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On 28 September 1912, unionists massed at Belfast's City Hall to sign the Ulster Covenant, pledging to use "all means which may be found necessary to defeat the present conspiracy to set up a Home Rule Parliament in Ireland". This was followed by the drilling and eventual arming of a 100,000-strong Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). The immediate crisis was averted by the onset of the Great War. The UVF formed the 36th (Ulster) Division whose sacrifices in the Battle of the Somme continue to be commemorated in the city by unionist and loyalist organisations.
In 1920–22, as Belfast emerged as the capital of the six counties remaining as Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom, there was widespread violence. 8,000 "disloyal" workers were driven from their jobs in the shipyards: in addition to Catholics, "rotten Prods" – Protestants whose labour politics disregarded sectarian distinctions. Gun battles, grenade attacks and house burnings contributed to as many as 500 deaths. A curfew remained in force until 1924. The lines drawn saw off the challenge to "unionist unity" posed by labour. Industry had been paralysed by strikes in 1907 and again in 1919 (when the city was effectively policed by strikers). Until "troubles" returned at the end of the 1960s, it was not uncommon in Belfast for the Ulster Unionist Party to have its and candidates returned unopposed.
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In 1932, the opening of the new buildings for Northern Ireland's devolved Parliament at Stormont was overshadowed by the protests of the unemployed and ten days of running street battles with the police. The government conceded increases in Outdoor Relief, but labour unity was short lived. In 1935, celebrations of King George V's Jubilee and of the annual Twelfth were followed by deadly riots and expulsions, a sectarian logic that extended itself to the interpretation of darkening events in Europe. Labour candidates found support for the anti-clerical Spanish Republic (marked today by a "No Pasaran!" stained glass window in City Hall) characterised as another instance of No-Popery.
In 1938, nearly a third of industrial workers were unemployed, malnutrition was a major issue, and at 9.6% the city's infant mortality rate (compared with 5.9% in Sheffield, England) was among the highest in United Kingdom.
The Blitz and post-war development.
In the spring of 1941, the German "Luftwaffe" appeared twice over Belfast. 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. In the greatest loss of life in any air raid outside of London, more than a thousand people were killed.
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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. At the same time, a British-funded welfare state "revolutionised access" to education and health care. The resulting rise in expectations; together with the uncertainty caused by the decline of the city's Victorian-era industries, contributed to growing protest, and counter protest, in the 1960s over the Unionist government's record on civil and political rights.
The Troubles.
For reasons that nationalists and unionists dispute, the public protests of the late 1960s soon gave way to communal violence (in which as many as 60,000 people were intimidated from their homes) and to loyalist and republican paramilitarism. Introduced onto the streets in August 1969, the British Army committed to the longest continuous deployment in its history, Operation Banner. 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. The PIRA characterised their operations, including the bombing of Belfast's commercial centre, as a struggle against British occupation.
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Preceded by loyalist and republican ceasefires, the 1998 "Good Friday" Belfast Agreement returned a new power-sharing legislative assembly and executive to Stormont. In the intervening years in Belfast, some 20,000 people had been injured, and 1,500 killed.
Eighty-five percent of the conflict-related deaths had occurred within 1,000 metres of the communal interfaces, largely in the north and west of the city. The security barriers erected at these interfaces are an enduring physical legacy of the Troubles. The 14 neighbourhoods they separate are among the 20 most deprived wards in Northern Ireland. In May 2013, the Northern Ireland Executive committed to the removal of all peace lines by mutual consent. The target date of 2023 was passed with only a small number dismantled.
The more affluent districts escaped the worst of the violence, but the city centre was a major target. This was especially so during the first phase of the PIRA campaign in the early 1970s, when the organisation hoped to secure quick political results through maximum destruction. Including car bombs and incendiaries, between 1969 and 1977 the city experienced 2,280 explosions. In addition to the death and injury caused, they accelerated the loss of the city's Victorian fabric.
21st century.
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Since the turn of the century, the loss of employment and population in the city centre has been reversed. This reflects the growth of the service economy, for which a new district has been developed on former dockland, the Titanic Quarter. The growing tourism sector paradoxically lists as attractions the murals and peace walls that echo the violence of the past. In recent years, "Troubles tourism" has presented visitors with new territorial markers: flags, murals and graffiti in which loyalists and republicans take opposing sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The demographic balance of some areas has been changed by immigration (according to the 2021 census just under 10% of the city's population was born outside the British Isles), by local differences in births and deaths between Catholics and Protestants, and by a growing number of, particularly younger, people no longer willing to self-identify on traditional lines.
In 1997, unionists lost overall control of Belfast City Council for the first time in its history. The election in 2011 saw Irish nationalist councillors outnumber unionist councillors, with Sinn Féin becoming the largest party, and the cross-community Alliance Party holding the balance of power.
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In the 2016 Brexit referendum, Belfast's four parliamentary constituencies returned a substantial majority (60 percent) for remaining within the European Union, as did Northern Ireland as a whole (55.8), the only UK region outside London and Scotland to do so. In February 2022, the Democratic Unionist Party, which had actively campaigned for Brexit, withdrew from the power-sharing executive and collapsed the Stormont institutions to protest the 2020 UK-EU Northern Ireland Protocol. With the promise of equal access to the British and European markets, this designates Belfast as a point of entry to the European Single Market within whose regulatory framework local producers will continue to operate. After two years, the standoff was resolved with an agreement to eliminate routine checks on UK-destined goods.
Cityscape.
Location and topography.
Belfast is at the mouth of the River Lagan at the head of Belfast Lough open through the North Channel to the Irish Sea and to the North Atlantic. In the course of the 19th century, the location's estuarine features were re-engineered. With dredging and reclamation, the lough was made to accommodate a deep sea port, and extensive shipyards. The Lagan was banked (in 1994 a weir raised its water level to cover what remained of the tidal mud flats) and its various tributaries were culverted On the model pioneered in 2008 by the Connswater Community Greenway some, including the course of the Farset, are now being considered for "daylighting".
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It remains the case that much of the city centre is built on an estuarine bed of "sleech": silt, peat, mud and—a source the city's ubiquitous red brick— soft clay, that presents a challenge for high-rise construction. (In 2007 this unstable foundation persuaded St Anne's Cathedral to abandon plans for a bell tower and substitute a lightweight steel spire). The city centre is also subject to tidal flood risk. Rising sea levels could mean, that without significant investment, flooding in the coming decades will be persistent.
The city is overlooked on the County Antrim side (to the north and northwest) by a precipitous basalt escarpment—the near continuous line of Divis Mountain (478 m), Black Mountain (389 m) and Cavehill (368 m)—whose "heathery slopes and hanging fields are visible from almost any part of the city". From County Down side (on the south and south east) it is flanked by the lower-lying Castlereagh and Hollywood hills. The sand and gravel Malone Ridge extends up river to the south-west.
North Belfast and Shankill.
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From 1820, Belfast began to spread rapidly beyond its 18th century limits. To the north, it stretched out along roads which drew into the town migrants from Scots-settled hinterland of County Antrim. Largely Presbyterian, they enveloped a number of Catholic-occupied "mill-row" clusters: New Lodge, Ardoyne and "the Marrowbone". 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.
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. These include Cupar Way where tourists are informed that, at 45 feet, the barrier is "three times higher than the Berlin Wall and has been in place for twice as long".
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With other working-class districts, Shankill suffered from the "collapse of old industrial Belfast". But it was also greatly affected from the 1960s by the city's most ambitious programme of "slum clearance". Red-brick, "two up, two down" terraced streets, typical of 19th century working-class housing, were replaced with flats, maisonettes, and car parks but few facilities. In a period of twenty years, due largely to redevelopment, 50,000 residents left the area leaving an aging population of 26,000 and more than 100 acres of wasteland.
Meanwhile, road schemes, including the terminus of the M1 motorway and the Westlink, demolished a mixed dockland community, Sailortown, and severed the streets linking the Shankill area and the rest of both north and west Belfast to the city centre.
New "green field" housing estates were built on the outer edges of the city. The onset of the Troubles overwhelmed attempts to promote these as "mixed" neighbourhoods so that the largest of these developments on the city's northern edge, Rathcoole, rapidly solidified as a loyalist community. In 2004, it was estimated that 98% of public housing in Belfast was divided along religious lines.
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Among the principal landmarks of north Belfast are the Crumlin Road Gaol (1845) now a major visitor attraction, Belfast Royal Academy (1785) - the oldest school in the city, St Malachy's College (1833), Holy Cross Church, Ardoyne (1902), Waterworks Park (1889), and Belfast Zoo (1934).
West Belfast.
In the mid-19th century rural poverty and famine drove large numbers of Catholic tenant farmers, landless labourers and their families toward Belfast. Their route brought them down the Falls Road and into what are now remnants of an older Catholic enclave around St Mary's Church, the town's first Catholic chapel (opened in 1784 with Presbyterian subscriptions), and Smithfield Market. Eventually, an entire west side of the city, stretching up the Falls Road, along the Springfield Road (encompassing the new housing estates built 1950s and 60s: Highfield, New Barnsley, Ballymurphy, Whiterock and Turf Lodge) and out past Andersonstown on the Stewartstown Road toward Poleglass, became near-exclusively Catholic and, in political terms, nationalist.
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Reflecting the nature of available employment as mill workers, domestics and shop assistants, the population, initially, was disproportionately female. Further opportunities for women on the Falls Road arose through developments in education and public health. In 1900, the Dominican Order opened St Mary's [Teacher] Training College, and in 1903 King Edward VII opened the Royal Victoria Hospital at the junction with the Grosvenor Road. Extensively redeveloped and expanded, the hospital has a staff of more than 8,500.
Landmarks in the area include the Gothic-revival St Peter's Cathedral (1866, signature twin spires added in 1886); Clonard Monastery (1911), the Conway Mill (1853/1901, re-developed as a community enterprise, arts and education centre in 1983); Belfast City Cemetery (1869) and, best known for its republican graves, Milltown Cemetery (1869).
The area's greatest visitor attractions are its wall and gable-end murals. In contrast to those in loyalist areas, where Israel is typically the only outside reference, these range more freely beyond the local conflict frequently expressing solidarity with Palestinians, with Cuba, and with Basque and Catalan separatists.
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South Belfast.
West Belfast is separated from South Belfast, and from the otherwise abutting loyalist districts of Sandy Row and the Donegall Road, by rail lines, the M1 Motorway (to Dublin and the west); industrial and retail parks, and the remnants of the Blackstaff (Owenvarra) bog meadows.
Belfast began stretching up-river in the 1840s and 50s: out the Ormeau and Lisburn roads and, between them, running along a ridge of higher ground, the Malone Road. 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.
