

“ The population gradually increased. In 1788 Belfast had 12,000 inhabitants. But it was not until after the Union with Great Britain that the town made so great a stride. At the beginning of the present century it had about 20,000 inhabitants. At every successive census, the progress made was extraordinary, until now the population of Belfast amounts to over 225,000. ”

“ Sir Samuel Clithering was sent over to Belfast, to report, confidentially, on the temper of the people. He must have sent off his despatch before the Dean’s army marched in, before any of the armies then converging on the city arrived, before the Belfast people had got out their rifles. The Government in the most solemn and impressive manner, proclaimed the meeting. That was the news with which we were greeted when our train drew up at the platform in Belfast.
The proclamation of meeting is one of the regular resources of governments when Irish affairs get into a particularly annoying tangle. ”

“ When I visited Belfast in 1840, the town contained 75,000 inhabitants. They are now over 225,006, or more than trebled,—Belfast being the tenth town, in point of population, in the United Kingdom.
The spirit and enterprise of the people are illustrated by the variety of their occupations. They do not confine themselves to one branch of business; but their energies overflow into nearly every department of industry. Their linen manufacture is of world-wide fame; but much less known are their more recent enterprises. The production of aerated waters, for instance, is something extraordinary. ”

“ Having obtained the freehold of the land which they were previously only permitted to occupy on annual leases, the people of Belfast are now carrying out extensive permanent improvements in every direction, and pushing their town into that prominence as a Victorian centre which it would have attained long ago but for the adverse circumstances of its birth. ”

“ Belfast is an antiquated novelty. Such a thing is still being excused for seeming _parvenu_ when it is discovered to be _passe._ For instance, it is only by coming in touch with some of the controversies surrounding the Convention, that an Englishman could realise how much the mentality of the Belfast leader is not so much that of a remote seventeenth century Whig, as that of a recent nineteenth century Radical. ”

“ Belfast and its environs cannot be said to be very rich in monuments of antiquity. There are, however, two round towers not far from it; one at Antrim, some fifteen miles away, in excellent preservation; and one at Drumbo, in the County Down, about five miles from the city. The last is in a ruined condition—not much more than thirty feet of it remains. But Belfast can boast of the most extraordinary monument of antiquity of its kind in Ireland being in its immediate vicinity. This is the vast rath known as the Giant’s Ring. There is nothing in Ireland so fine as it. ”

“ Belfast is the most prosperous place in Ireland and an example of matchless concentration of power, industry, and ability.
The people have good ground for their vanity, and while their claims are somewhat exaggerated, few cities have so much to boast of. One of the shipyards has produced more than four hundred ocean steamers, another built the first turbine that ever floated on the ocean, and together they employ fifteen thousand hands. The machine shops of Belfast are also famous. ”

“ It was the fashion in England and throughout three-quarters of Ireland to laugh at Belfast. Nobody believed that a community of merchants, manufacturers and artisans actually meant to take up arms, shoot off guns and hack at the bodies of their fellow-men with swords and spears. This thing, at the beginning of the twentieth century, seemed incredible. To politicians it was simply unthinkable. For politics are a game played in strict accordance with a set of rules. ”

“ III. BELFAST—TEMPERANCE—"THE EVE OF A GREAT REBELLION"—THE POOR HOUSE— THE POLICE—COUNTY DOWN—MAKING ENDS MEET—WAITING FOR SOMETHING TO TURN UP. Belfast seems a busy town, bustle on her streets, merchandise on her quays. Did not meet one man on the streets with the hopeless look on his face of the poor fellow who carried my trunk in Liverpool. There must be distress however, for the mills are not running full time, and there are entertainments got up for the benefit of the deserving poor. I saw no signs of intoxication on the streets, yet the number of whiskey shops is appalling. ”

“ The country is also adorned with copses, woods, and avenues. A new crop begins to appear in the fields — a crop almost peculiar to the neighbourhood of Belfast. It is a plant with a very slender erect green stem, which, when full grown, branches at the top into a loose corymb of blue flowers. This is the flax plant, the cultivation and preparation of which gives employment to a great number of persons, and is to a large extent the foundation of the prosperity of Belfast.
The first appearance of the linen industry of Ireland, as we approach Belfast from the west, is observed at Portadown. ”

“ A village and a cotton mill now rise where the white house then stood alone; and all the shore is adorned by a gay succession of country houses, shrubberies and flower beds. Belfast has become one of the greatest and most flourishing seats of industry in the British isles. A busy population of eighty thousand souls is collected there. The duties annually paid at the Custom House exceed the duties annually paid at the Custom House of London in the most prosperous years of the reign of Charles the Second. Other Irish towns may present more picturesque forms to the eye. ”