Belfast Travel Guide - History

The English believed that Ireland was a potential enemy and made constant incursions to try and gain control. Ulster managed to resist the advances until 1607, when many of the region's nobility fled to France and Spain in what was known as the 'Flight of the Earls'. The Plantation of Ulster saw their abandoned lands distributed to staunch Protestants from England and Scotland.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, Belfast expanded rapidly as a commercial and industrial centre with thriving industries such as tobacco, engineering, linen and shipbuilding. For a short time it became the largest and commercially most important city in Ireland, ahead of Dublin.

In 1921, the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed and designated six counties in the north to remain as part of the United Kingdom, while the other 26 counties would gain complete independence. Belfast became the capital of Northern Ireland. The city has suffered for many years from sectarian conflict between the Protestant and Roman Catholic residents.

This escalated in 1968 following protests by students at Belfast's Queen's University, and the result was a bloody civil conflict between the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the UDA/UVF (Protestant/Loyalist paramilitaries). Eventually, an historic agreement was signed in 1998 that gave the province limited powers and its own parliament.