Further out still, where they did not survive as public parks, from the 1960s the great-house demesnes of the city's former mill-owners and industrialists were developed for public housing: loyalist estates such as Seymour Hill and Belvoir. Meanwhile, in Malone and along the river embankments, new houses and apartment blocks have been squeezed in, increasing the general housing density.
Beyond the Queen's University area the area's principal landmarks are the 15-storey tower block of Belfast City Hospital (1986) on the Lisburn Road, and the Lagan Valley Regional Park through which a towpath extends from the City-centre quayside to Lisburn.
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Northern Ireland's three permanent diplomatic missions are situated on the Malone Road, the consulates of China, Poland and the United States.
East Belfast.
The first district on the right bank of the Lagan (the County Down side) to be incorporated in Belfast was Ballymacarrett in 1853. Harland & Wolff, whose gantry cranes, Samson & Goliath, tower over the area, was long the mainstay of employment — although less securely so for the townland's Catholics (In 1970, when the yard still had a workforce of 10,000, only 400 Catholics were employed). Tolerated in periods of expansion as navvies and casual labourers, they concentrated in a small enclave, the Short Strand, which has continued into this century to feature as a sectarian flashpoint. Home to around 2,500 people, it is the only distinctly nationalist area in the east of the river.
East Belfast developed from the Queens Bridge (1843), through Ballymacarrett, east along the Newtownards Road and north (along the east shore of the Lough) up the Holywood Road; and from the Albert Bridge (1890) south east out the Cregagh and Castlereagh roads. The further out, the more substantial, and less religiously segregated, the housing until again encountering the city's outer ring of public housing estates: loyalist Knocknagoney, Lisnasharragh, and Tullycarnet.
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This century, efforts have been made to add to East Belfast's two obvious visitor attractions: Samson & Goliath (the "banana yellow" Harland & Wolff cranes date only from the early 1970s) and the Parliament Buildings at Stormont. What is marketed now as EastSide, features, at the intersection of the Connswater and Comber Greenways and next to the EastSide Visitor Centre, CS Lewis Square (2017), named and themed in honour of the local author of "The Chronicles of Narnia." Next to the former the Harland & Wolff Drawing Offices (now an hotel), stands the "cultural nucleus to Titanic Quarter", "Titanic" Belfast (2012) whose interactive galleries tell the liner's ill-fated story.
In 2015, the Orange Order opened the Museum of Orange Heritage on the Cregagh Road with the aim of educating the wider public about "the origins, traditions and continued relevance" of the parading institution.
City Centre.
Belfast City Centre is roughly bounded by the ring roads constructed since the 1970s: the M3 which sweeps across the dockland to the north; the Westlink that connects to the M1 for points south and west; and, with less certainty, the Bruce Street and Bankmore connectors that tie back toward the Lagan at the Gasworks Business Park and the beginning of the Ormeau Road. This embraces "the Markets", the one remaining inner-city area of housing. 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, now a food and craft market popular with visitors to the city.
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Architectural heritage.
Among surviving elements of the pre-Victorian town are the Belfast Entries, 17th-century alleyways off High Street, including, in Winecellar Entry, White's Tavern (rebuilt 1790); the elliptical First Presbyterian (Non-Subscribing) Church (1781–83) in Rosemary Street (whose members led the abolitionist charge against Greg and Cunningham); the Assembly Rooms (1769, 1776, 1845) on Bridge Street; St George's Church of Ireland (1816) on the High Street site of the old Corporation Church; St Mary's Church (1782) in Chapel Lane, which is the oldest Catholic church in the city. The oldest public building in Belfast, Clifton House (1771–74), the Belfast Charitable Society poorhouse, is on North Queen Street. It is now partly cut off from the city centre by arterial roads. In addition there are small sets of city-centre Georgian terraces.
Of the much larger Victorian city a substantial legacy has survived the Blitz, The Troubles and planning and development. Among the more notable examples are St Malachy's Roman Catholic Church (1844) and the original college building of Queen's University Belfast (1849), both in a Tudor style; the Palm House in the Botanic Gardens (1852); the Renaissance revival Union Theological College (1853) and Ulster Bank (now Merchant Hotel) (1860); the Italianate Ulster Hall (1862), and the National Trust restored ornate Crown Liquor Saloon (1885, 1898) (a setting for the classic film, "Odd Man Out", starring James Mason); the oriental-themed Grand Opera House (1895) (bombed several times during the Troubles), and the Romanesque revival St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Donegall Street (1877).
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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. Its Edwardian design influenced the Victoria Memorial in Calcutta, India, and Durban City Hall in South Africa. The dome is high and figures above the door state "Hibernia encouraging and promoting the Commerce and Arts of the City".
Nearby is the Renaissance and Baroque revival Scottish Provident Institution (1902). Opposite is a branch of the Ulster Bank which is built behind the classical facade of a former Methodist church dating from 1846.
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. The north transept, featuring on its exterior "the largest Celtic cross in Ireland", was completed in 1981, and a final addition, a 40-metre stainless steel "Spire of Hope" was installed in 2007.
The neoclassical Royal Courts of Justice were opened on Oxford Street in 1933.
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Redevelopment.
The opening Victoria Square Shopping Centre in 2008 was to symbolise the rebound of the city centre since its days as a restricted security zone during the Troubles. But retail footfall in the centre is limited by competition with out-of-town shopping centres and with internet retailing. As of November 2023, footfall had not recovered pre-COVID pandemic levels. There are compensating trends: the growth in tourism and hospitality which has included a sustained boom in hotel construction.
The City Council also talks of a "residential-led regeneration". New townhouse and apartments schemes are being developed for the city's quays, and for Titanic Quarter. The completion in 2023 of Ulster University's enhanced Belfast campus (in "one of the largest higher education capital builds in Europe") and the determination of Queen's University to compete with the private sector in the provision of student housing, has fostered the construction downtown of multiple new student residences.
Rough sleeping and homelessness.
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People can be found sleeping rough on the streets of the city centre. Numbers, while growing, may be comparatively small for a city of its size in the British Isles. In 2022, counts and estimates by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive identified a total of 26 rough sleepers in Belfast. This is against a background (in 2023) of 2,317 people (0.67% of residents) presenting as homeless, many of whom are in temporary accommodation and shelters. Such figures, however, do not include all those living in severely overcrowded conditions, involuntarily sharing with other households on a long-term basis, or sleeping rough in hidden locations.
The "Quarters".
Since 2001, buoyed by increasing numbers of tourists, the city council has promoted a number of cultural quarters.
The Cathedral Quarter comprises much of Belfast's old trade and warehousing district in the narrow streets and entries around St Anne's Cathedral, with a concentration of bars, beer gardens, clubs and restaurants (including two establishments claiming descent from the early town, White's and The Duke of York) and performance spaces (most notably the Black Box and Oh Yeah). It hosts a yearly visual and performing arts festival. The adjoining Custom House Square is one of the city's main outdoor venues for free concerts and street entertainment.
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Without defined geographical boundaries, the Gaeltacht Quarter encompasses Irish-speaking Belfast. (According to the 2021 census, 15.5% of people in the city have some knowledge of Irish, 4% speak it daily). It is generally understood as an area around the Falls Road in west Belfast served by the Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich cultural centre. It can be said to include, at the Skainos Centre in unionist east Belfast, Turas, a project that promotes Irish through night classes and cultural events in the belief that "the language belongs to all".
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.
Moving further south along the so-called "Golden Mile" of bars and clubs through Shaftesbury Square, there is the Queen's [University] Quarter. In addition to the university (spread over 250 buildings, of which 120 are listed as being of architectural merit), it is home to Botanic Gardens and the Ulster Museum.
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Finally, the Titanic Quarter covers of reclaimed land adjacent to Belfast Harbour, formerly known as "Queen's Island". Named after RMS "Titanic", launched here in 1911, work began in 2003 to transform some former shipyard land into "one of the largest waterfront developments in Europe". The current area houses "Titanic" Belfast, the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), two hotels, and multiple condo towers and shops, and the Titanic [film] Studios.
Culture.
Arts venues and festivals.
From Georgian Belfast, the city retains a civic legacy. In addition to Clifton House (Belfast Charitable Society, 1774), this includes the Linen Hall Library (Belfast Society for Promoting Knowledge, 1788), the Ulster Museum (founded in 1833 by the Belfast Natural History Society as the Belfast Municipal Museum and Art Gallery), and the Botanic Gardens (established in 1828 by the Belfast Botanic and Horticultural Society). These remain important cultural venues: in the case of the Gardens, for outdoor festivities including the Belfast Melā, the city's annual August celebration of global cultures.
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Of the many stage venues built in the nineteenth century, and film theatres built in the twentieth, there remains the Ulster Hall (1862), which hosts concerts (including those of the Ulster Orchestra), classical recitals and party-political meetings; the Grand Opera House (1895) badly damaged in bomb blasts in the early 1990s, restored and enlarged 2020; the Strand Cinema (1935) now being developed as an arts centre; and the Queens Film Theatre (QFT) (1968) focussed on art house and world cinema. The two independent cinemas offer their screens for the Belfast Film Festival and the Belfast International Arts Festival.
The principal stage for drama remains the Lyric Theatre (1951, 2011), the largest employer of actors and other theatre professionals in the region. At Queens University, drama students stage their productions at the Brian Friel Theatre, a 120-seat studio space (named after the renowned playwright).
In November 2011, Belfast became the smallest city to host the MTV Europe Music Awards. The event was made possible by the 11,000-seat Odyssey Arena (today the SSE Arena) which opened in 2000 at the entrance to the Titanic Quarter A further large-scale venue is the Waterfront Hall, a multi-purpose conference and entertainment centre that first opened in 1997. The main circular Auditorium seats 2,241 and is modelled on the Berlin Philharmonic Hall. In 2012, the Metropolitan Arts Centre, the "MAC", was opened in the Cathedral Quarter, offering a performance mix of music, theatre, dance and visual art.
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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.
Féile an Phobail, a community arts organisation born out of the Internment Commemorations in the west of the city, stages one of the largest community festivals in Europe. 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.
UNESCO City of Music.
In November 2021, Belfast became the third city in the British Isles to be designated by UNESCO as City of Music (after Glasgow in 2008 and Liverpool in 2016) and is one of 59 cities worldwide participating in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.
The greater part of Belfast's music scene is accommodated in the city's pubs and clubs. Irish traditional music ("trad") is a staple, and is supported, along with Ulster-Scots snare drum and pipe music, by the city's TradFest summer school.
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Music offerings also draw on the legacy of the punk and the underground club scene that developed during The Troubles (associated with the groups Stiff Little Fingers and The Undertones, and celebrated in the award-winning 2013 film, Good Vibrations). Snow Patrol's frontman Gary Lightbody led a line up of private donors that together with public funders established the Oh Yeah music centre in 2008. The Cathedral Quarter non-profit supports young musicians and these have engaged with a range of genres including Alternative rock, Indie rock, Electronica, Post rock, Post punk, Crossover, and Experimental rock.
Queens University hosts the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC), an institute for music-based practice and research. Its purpose designed building, Sonic Laboratory and multichannel studios were opened by Karlheinz Stockhausen, the German composer and "father of electronic music", in 2004.
Media.
Belfast is the home of the "Belfast Telegraph", "Irish News" and, first printed in 1737,"The News Letter", the oldest English-language daily newspaper in the world still in publication.
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The city is the headquarters of BBC Northern Ireland, and ITV station UTV. The Irish public service broadcaster, RTÉ has a studio in the city. The national radio station is BBC Radio Ulster with commercial radio stations such as Q Radio, U105, Blast 106 and Irish-language station Raidió Fáilte. Queen's Radio, a student-run radio station broadcasts from Queen's University Students' Union.
One of Northern Ireland's two community TV stations, NvTv, is based in the Cathedral Quarter of the city. Broadcasting only over the Internet is Homely Planet, the Cultural Radio Station for Northern Ireland, supporting community relations.
Parades.
Since the lifting in 1872 of a twenty-year party processions ban, Orange parades in celebration of "the Twelfth" [of July] and the bonfires of the previous evening, the eleventh, have been a fixed fixture of the Belfast calendar. On what became a public holiday in 1926, Belfast and guest Orange lodges (from both across Ulster and Scotland) with their pipe, flute, drum and accordion bands muster at Carlisle Circus, and parade through the city centre past the City Hall and out the Lisburn Road to a gathering in "the field" at Barnett Demesne. While some local feeder and return marches have a history of sectarian disturbance, in recent years, events have generally passed off without serious incident. The tradition is documented and celebrated in the Museum of Orange Heritage on the Cregagh Road in East Belfast.
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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. In August 1993, in a break with a history of nationalist exclusion from the city centre, a parade marking the introduction of internment in the 1971 proceeded up Royal Avenue toward the City Hall, where it was addressed by Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, in front of the statue of Queen Victoria.
Since 1998, the Belfast City Council has funded a city-centre St. Patrick's Day (17 March) celebration. It is organised by Féile an Phobail as a "carnival" complete with a parade featuring dancers, circus entertainers, floats, and giant puppets. Critical of what they perceive as an evolving nationalist festival, unionists on the City Council observe that "a lot of the Protestant Unionist Loyalist (PUL) community will stay away from the city centre on St Patrick's Day, the same as some stay away on the Twelfth of July".
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In 1991, Belfast hosted its first gay pride event. Belfast Pride, culminating in a city-centre parade at the end of July, is now one of the biggest annual festivals in the city and, according to its organisers, the largest LGBT+ festival in Ireland.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions organises an annual city-centre May Day march and rally. The International Workers Day has been a public holiday since 1978.
Demography.
In 2021, there were 345,418 residents within the expanded 2015 Belfast local government boundary and 634,600 in the Belfast Metropolitan Area, approximately one third of Northern Ireland's 1.9 million population.
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. Socio-economic areas radiate out from the Central Business District, with a pronounced wedge of affluence extending out the Malone Road and Upper Malone Road to the south. Deprivation levels are notable in the inner parts of the north and the west of the city. The areas around the Falls Road, Ardoyne and New Lodge (Catholic nationalist) and the Shankill Road (Protestant loyalist) experience some of the highest levels of social deprivation including higher levels of ill health and poor access to services. These areas remain firmly segregated, with 80 to 90 percent of residents being of the one religious designation.
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Consistent with the trend across all of Northern Ireland, the Protestant population within the city has been in decline, while the non-religious, other religious and Catholic population has risen. The 2021 census recorded the following: 43% of residents as Catholic, 12% as Presbyterian, 8% as Church of Ireland, 3% as Methodist, 6% as belonging to other Christian denominations, 3% to other religions and 24% as having either no religion or no declared religion.
In terms of community background, 47.93% were deemed to belong to, or to have been brought up in, the Catholic faith and 36.45% in a Protestant or other Christian-related denomination. The comparable figures in 2011 were 48.60% Catholic and 42.28% Protestant or other Christian-related denomination.
With respondents free to indicate more than one national identity, in 2021 the largest national identity group was "Irish only" with 35% of the population, followed by "British only" 27%, "Northern Irish only" 17%, "British and Northern Irish only" 7%, "Irish and Northern Irish only" 2%, "British, Irish and Northern Irish only" 2%, British and Irish less than 1% and Other identities with 10%.
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Insofar as the city's two indigenous minority languages (Irish and Ulster Scots) are concerned, figures are made available from the decennial UK census. On census day, 21 March 2021, 14.93% (43,798) in Belfast claimed to have some knowledge of the Irish language, whilst 5.21% (15,294) claimed to be able to speak, read, write and understand spoken Irish. 3.74% (10,963) of residents claimed to use Irish daily and 0.75% (2,192) claimed Irish is their main language. 7.17% (21,025) of people in the city claimed to have some knowledge of Ulster Scots, whilst 0.75% (2,207) claimed to be able to speak, read, write and understand spoken Ulster Scots. 0.83% (2,430) claimed to use Ulster Scots daily.
From the mid to late 19th century, there was a community of central European Jews (among its distinguished members, Hamburg-born Gustav Wilhelm Wolff of Harland & Wolff) and of Italians in Belfast. Today, the largest immigrant groups are Poles, Chinese and Indians. The 2011 census figures recorded a total non-white population of 10,219 or 3.3%, while 18,420 or 6.6% of the population were born outside the UK and Ireland. Almost half of those born outside the British Isles lived in south Belfast, where they comprised 9.5% of the population. The majority of the estimated 5,000 Muslims and 200 Hindu families living in Northern Ireland resided in the Greater Belfast area. In the 2021 census the percentage of the city's residents born outside the United Kingdom had risen to 9.8.
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Economy.
Employment profile.
Services (including retail, health, professional & scientific) account for three quarters of jobs in the Belfast. Only 6% remain in manufacturing. The balance is in distribution and construction. In recent years, unemployment has been comparatively low (under 3% in the summer of 2023) for the UK. On the other hand, Belfast has a high rate of people economically inactive (close to 30%). It is a group, encompassing homemakers, full-time carers, students and retirees, that in Belfast has been swollen by the exceptionally large proportion of the population (27%) with long-term health problems or disabilities (and who, in Northern Ireland generally, are less likely to be employed than in other UK regions).
An early report on the post-Belfast Agreement prospects for the city economy underscored another distinctive feature of its working-age population. While it appeared well qualified, with 24 per cent educated to degree level, at "the other end of the educational spectrum", 26 per cent had no qualifications at all, a much higher share than in English cities.
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Shipbuilding, aerospace and defence.
Of Belfast's Victorian-era industry, little remains. The last working linen factory—Copeland Linens Limited, based in the Shankill area—closed in 2013. In recent years Harland & Wolff, which at peak production in the Second World War had employed around 35,000 people, has had a workforce of no more than two or three hundred refurbishing oil rigs and fabricating off-shore wind turbines. A £1.6 billion Royal Navy contract has offered the yard a new lease, returning it to shipbuilding in 2025, a prospect secured by the purchase of insolvent yard by Spain's state-owned shipbuilder, Navantia.
In 1936, Short & Harland Ltd, a joint venture of Short Brothers and Harland & Wolff, began the manufacture of aircraft in the docks area. In 1989, the British government, which had nationalised the company during the Second World War, sold it to the Canadian aerospace company Bombardier. In 2020, it was sold on to the American aerostructure company Spirit AeroSystems. Producing aircraft components, it remains the largest manufacturing concern in Northern Ireland.
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Originating in the Short Brothers' missile division, since 2001 the Thales Group (owned by the French defense contractor Thales Air Defence Limited) has been producing short range air defence and anti-tank missiles including the NLAW shoulder-launched system and, from 2025, lightweight multirole missiles (LMMs), deployed against the Russian invasion by Ukraine..
Fintech and cybersecurity.
From the 1990s, Belfast established itself as a significant location for call centres and for other back-office services. Attracting U.S. operators such as Citi, Allstate, Liberty Mutual, Aflac and FD Technologies (Kx Systems), it as since been identified by the UK Treasury as "key fintech [financial technology] hub". Fintech's key areas (its "ABCD") are artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and big data.
The sector's principal constraint, cyber security, has been addressed since 2004 by the Queens University Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (IECIT), and its Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT). The IECIT is the anchor tenant at Catalyst (science park) in the Titanic Quarter, which hosts a cluster of companies seeking to offer innovative cyber-security solutions.
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Film.
Between 2018 and 2023, film and television production based largely in Belfast, and occupying significant new studio capacity in the ports area, contributed £330m to Northern Ireland's economy. There are two 8-acre media complexes (serviced by the adjacent City Airport): the Titanic Studios on Queen's Island (the Titanic Quarter) and across the Victoria Channel in Giant's Park on the Lough's north foreshore, the Belfast Harbour Studios. Together they offer 226,000 ft2 of studio space, plus offices and workshops, and have attracted U.S. production companies such as Amazon, HBO (including all eight series of its fantasy drama "Game of Thrones"), Paramount, Playtone, Universal, and Warner Bros.
At the beginning of 2024, Ulster University, in partnership with Belfast Harbour and supported by Northern Ireland Screen, announced an £72m investment to add to the complex a new virtual production, research and development, facility, Studio Ulster. Additional studio space is available at Loop Studios (formerly Britvic) on the Castlereagh Road in East Belfast.
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Tourism and hospitality.
Northern Ireland's peace dividend since the 1990s, which includes a marked increase in inward investment, has contributed to a large-scale redevelopment of the city centre. Significant projects included Victoria Square, the Cathedral Quarter, Laganside with the Odyssey complex and the landmark Waterfront Hall, the new Titanic Quarter with its "Titanic" Belfast visitor attraction, and the development of the original Short's harbour airfield as George Best Belfast City Airport.
These developments reflect a boom in tourism (32 million visitors between 2011 and 2018), and related hotel construction. This has included an entirely new phenomenon for Belfast: in 1999, the port received its first cruise ship. In 2023, Belfast welcomed 153 calls, 8% up from the pre-pandemic record set in 2019. Ship from 32 different countries landed 320,000 passengers.
Belfast has also seen growth of "conflict tourism". To the dismay of some, "tourists take photos of the division lines that are not consigned to history, but are a part of living Belfast: children play football against the walls that tourists flock to. The places and the people themselves have become a spectacle, an attraction." Tourist bosses and guides, however, are satisfied that the greater draw is city's other "must-see attractions", and its "convivial food and nightlife scene".
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EU/GB Trade.
Invest NI, Northern Ireland's economic development agency is pitching Belfast and its hinterland to foreign investors as "only region in the world able to trade goods freely with both GB and EU markets". This follows the 2020 Northern Ireland Protocol and the 2023 Windsor Framework, agreements between the British government and European Union, whereby, post-Brexit, Northern Ireland would effectively remain within the European Single Market for goods while, in principle, retaining unfettered access to the British domestic market. Despite the DUP's derailment of devolved government in protest, local business leaders largely welcomed the new trade regime, hailing the promise of dual EU-GB access as a critical opportunity.
In February 2024, the DUP consented to a return of the devolved Assembly and Executive on the understanding that neither the EU nor the British government would defend the integrity of their respective internal markets by conducting "routine" checks on the bulk of goods passing through Belfast, or other Northern Ireland, ports.
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Education.
Primary and secondary education.
Children from Catholic and Protestant homes in Belfast are taught, for the most part, separately on a pattern that, by the mid-nineteenth century, had been established throughout Ireland. Primary and secondary education is divided between (Catholic) Maintained Schools and (non-Catholic/ "Protestant") Controlled Schools. They are bound by the same curriculum, but their teaching staff are trained separately (in the university colleges of St Mary's and Stranmillis).
Since the 1980s, two smaller school sectors have emerged: grant-maintained Integrated schools, which by design bring together children and staff from both communities, and Irish language medium schools
The Belfast [later "Royal" Belfast] Academical Institution, opened its doors in 1810 with the intention, in the words of its founder, former United Irishman, William Drennan of being "perfectly unbiased by religious distinctions". The principle was not embraced by the town's middle-classes: in practice "Inst" provided a grammar education to the town's Presbyterian families while Anglicans favoured the older Royal Belfast Academy (1785); Catholics, St Malachy's diocesan college (1833) and Wesleyans, Methodist College Belfast (1865).
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Denominational lines have since blurred, with Catholics in particular moving into the controlled grammars. But the presence of 18 is a further feature of post-primary education in Belfast that distinguishes it from that of comparable cities in Great Britain where academic selection was abandoned in the 1960s and 70s. Partly prompted by the COVID disruption of external testing in 2021/22, some the city's grammars have begun to review and amend the practice. It is not clear that this will be on terms that reduce the degree of social segregation they have represented within the system.
In 2006, the Belfast Education and Library Board became part of the consolidated Education Authority for Northern Ireland. In Belfast, the Authority has responsibility for 156 primary, and 48 secondary schools (including the 18 grammars). The system is marked by stark inequalities in outcome. Around 30% of school leavers in the city do not attain 5 GCSEs, A* - C (including Maths and English). For those in receipt of free school meals, the figure rises to over 50%.
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Further and Higher education.
Belfast Metropolitan College ("Belfast Met") is a further education college with three main campuses around the city, including several smaller buildings. Formerly known as Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education, it specialises in vocational education. The college has over 53,000 students enrolled on full-time and part-time courses, making it one of the largest further education colleges in the UK and the largest in the island of Ireland.
Belfast has two universities. Queen's University Belfast was founded as a college in 1845. In 1908, the Catholic bishops lifted their ban on attendance and Queen's was granted university status. It is a member of the Russell Group, an association of 24 leading research-intensive universities in the UK, and is one of the largest universities in the UK with over 25,000 students – among them over 4,000 international students.
Ulster University, created in its current form in 1984, is a multi-centre university with a campus on the edge of the Cathedral Quarter of Belfast. Since 2021, this original "Arts College" campus has undergone a £1.4bn expansion to accommodate offerings across all departments. The project promises to bring 15,500 staff and students into the city, and to generate 5,000 new jobs.
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Governance.
Belfast was granted borough status by James VI and I in 1613 and official city status by Queen Victoria in 1888. Since 1973 it has been a local government district under local administration by Belfast City Council.
Belfast has been represented in the British House of Commons since 1801, and in Northern Ireland Assembly, as presently constituted, since 1998.
Local government.
Belfast City Council is responsible for a range of powers and services, including land-use and community planning, parks and recreation, building control, arts and cultural heritage. The city's principal offices are those of the Lord Mayor of Belfast, Deputy Lord Mayor and High Sheriff. Like other elected positions within the Council such as Committee chairs, these are filled since 1998 using the D'Hondt system so that in recent years the position has rotated between councillors from the three largest factions, Sinn Féin, the DUP and the Alliance Party.
The first Lord Mayor of Belfast in 1892, Daniel Dixon, like every mayor but one until 1997 (Alliance in 1979), was a unionist. The first nationalist Lord Mayor of Belfast was Alban Maginness of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) in 1997. The current Lord Mayor is Micky Murray of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, who has been in the position of Lord Mayor since 3 June 2024. His 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.
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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. In 2023, unionists retained just 17 of 60 seats on the council, leaving nationalists (Sinn Féin and the SDLP) just 4 seats short of a majority. In addition to the 11 Alliance members there are four other councillors, 3 Green and 1 People Before Profit, who refuse a nationalist/unionist designation.
Northern Ireland Assembly and Westminster elections.
As Northern Ireland's capital city, Belfast is host to the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont, the site of the devolved legislature for Northern Ireland. Belfast is divided into four Northern Ireland Assembly and UK parliamentary constituencies: Belfast North, Belfast West, Belfast South and Mid Down and Belfast East. All four extend beyond the city boundaries to include parts of Antrim and Newtownabbey and Lisburn and Castlereagh districts. In United Kingdom elections, each constituency returns one MP, on a "first past the post" basis to Westminster. In NI Assembly elections each returns, on the basis of proportional representation, five MLAs to Stormont.
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In the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections in 2022, Belfast elected 7 Sinn Féin, 5 DUP, 5 Alliance Party, 1 SDLP, 1 UUP and 1 PBPA MLAs. In the 2017 UK general election, the DUP won all but the Sinn Féin stronghold of Belfast West. In the 2019 and 2024 UK general elections, they retained only Belfast East, losing Belfast North to Sinn Féin and Belfast South to the SDLP.
Infrastructure.
Hospitals.
The Belfast Health & Social Care Trust is one of five trusts that were created on 1 April 2007 by the Department of Health. Belfast contains most of Northern Ireland's regional specialist centres.
The Royal Hospitals site in west Belfast (junction of Grosvenor and Falls roads) contains two hospitals. The Royal Victoria Hospital (its origins in a number of successive institutions, beginning in 1797 with The Belfast Fever Hospital) provides both local and regional services. Specialist services include cardiac surgery, critical care and the Regional Trauma Centre. The Children's Hospital (Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children) provides general hospital care for children in Belfast and provides most of the paediatric regional specialities.
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The Belfast City Hospital (evolved from the 1841 Belfast Union Workhouse and infirmary) on the Lisburn Road is the regional specialist centre for haematology and is home to a major cancer centre. The Mary G McGeown Regional Nephrology Unit at the City Hospital is the kidney transplant centre and provides regional renal services for Northern Ireland.
Musgrave Park Hospital (1920) in south Belfast specialises in orthopaedics, rheumatology, sports medicine and rehabilitation. It is home to Northern Ireland's first Acquired Brain Injury Unit.
The Mater Hospital (founded in 1883 by the Sisters of Mercy) on the Crumlin Road provides a wide range of services, including acute inpatient, emergency and maternity services, to north Belfast and the surrounding areas.
The Ulster Hospital, Upper Newtownards Road, Dundonald, on the eastern edge of the city, first founded as the Ulster Hospital for Women and Sick Children in 1872, is the major acute hospital for the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust. It delivers a full range of outpatient, inpatient and daycare medical and surgical services.
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Transport.
Belfast is a relatively car-dependent city by European standards, with an extensive road network including the M2 and M22 motorway route.
Black taxis are common in the city, operating on a share basis in some areas. These are outnumbered by private hire taxis. Bus and rail public transport in Northern Ireland is operated by subsidiaries of Translink. Bus services in the city proper and the nearer suburbs are operated by Translink Metro, with services focusing on linking residential districts with the city centre on 12 quality bus corridors running along main radial roads,
More distant suburbs are served by Ulsterbus. Northern Ireland Railways provides suburban services along three lines running through Belfast's northern suburbs to Carrickfergus, Larne and Larne Harbour, eastwards towards Bangor and south-westwards towards Lisburn and Portadown. This service is known as the Belfast Suburban Rail system. Belfast is linked directly to Coleraine, Portrush and Derry. Belfast has a direct rail connection with Dublin called "Enterprise" operated jointly by NIR and the Irish rail company Iarnród Éireann.
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In 2024, the city's Europa Bus Centre and Great Victoria Street rail station, was replaced by a new Belfast Central Station. It is "the largest integrated transport facility on the island of Ireland" with bus stands, railway platforms, and facilities for taxis and bicycles.
The city has two airports: George Best Belfast City Airport, close to the city centre on the eastern shore of Belfast Lough and Belfast International Airport 30–40 minutes to the west on the shore of Lough Neagh. Both operate UK domestic and European flights. The city is also served by Dublin Airport, two hours to the south, with direct inter-continental connections.
In addition to its extensive freight business, the Belfast Port offers car-ferry sailings, operated by Stena Line, to Cairnryan in Scotland (5 Sailings Daily. 2 hours 22 minutes) and to Liverpool-Birkenhead (14 sailings weekly. 8 hours). The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company provides a seasonal connection to Douglas, Isle of Man.
The Glider bus service is a new form of transport in Belfast. Introduced in 2018, it is a bus rapid transit system linking East Belfast, West Belfast and the Titanic Quarter from the City Centre. Using articulated buses, the £90 million service saw a 17% increase in its first month in Belfast, with 30,000 more people using the Gliders every week. The service is being recognised as helping to modernise the city's public transport.
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National Cycle Route 9 to Newry, which will eventually connect with Dublin, starts in Belfast.
Utilities.
Half of Belfast's water is supplied via the Aquarius pipeline from the Silent Valley Reservoir in County Down, created to collect water from the Mourne Mountains. The other half is now supplied from Lough Neagh via Dunore Water Treatment Works in County Antrim. The citizens of Belfast pay for their water in their rates bill. Plans to bring in additional water tariffs were deferred by devolution in May 2007.
Power is provided from a number of power stations via NIE Networks Limited transmission lines. (Just under a half of electricity consumption in Northern Ireland is generated from renewable sources). Phoenix Natural Gas Ltd. started supplying customers in Larne and Greater Belfast with natural gas in 1996 via the newly constructed Scotland-Northern Ireland pipeline. Rates in Belfast (and the rest of Northern Ireland) were reformed in April 2007. The discrete capital value system means rates bills are determined by the capital value of each domestic property as assessed by the Valuation and Lands Agency.
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Recreation and sports.
Leisure centres.
Belfast City Council owns and maintains 17 leisure centres across the city, run on its behalf by the non-profit social enterprise GLL under the 'Better' brand. These include eight large multipurposed centres complete with swimming pools: Ballysillan Leisure Centre and Grove Wellbeing Centre in North Belfast; the Andersonstown, Falls, Shankill and Whiterock leisure centres in West Belfast; Templemore Baths and Lisnasharragh Leisure Centre in East Belfast, and close to the city centre in South Belfast, the Olympia Leisure Centre and Spa,
Parks and gardens.
Belfast has over forty parks. The oldest (1828) and one of the most popular parks Botanic Gardens in the Queen's Quarter. Built in the 1830s and designed by Sir Charles Lanyon, its Palm House is one of the earliest examples of a curvilinear and cast iron glasshouse. Other attractions in the park include the recently restored Tropical Ravine, a humid jungle glen built in 1889, rose gardens and public events ranging from live opera broadcasts to pop concerts.
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The largest municipal park in the city, and closest to the city centre, lies on the right bank of Lagan. The 100-acres of Ormeau Park were opened to the public in 1871 on what was the last demesne of the town's former proprietors, the Chichesters, Marquesses of Donegall.
In north Belfast, the Waterworks, two reservoirs to which the public have had access since 1897, are features of a park supporting angling and waterfowl. In 1906, a further water park, Victoria, opened behind industrial dockland on what had been the eastern shore of the Lough. It is now connected through east Belfast by the Connswater Community Greenway which offers 16 km of continuous cycle and walkway through east Belfast.
The largest green conservation area within the city's boundaries is a 2,116 hectares patchwork of "parks, demesnes, woodland and meadows" stretching upriver along the banks of the Lagan river and canal; Established in 1967, the Lagan Valley Regional Park envelopes in its course, Belvoir Park Forest, which contains ancient oaks and a 12th-century Norman Motte, and Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park, whose International Rose Garden attracts thousands of visitors each July.
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Colin Glenn Forest Park, the National Trust Divis and the Black Mountain Ridge Trail, and Cave Hill Country Park. offer panoramic views over Belfast and beyond from the west. Climbing the Castlereagh Hills, the National Trust Lisnabreeny Cregagh Glen does the same from the east.
Below Cave Hill, the council maintains one of the few local government-funded zoos in the British Isles. The Belfast Zoo houses more than 1,200 animals of 140 species including Asian elephants, Barbary lions, Malayan sun bears (one of the few in the United Kingdom), two species of penguin, a family of western lowland gorillas, a troop of common chimpanzees, a pair of red pandas, a pair of Goodfellow's tree-kangaroos and Francois' langurs. It carries out important conservation work and takes part in European and international breeding programmes which help to ensure the survival of many species under threat.
Sports.
Belfast has several notable sports teams playing a diverse variety of sports such as football, Gaelic games, rugby, cricket, and ice hockey. The Belfast Marathon is run annually on May Day, The 41st Marathon in 2023, with related events (Wheelchair Race, Team Relay and 8 Mile Walk) attracted 15,000 participants.
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The Northern Ireland national football team plays its home matches at Windsor Park. Football clubs with stadia and training grounds in the city include: Linfield, Glentoran, Crusaders, Cliftonville, Donegal Celtic, Harland & Wolff Welders, Dundela, Knockbreda, PSNI, Newington, Sport & Leisure and Brantwood.
Belfast is home to over twenty Gaelic football and hurling clubs. Casement Park in west Belfast, home to the Antrim county teams, had a capacity of 31,500 making it the second largest Gaelic Athletic Association ground in Ulster. Listed as one of the venues for the UK and Ireland's successful UEFA Euro 2028 bid, with co-funding from the Irish government there are plans for a complete rebuild. In May 2020, the foundation of East Belfast GAA returned Gaelic Games to East Belfast after decades of its absence in the area. The current club president is Irish-language enthusiast Linda Ervine who comes from a unionist background in the area. The team currently plays in the Down Senior County League.
The 1999 Heineken Cup champions Ulster Rugby play at Ravenhill Stadium in the south of the city. Belfast has four teams in rugby's All-Ireland League: Belfast Harlequins in Division 1B; and Instonians, Queen's University and Malone in Division 2A.
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Belfast is home to the Stormont cricket ground since 1949 and was the venue for the Irish cricket team's first ever One Day International against England in 2006.
The 9,500 capacity SSE Arena accommodates the Belfast Giants, one of the biggest ice hockey clubs in the UK. Featuring Canadian, ex-NHL players, the club competes the British Elite Ice Hockey League.
Belfast was the home town of former Manchester United player George Best, the 1968 European Footballer of the Year, who died in November 2005. On the day he was buried in the city, 100,000 people lined the route from his home on the Cregagh Road to Roselawn cemetery. Since his death the City Airport was named after him and a trust has been set up to fund a memorial to him in the city centre. Other sportspeople celebrated in the city include double world snooker champion Alex "Hurricane" Higgins and world champion boxers Wayne McCullough, Rinty Monaghan and Carl Frampton.
Climate.
At , its northern latitude is characterised by short winter days and long summer evenings. During the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, local sunset is before 16:00 while sunrise is around 08:45. At the summer solstice in June, the sun sets after 22:00 and rises before 05:00.
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For this northern latitude, thanks to the influence of the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Drift, Belfast has a comparatively mild climate. In summer the temperatures rarely range above or dip in winter below . The maritime influence, also ensures that the city gets significant precipitation. On 157 days in an average year, rainfall is greater than 1 mm. Average annual rainfall is , less than areas of northern England or most of Scotland, but higher than Dublin or the south-east coast of Ireland.
With its moderate temperatures and abundant rainfall, Belfast's climate is defined as a temperate oceanic climate (Cfb in the Köppen climate classification system), a classification it shares with most of northwest Europe.
Twin towns – sister cities.
Belfast City Council takes part in the twinning scheme, and is twinned with the following sister cities:
Freedom of the City.
Those who have received the Freedom of the City |
Biotite
Biotite is a common group of phyllosilicate minerals within the mica group, with the approximate chemical formula . It is primarily a solid-solution series between the iron-endmember annite, and the magnesium-endmember phlogopite; more aluminous end-members include siderophyllite and eastonite. Biotite was regarded as a mineral "species" by the International Mineralogical Association until 1998, when its status was changed to a mineral "group". The term "biotite" is still used to describe unanalysed dark micas in the field. Biotite was named by J.F.L. Hausmann in 1847 in honor of the French physicist Jean-Baptiste Biot, who performed early research into the many optical properties of mica.
Members of the biotite group are sheet silicates. Iron, magnesium, aluminium, silicon, oxygen, and hydrogen form sheets that are weakly bound together by potassium ions. The term "iron mica" is sometimes used for iron-rich biotite, but the term also refers to a flaky micaceous form of haematite, and the field term Lepidomelane for unanalysed iron-rich Biotite avoids this ambiguity. Biotite is also sometimes called "black mica" as opposed to "white mica" (muscovite) – both may form in the same rocks, and in some instances side by side.
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Properties.
Like other mica minerals, biotite has a highly perfect basal cleavage, and consists of flexible sheets, or lamellae, which easily flake off. It has a monoclinic crystal system, with tabular to prismatic crystals with an obvious pinacoid termination. It has four prism faces and two pinacoid faces to form a pseudohexagonal crystal. Although not easily seen because of the cleavage and sheets, fracture is uneven. It appears greenish to brown or black, and even yellow when weathered. It can be transparent to opaque, has a vitreous to pearly luster, and a grey-white streak. When biotite crystals are found in large chunks, they are called "books" because they resemble books with pages of many sheets. The color of biotite is usually black and the mineral has a hardness of 2.5–3 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness.
Biotite dissolves in both acid and alkaline aqueous solutions, with the highest dissolution rates at low pH. However, biotite dissolution is highly anisotropic with crystal edge surfaces ("h k"0) reacting 45 to 132 times faster than basal surfaces (001).
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Optical properties.
In thin section, biotite exhibits moderate relief and a pale to deep greenish brown or brown color, with moderate to strong pleochroism. Biotite has a high birefringence which can be partially masked by its deep intrinsic color. Under cross-polarized light, biotite exhibits extinction approximately parallel to cleavage lines, and can have characteristic bird's eye maple extinction, a mottled appearance caused by the distortion of the mineral's flexible lamellae during grinding of the thin section. Basal sections of biotite in thin section are typically approximately hexagonal in shape and usually appear isotropic under cross-polarized light.
Structure.
Like other micas, biotite has a crystal structure described as "TOT-c", meaning that it is composed of parallel "TOT" layers weakly bonded to each other by cations ("c"). The "TOT" layers in turn consist of two tetrahedral sheets ("T") strongly bonded to the two faces of a single octahedral sheet ("O"). It is the relatively weak ionic bonding between "TOT" layers that gives biotite its perfect basal cleavage.
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The tetrahedral sheets consist of silica tetrahedra, which are silicon ions surrounded by four oxygen ions. In biotite, one in four silicon ions is replaced by an aluminium ion. The tetrahedra each share three of their four oxygen ions with neighboring tetrahedra to produce a hexagonal sheet. The remaining oxygen ion (the "apical" oxygen ion) is available to bond with the octahedral sheet.
The octahedral sheet in biotite is a trioctahedral sheet having the structure of a sheet of the mineral brucite, with magnesium or ferrous iron being the usual cations. Apical oxygens take the place of some of the hydroxyl ions that would be present in a brucite sheet, bonding the tetrahedral sheets tightly to the octahedral sheet.
Tetrahedral sheets have a strong negative charge, since their bulk composition is AlSi3O105-. The trioctahedral sheet has a positive charge, since its bulk composition is M3(OH)24+ (M represents a divalent ion such as ferrous iron or magnesium) The combined TOT layer has a residual negative charge, since its bulk composition is M3(AlSi3O10)(OH)2−. The remaining negative charge of the TOT layer is neutralized by the interlayer potassium ions.
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Because the hexagons in the T and O sheets are slightly different in size, the sheets are slightly distorted when they bond into a TOT layer. This breaks the hexagonal symmetry and reduces it to monoclinic symmetry. However, the original hexahedral symmetry is discernible in the pseudohexagonal character of biotite crystals.
Occurrence.
Members of the biotite group are found in a wide variety of igneous and metamorphic rocks. For instance, biotite occurs in the lava of Mount Vesuvius and in the Monzoni intrusive complex of the western Dolomites. Biotite in granite tends to be poorer in magnesium than the biotite found in its volcanic equivalent, rhyolite. Biotite is an essential phenocryst in some varieties of lamprophyre. Biotite is occasionally found in large cleavable crystals, especially in pegmatite veins, as in New England, Virginia and North Carolina USA. Other notable occurrences include Bancroft and Sudbury, Ontario Canada. It is an essential constituent of many metamorphic schists, and it forms in suitable compositions over a wide range of pressure and temperature. It has been estimated that biotite comprises up to 7% of the exposed continental crust.
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An igneous rock composed almost entirely of dark mica (biotite or phlogopite) is known as a "glimmerite" or "biotitite".
Biotite may be found in association with its common alteration product chlorite.
The largest documented single crystals of biotite were approximately sheets found in Iveland, Norway.
Uses.
Biotite is used extensively to constrain ages of rocks, by either potassium-argon dating or argon–argon dating. Because argon escapes readily from the biotite crystal structure at high temperatures, these methods may provide only minimum ages for many rocks. Biotite is also useful in assessing temperature histories of metamorphic rocks, because the partitioning of iron and magnesium between biotite and garnet is sensitive to temperature. |
Brigham Young
Brigham Young ( ; June 1, 1801August 29, 1877) was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1847 until his death in 1877. He also served as the first governor of the Utah Territory from 1851 until his resignation in 1858.
Young was born in 1801 in Vermont and raised in Upstate New York. After working as a painter and carpenter, he became a full-time LDS Church leader in 1835. Following a short period of service as a missionary, he moved to Missouri in 1838. Later that year, Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs signed the Mormon Extermination Order and Young organized the migration of the Latter Day Saints from Missouri to Illinois, where he became an inaugural member of the Council of Fifty. In 1844, while he was traveling to gain support for Joseph Smith's presidential campaign, Smith was assassinated; igniting the Illinois Mormon War and triggering a succession crisis in the Latter Day Saint movement. After negotiating a ceasefire, Young was unanimously elected as the second president of the church in 1847. During the Mormon exodus, Young led his followers west from Nauvoo, Illinois, via the Mormon Trail, to the Salt Lake Valley. Once settled in Utah, he ordered the construction of numerous temples, including the Salt Lake Temple. He also formalized the prohibition of black men attaining priesthood and directed the Mormon Reformation. A supporter of education, Young worked to establish the learning institutions that would later become the University of Utah and Brigham Young University.
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After arriving in Utah, Young founded Salt Lake City and established the State of Deseret before being appointed Utah's first territorial governor by President Millard Fillmore in 1850. As governor, Young allowed polygamy, supported slavery and its expansion into Utah, and led the efforts to legalize and regulate slavery in the 1852 Act in Relation to Service, based on his beliefs on slavery. He exerted considerable power over the territory through his semi-theocratic political system, theodemocracy. After President James Buchanan appointed a new governor of the territory, Young declared martial law and re-activated the Nauvoo Legion; beginning the Utah War. During the conflict, the Utah Territorial Militia committed a series of attacks that resulted in the mass murder of at least 120 members of the Baker–Fancher immigrant wagon train, known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The following month, the Aiken massacre was perpetrated on Young's orders. In 1858, the war ended when Young agreed to resign as governor and allow federal troops to enter the Utah Territory in exchange for a pardon granted to Mormon settlers from President Buchanan.
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A polygamist, Young had 56 wives and 57 children. His teachings are contained in the 19 volumes of transcribed and edited sermons in the "Journal of Discourses". His legacy and impact are seen throughout the American West, including numerous memorials, temples, and schools named in his honor. In 2016, Young was estimated to have around 30,000 descendants.
Early life.
Young was born on June 1, 1801, in Whitingham, Vermont. He was the ninth child of John Young and Abigail "Nabby" Howe. Young's father was a farmer, and when Young was three years old his family moved to upstate New York, settling in Chenango County. Young received little formal education, but his mother taught him how to read and write. At age twelve, he moved with his parents to the township of Genoa, close to Cayuga Lake. His mother died of tuberculosis in June 1815. Following her death, he moved with his father to Tyrone, New York.
While there, Young's father remarried to a widow named Hannah Brown and sent Young off to learn a trade. Young moved to Auburn, New York, where he was an apprentice to John C. Jeffries. He worked as a carpenter, glazier, and painter. One of the homes that Young helped paint in Auburn belonged to Elijah Miller and later to William Seward, and is now a local museum. With the onset of the Panic of 1819, Jeffries dismissed Young from his apprenticeship, and Young moved to Port Byron, which was then called Bucksville. Young reported having a strict Puritan-style Christian upbringing. He used tobacco but did not drink alcohol. He refused to sign a temperance pledge, however, stating that "if I sign the temperance pledge I feel that I am bound, and I wish to do just right, without being bound to do it; I want my liberty."
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Young married Miriam Angeline Works, whom he had met in Port Byron in October 1824. They first resided in a small house adjacent to a pail factory, which was Young's main place of employment at the time. Their daughter, Elizabeth, was born on September 26, 1825. According to William Hayden, Young participated in the Bucksville Forensic and Oratorical Society. Young converted to the Reformed Methodist Church in 1824 after studying the Bible. Upon joining the Methodists, he insisted on being baptized by immersion rather than by their normal practice of sprinkling. In 1828, the family moved briefly to Oswego, New York, on the shore of Lake Ontario, and in 1828 to Mendon, New York. Young's father, two brothers, and sister had already moved to Mendon. In Mendon, Young first became acquainted with Heber C. Kimball, an early member of the LDS Church. Young worked as a carpenter and joiner, and built and operated a saw mill.
Latter Day Saint conversion.
By the time Young moved to Mendon in 1828, he had effectively left the Reformed Methodist Church and become a Christian seeker, unconvinced that he had found a church possessing the true authority of Jesus Christ. Sometime in 1830, Young was introduced to the Book of Mormon by way of a copy that his brother, Phineas Howe, had obtained from Samuel H. Smith. Young did not immediately accept the divine claims of the Book of Mormon. In 1831, five missionaries of the Latter Day Saint movement—Eleazer Miller, Elial Strong, Alpheus Gifford, Enos Curtis, and Daniel Bowen—came from the branch of the church in Columbia, Pennsylvania, to preach in Mendon. A key element of the teachings of this group in Young's eyes was their practicing of spiritual gifts like speaking in tongues and prophecy. This was partly experienced when Young traveled with his wife, Miriam, and Heber C. Kimball to visit the branch of the church in Columbia.
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After meeting Joseph Smith, Young joined the Church of Christ in April 9, 1832. He was baptized by Eleazer Miller. Young's siblings and their spouses were baptized that year or the year afterwards. In April 1832, a branch of the church was organized in Mendon; eight of the fifteen families were Youngs. There, Young saw Alpheus Gifford speak in tongues, and in response, Young also spoke in tongues. Young and Kimball spent the summer following their baptism conducting missionary work in western New York, while Vilate Kimball cared for Young's family. After Miriam died of consumption, Vilate continued to care for Brigham's children while he, Heber, and Joseph Young traveled to visit Joseph Smith in Kirtland, Ohio. During the visit, Brigham spoke in a tongue that Smith identified as the "Adamic language".
After visiting Joseph Smith in Kirtland, Brigham set out to preach with his brother Joseph in the winter of 1832–1833. Joseph had been a Reformed Methodist preacher and the two made a similar "preaching circuit" in eastern Canada. They described the Book of Mormon as the "stick of Joseph", mentioned in Ezekiel 37. Young continued to preach in eastern Canada in the spring and accompanied two Canadian converts to Kirtland in July 1833. Young and his two daughters moved to Kirtland along with the Kimball family later that summer. Here he became acquainted with Mary Ann Angell, a convert to the faith from Rhode Island, and the two were married in February 1834 and obtained a marriage certificate on March 31, 1834.
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In May 1834, Young became a member of Zion's Camp and traveled to Missouri. He returned to Kirtland with members of the camp in August. After his return to Kirtland, Young did carpentry, painting, and glazing work to earn money. He also worked on the Kirtland Temple and went to a grammar school. His third child and first son, Joseph A. Young, was born shortly after his return. Mary Ann, who was pregnant at the time, had provided for Young's two daughters and the children of her brother Solomon Angell and their friend Lorenzo Booth while Young was away with Zion's Camp.
LDS Church service.
At a conference on February 14, 1835, Brigham Young was named and ordained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. On May 4, 1835, Young and other apostles went on a mission to the east coast, specifically in Pennsylvania and New York. His call was to preach to the "remnants of Joseph", a term people in the church used to refer to indigenous people. In August 1835, Young and the rest of the Quorum of the Twelve issued a testimony in support of the divine origin of the Doctrine and Covenants. |
In August 1835, Young and the rest of the Quorum of the Twelve issued a testimony in support of the divine origin of the Doctrine and Covenants. He oversaw the finishing of the Kirtland temple and spoke in tongues at its dedication in 1836. Shortly afterwards, Young went on another mission with his brother Joseph to New York and New England. On this mission, he visited the family of his aunt, Rhoda Howe Richards. They converted to the church, including his cousin Willard Richards. In August 1837, Young went on another mission to the eastern states. He then returned to Kirtland where he remained until dissenters, unhappy with the failure of the Kirtland Safety Society, forced him to flee the community in December 1837. He then stayed for a short time in Dublin, Indiana, with his brother Lorenzo before moving to Far West, Missouri, in 1838. He was later joined by his family and by other members of the church in Missouri. He became the oldest member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles when David Patten died after the Battle of Crooked River. He became the oldest member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles when David Patten died after the Battle of Crooked River. When Joseph Smith arrived in Far West, he appointed Young, along with Thomas Marsh and David Patten, as "presidency pro tem" in Missouri.
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Under Young's direction, the quorum organized the exodus of Latter Day Saints from Missouri to Illinois in 1838. Young also served a year-long mission to the United Kingdom. There, he showed a talent for organizing the church's work and maintaining good relationships with Joseph Smith and the other apostles. Under his leadership, members in the United Kingdom began publishing "Millennial Star", a hymnal, and a new edition of the Book of Mormon. Young also served in various leadership and community organization roles among church members in Nauvoo. He joined the Nauvoo city council in 1841 and oversaw the first baptisms for the dead in the unfinished Nauvoo temple. He joined the Masons in Nauvoo on April 7, 1842, and participated in an early endowment ritual led by Joseph Smith that May and became part of the Anointed Quorum. Young and the other apostles directed the church's missionary work and the immigration of new converts from this point forward. Young served another mission to the Eastern seaboard.
During his time in Nauvoo, Joseph Smith introduced the doctrine of plural marriage among church leaders. Young performed the sealing ordinances for two of Joseph Smith's plural wives in early 1842. Young proposed marriage to Martha Brotherton, who was seventeen years old at the time and had recently immigrated from Manchester, England. Brotherton signed an affidavit saying that she had been pressured by Young and then Smith to accept polygamy. The affidavit was created at John C. Bennett's request, after his excommunication and in conjunction with his distribution of false information combined with true information about the church's practice of polygamy. Brigham Young and William Smith discredited Brotherton's character, and Brotherton herself did not associate with the church afterwards. Young campaigned against Bennett's allegations that Joseph Smith practiced "spiritual wifery"; Young knew of Smith's hidden practice of polygamy. He also helped to convince Hyrum to accept polygamy.
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Young married Lucy Ann Decker in June 1842, making her his first plural wife. Young knew her father, Isaac Decker, in New York. Lucy was still married to William Seeley when Young married her. Young supported her and her two children while they lived in their own home in Nauvoo. Lucy and Young had seven children together. Young was one of the first men in Nauvoo to practice polygamy, and he married more women than any other polygamist while in Nauvoo. While in Nauvoo, he married Clarissa Decker, Clarissa Ross, Emily Dow Partidge, Louisa Beaman, Margaret Maria Alley, Emmeline Free, Margaret Piece, and Zina Diantha Huntington. These wives bore him children after they moved to Utah. He also married in Nauvoo, but did not have children with Augusta Adams Cobb, Susannah Snively, Eliza Bowker, Ellen A. Rockwood, and Namah K. J. Carter. Eight of Young's plural marriages in Nauvoo were to Joseph Smith's widows.
Young traveled east with Wilford Woodruff and George A. Smith from July to October 1843 on a mission to raise funds for the Nauvoo temple and its guesthouse. Young's six-year-old daughter Mary Ann died while he was on this mission. On November 22, 1843, Young and his wife Mary Ann received the second anointing, a ritual that assured them that their salvation and exaltation would occur. In March 1844, Brigham Young was an inaugural member of the Council of Fifty, which later organized the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo.
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In 1844, Young traveled east again to solicit votes for Joseph Smith in his presidential campaign. In June 1844, while Young was away, Joseph Smith was killed by an armed mob who stormed the jail where he was awaiting trial for the charge of treason. Young did not learn of the assassination until early July. Several claimants to fill the leadership vacuum emerged during the succession crisis that ensued. Church members gathered at a meeting on August 8, 1844, with the intent to choose between two claimants, Young and Sidney Rigdon, the senior surviving member of the church's First Presidency. At the meeting, Rigdon argued no one could succeed Smith and that he (Rigdon) should become Smith's "spokesman" and guardian of the church. Young argued that the church needed more than a spokesman and that the twelve apostles, not Rigdon, had "the fullness of the priesthood" necessary to succeed Smith's leadership. Young claimed access to revelation to know God's choice of successor because of his position as an apostle. The majority of attendants voted that the Quorum of the Twelve was to lead the church. Many of Young's followers stated in reminiscent accounts (the earliest in 1850 and the latest in 1920) that when Young spoke to the congregation, he miraculously looked or sounded exactly like Smith, which they attributed to the power of God. Young began acting as the church's president afterwards, though he did not yet have a full presidency. He also led the Anointed Quorum. Young led the church as president of the Quorum of the Twelve until December 5, 1847, when the quorum unanimously agreed to organize a new First Presidency with Young as president of the church. A church conference held in Iowa sustained Young and his First Presidency on December 27, 1847.
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Not all church members followed Young. Rigdon became the president of a separate church organization based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and several other potential successors emerged to lead what became other denominations of the movement.
Before departing Nauvoo, Young focused on completing the Nauvoo temple. After the exterior was completed on December 10, 1845, members received their temple endowments day and night, and Young officiated many of these sessions. An estimated 5,000 members were endowed between December 10, 1845, and February 1846. With the repealing of Nauvoo's charter in January 1845, church members in Nauvoo lost their courts, police, and militia, leaving them vulnerable to attacks by mobs. Young instructed victims of anti-Mormon violence on the outskirts of Nauvoo to move to Nauvoo. Young negotiated with Stephen A. Douglas and agreed to lead church members out of Nauvoo in the spring in exchange for peace. Some Mormons counterfeited American and Mexican money, and a grand jury indicted Young and other church leaders in 1845. When officers arrived at the Nauvoo temple to arrest Young, he sent William Miller out in Young's hat and cloak. Miller was arrested but released when it was discovered he was not Brigham Young. Young himself condemned the counterfeiting. John Turner's biography states: "it remains unclear whether Young [...] had sanctioned the bogus-making operation". The indictment of Young and other leaders, combined with rumors that troops would prevent the Mormons from leaving, led Young to start their exodus in February 1846.
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Migration west.
Repeated conflict in Nauvoo led Young to relocate his group of Latter-day Saints to the Salt Lake Valley, which was then part of Mexico. Young organized the journey that would take the Mormon pioneers to Winter Quarters, Nebraska, in 1846, before continuing on to the Salt Lake Valley. By the time Young arrived at the final destination, it had come under American control as a result of war with Mexico, although U.S. sovereignty would not be confirmed until 1848. Young arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847, a date now recognized as Pioneer Day in Utah. Two days after their arrival, Young and the Twelve Apostles climbed the peak just north of the city and raised the American flag, calling it the "Ensign of Liberty".
Among Young's first acts upon arriving in the valley were the naming of the city as "The City of the Great Salt Lake" and its organization into blocks of ten acres, each divided into eight equal-sized lots. On August 7, Young suggested that the members of the camp be re-baptized to signify a re-dedication to their beliefs and covenants. Young spent just over a month in the Valley recovering from mountain fever before returning to Winter Quarters on August 31. Young's expedition was one of the largest and one of the best organized westward treks, and he made various trips back and forth between the Salt Lake Valley and Winter Quarters to assist other companies in their journeys.
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After three years of leading the church as the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Young reorganized a new First Presidency and was sustained as the second president of the church on December 27, 1847, at Winter Quarters. Young named Heber C. Kimball as his first counselor and Willard Richards as his second. Young and his counselors were again sustained unanimously by church members at a church conference in Salt Lake City in September 1850.
Governor of Utah Territory.
The Utah Territory was created by Congress as part of the Compromise of 1850. As founder of Salt Lake City, Young was appointed the territory's first governor and superintendent of American Indian affairs by President Millard Fillmore on February 3, 1851. He was sworn in by Justice Daniel H. Wells for a salary of $1,500 a year and named as superintendent of Indian Affairs for an additional $1,000. During his time as governor, Young directed the establishment of settlements throughout present-day Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, California, and parts of southern Colorado and northern Mexico. Under his direction, the Mormons built roads, bridges, forts, and irrigation projects; established public welfare; organized a militia; issued a "selective extermination" order against male Timpanogos; and after a series of wars, eventually made peace with the Native Americans. Young was also one of the first to subscribe to Union Pacific stock, for the construction of the First transcontinental railroad. He also authorized the construction of the Utah Central railroad line, which connected Salt Lake City to the Union Pacific transcontinental railroad. Young organized the first Utah Territorial Legislature and established Fillmore as the territory's first capital.
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Young established a gold mint in 1849 and called for the minting of coins using gold dust that had been accumulated from travelers during the Gold Rush. The mint was closed in 1861 by Alfred Cumming, gubernatorial successor to Young. Young also organized a board of regents to establish a university in the Salt Lake Valley. It was established on February 28, 1850, as the University of Deseret; its name was eventually changed to the University of Utah. In 1849, Young arranged for a printing press to be brought to the Salt Lake Valley, which was later used to print the "Deseret News" periodical.
In 1851, Young and several federal officials—including territorial Secretary Broughton Harris—became unable to work cooperatively. Within months, Harris and the others departed their Utah appointments without replacements being named, and their posts remained unfilled for the next two years. These individuals later became known as the Runaway Officials of 1851.
Young supported slavery and its expansion into Utah and led the efforts to legalize and regulate slavery in the 1852 Act in Relation to Service, based on his beliefs on slavery. Young said in an 1852 speech, "In as much as we believe in the Bible... we must believe in slavery. This colored race have been subjected to severe curses... which they have brought upon themselves." Seven years later in 1859, Young stated in an interview with the "New York Tribune" that he considered slavery a "divine institution... not to be abolished".
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In 1856, Young organized an efficient mail service known as the Brigham Young Express and Carrying Company, which transported mail and passengers between Missouri and California. In 1858, following the events of the Utah War and Mountain Meadows Massacre, he stepped down to his gubernatorial successor, Alfred Cumming.
LDS Church president.
Young served for 29 years as the LDS Church president and is the longest-serving in that role.
Educational endeavors.
During time as prophet and governor, Young encouraged bishops to establish grade schools for their congregations, which would be supported by volunteer work and tithing payments. Young viewed education as a process of learning how to make the Kingdom of God a reality on earth, and at the core of his "philosophy of education" was the belief that the church had within itself all that was necessary to save mankind materially, spiritually, and intellectually.
On October 16, 1875, Young deeded buildings and land in Provo, Utah, to a board of trustees for establishing an institution of learning, ostensibly as part of the University of Deseret. Young said, "I hope to see an Academy established in Provo ... at which the children of the Latter-day Saints can receive a good education unmixed with the pernicious atheistic influences that are found in so many of the higher schools of the country." The school broke off from the University of Deseret and became Brigham Young Academy in 1876 under the leadership of Karl G. Maeser, and was the precursor to Brigham Young University.
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Within the church, Young reorganized the Relief Society for women in 1867 and created organizations for young women in 1869 and young men in 1875. The Young Women organization was first called the Retrenchment Association and was intended to promote the turning of young girls away from the costly and extravagant ways of the world. It later became known as the Young Ladies Mutual Improvement Association and was a charter member of the National Council of Women and International Council of Women.
Young also organized a committee to refine the Deseret alphabet—a phonetic alphabet that had been developed sometime between 1847 and 1854. At its prime, the alphabet was used in two "Deseret News" articles, two elementary readers, and in a translation of the Book of Mormon. By 1870, it had all but disappeared from use.
Temple building.
Young was involved in temple building throughout his membership in the LDS Church, making it a priority during his time as church president. Under Smith's leadership, Young participated in the building of the Kirtland and Nauvoo temples. Just four days after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, Young designated the location for the Salt Lake Temple; he presided over its groundbreaking years later on April 6, 1853. During his tenure, Young oversaw construction of the Salt Lake Tabernacle and announced plans to build the St. George (1871), Manti (1875), and Logan (1877) temples. He also provisioned the building of the Endowment House, a "temporary temple", which began to be used in 1855 to provide temple ordinances to church members while the Salt Lake Temple was under construction.
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Teachings.
The majority of Young's teachings are contained in the 19 volumes of transcribed and edited sermons in the "Journal of Discourses". The LDS Church's Doctrine and Covenants contains one section from Young that has been canonized as scripture, added in 1876.
Polygamy.
Though polygamy was practiced by Young's predecessor, Joseph Smith, the practice is often associated with Young. Some Latter Day Saint denominations, such as the Community of Christ, consider Young the "Father of Mormon Polygamy". In 1853, Young made the church's first official statement on the subject since the church had arrived in Utah. Young acknowledged that the doctrine was challenging for many women, but stated its necessity for creating large families, proclaiming: "But the first wife will say, 'It is hard, for I have lived with my husband twenty years, or thirty, and have raised a family of children for him, and it is a great trial to me for him to have more women;' then I say it is time that you gave him up to other women who will bear children." Young believed that sexual desire was given by God to ensure the perpetuation of humankind and believed sex should be confined to marriage.
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Adam-God doctrine and blood atonement.
One of the more controversial teachings of Young during the Mormon Reformation was the Adam–God doctrine. According to Young, he was taught by Smith that Adam is "our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do". According to the doctrine, Adam was once a mortal man who became resurrected and exalted. From another planet, Adam brought Eve, one of his wives, with him to the earth, where they became mortal by eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. After bearing mortal children and establishing the human race, Adam and Eve returned to their heavenly thrones where Adam acts as the god of this world. Later, as Young is generally understood to have taught, Adam returned to the earth to become the biological father of Jesus. The LDS Church has since repudiated the Adam–God doctrine.
Young also taught the doctrine of blood atonement, in which the atonement of Jesus cannot redeem an eternal sin, which included apostasy, theft, fornication (but not sodomy), or adultery. Instead, those who committed such sins could partially atone for their sin by sacrificing their life in a way that sheds blood. The LDS Church has formally repudiated the doctrine as early as 1889 and multiple times since the days of Young.
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Race restrictions on temples, priesthood, and interracial marriage.
Young is generally considered to have instituted a church ban against conferring the priesthood on men of black African descent, who had generally been treated equally to white men in this respect under Smith's presidency. After settling in Utah in 1848, Young announced the ban, which also forbade blacks from participating in Mormon temple rites such as the endowment or sealings. On many occasions, Young taught that blacks were denied the priesthood because they were "the seed of Cain". In 1863, Young stated: "Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so." Young was also a vocal opponent of theories of human polygenesis, being a firm voice for stating that all humans were the product of one creation.
Throughout his time as prophet, Young went to great lengths to deny the assumption that he was the author of the practice of priesthood denial to black men, asserting instead that the Lord was. According to Young, the matter was beyond his personal control and was divinely determined rather than historically or personally as many assumed. Young taught that the day would come when black men would again have the priesthood, saying that after "all the other children of Adam have the privilege of receiving the Priesthood, and of coming into the kingdom of God, and of being redeemed from the four-quarters of the earth, and have received their resurrection from the dead, then it will be time enough to remove the curse from Cain and his posterity."
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These racial restrictions remained in place until 1978, when the policy was rescinded by church president Spencer W. Kimball, and the church subsequently "disavow[ed] theories advanced in the past" to explain this ban, essentially attributing the origins of the ban solely to Young.
Mormon Reformation.
During 1856 and 1857, a period of renewed emphasis on spirituality within the church known as the Mormon Reformation took place under Young's direction. The Mormon Reformation called for a spiritual reawakening among members of the church and took place largely in the Utah Territory. Jedediah M. Grant, one of the key figures of the Reformation and one of Young's counselors, traveled throughout the Territory, preaching to Latter-day Saint communities and settlements with the goal of inspiring them to reject sin and turn towards spiritual things. As part of the Reformation, almost all "active" or involved LDS Church members were rebaptized as a symbol of their commitment. At a church meeting on September 21, 1856, Brigham Young stated: "We need a reformation in the midst of this people; we need a thorough reform." Large gatherings and meetings during this period were conducted by Young and Grant, and Young played a key role in the circulation of the Mormon Reformation with his emphasis on plural marriage, rebaptism, and passionate preaching and oration. It was during this period that the controversial doctrine of blood atonement was occasionally preached by Young, though it was repudiated in 1889 and never practiced by members of the church. The Reformation appeared to have ended completely by early 1858.
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Conflicts.
Shortly after the arrival of Young's pioneers, the new Latter-day Saint colonies were incorporated into the United States through the Mexican Cession. Young petitioned the U.S. Congress to create the State of Deseret. The Compromise of 1850 instead carved out Utah Territory, and Young was appointed governor. As governor and church president, Young directed both religious and economic matters. He encouraged independence and self-sufficiency. Many cities and towns in Utah, and some in neighboring states, were founded under Young's direction. Young's leadership style has been viewed as autocratic.
Utah War.
When federal officials received reports of widespread and systematic obstruction of federal officials in Utah (most notably judges), U.S. President James Buchanan decided in early 1857 to install a non-Mormon governor. Buchanan accepted the reports of the Runaway Officials without any further investigation, and the new non-sectarian governor was appointed and sent to the new territory accompanied by 2,500 soldiers. When Young received word in July that federal troops were headed to Utah with his replacement, he called out his militia to ambush the federal force using delaying tactics. During the defense of Utah, now called the Utah War, Young held the U.S. Army at bay for a winter by taking their cattle and burning supply wagons. Young eventually reached a settlement with the aid of a peace commission and agreed to step down as governor. Buchanan later pardoned Young.
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Mountain Meadows Massacre.
The degree of Young's involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre, which took place in Washington County in 1857, is disputed. Leonard J. Arrington reports that Young received a rider at his office on the day of the massacre, and that when he learned of the contemplated attack by members of the church in Parowan and Cedar City, he sent back a letter directing that the Fancher party be allowed to pass through the territory unmolested. Young's letter reportedly arrived on September 13, 1857, two days after the massacre. As governor, Young had promised the federal government he would protect migrants passing through Utah Territory, but over 120 men, women, and children were killed in this incident. There is no debate concerning the involvement of individual Mormons from the surrounding communities by scholars. Only children under the age of seven, who were cared for by local Mormon families, survived, and the murdered members of the wagon train were left unburied. The remains of about 40 people were later found and buried, and U.S. Army officer James Henry Carleton had a large cross made from local trees, the transverse beam bearing the engraving, "Vengeance Is Mine, Saith The Lord: I Will Repay" and erected a cairn of rocks at the site. A large slab of granite was put up on which he had the following words engraved: "Here 120 men, women and children were massacred in cold blood early in September, 1857. They were from Arkansas." For two years, the monument stood as a memorial to those traveling the Spanish Trail through Mountain Meadow. According to Wilford Woodruff, Young brought an entourage to Mountain Meadows in 1861 and suggested that the monument instead read "Vengeance is mine and I have taken a little".
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Death.
Before his death in Salt Lake City on August 29, 1877, Young suffered from cholera morbus and inflammation of the bowels. It is believed that he died of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix. His last words were "Joseph! Joseph! Joseph!", invoking the name of the late Joseph Smith Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. On September 2, 1877, Young's funeral was held in the Tabernacle with an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 people in attendance. He is buried on the grounds of the Mormon Pioneer Memorial Monument in the heart of Salt Lake City. A bronze marker was placed at the grave site June 10, 1938, by members of the Young Men and Young Women organizations, which he founded.
Business ventures and wealth.
Young engaged in a vast assortment of commercial ventures by himself and in partnership with others. These included a wagon express company, a ferryboat company, a railroad, and the manufacturing of processed lumber, wool, sugar beets, iron, and liquor. Young achieved greatest success in real estate. He also tried to promote Mormon self-sufficiency by establishing collectivist communities, known as the United Order of Enoch.
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Young was also involved in the organization of the Salt Lake Gas Works, the Salt Lake Water Works, an insurance company, a bank, and the ZCMI store in downtown Salt Lake City. In 1873, he announced that he would step down as president of the Deseret National Bank and of ZCMI, as well as from his role as trustee-in-trust for the church. He cited as his reason for this that he was ready to relieve himself from the burden of "secular affairs".
At the time of his death, Young was the wealthiest man in Utah, with an estimated personal fortune of $600,000 ().
Legacy.
Impact.
Young had many nicknames during his lifetime, among the most popular being "American Moses" (alternatively, "Modern Moses" or "Mormon Moses"), because, like the biblical figure, Young led his followers, the Mormon pioneers, in an exodus through a desert, to what they saw as a promised land. Young was dubbed by his followers the "Lion of the Lord" for his bold personality and commonly was called "Brother Brigham" by Latter-day Saints.
A century after Young's death, historian Rodman W. Paul wrote,
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He credited Young's leadership with helping to settle much of the American West:
Memorials to Young include a bronze statue in front of the Abraham O. Smoot Administration Building, Brigham Young University; a marble statue in the National Statuary Hall Collection at the United States Capitol, donated by the State of Utah in 1950; and a statue atop the "This is the Place Monument" in Salt Lake City.
Views of race and slavery.
Young believed in the racial superiority of white men. His manuscript history from January 5, 1852, which was published in the "Deseret News", reads:The negro … should serve the seed of Abraham; he should not be a ruler, nor vote for men to rule over me nor my brethren. The Constitution of Deseret is silent upon this, we meant it should be so. The seed of Canaan cannot hold any office, civil or ecclesiastical. … The decree of God that Canaan should be a servant of servants unto his brethren (i.e., Shem and Japhet [sic]) is in full force. The day will come when the seed of Canaan will be redeemed and have all the blessings their brethren enjoy. Any person that mingles his seed with the seed of Canaan forfeits the right to rule and all the blessings of the Priesthood of God; and unless his blood were spilled and that of his offspring he nor they could not be saved until the posterity of Canaan are redeemed.""
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Young adopted the idea of the Curse of Ham—a racist interpretation of Genesis 9 which white proponents of slavery in antebellum America used to justify enslaving black people of African descent—and applied it liberally and literally. On this topic, Young wrote: "They have not wisdom to act like white men."
Young also predicted a future in which Chinese and Japanese people would immigrate to America. He averred that Chinese and Japanese immigrants would need to be governed by white men as they would have no understanding of government.
Young had a somewhat mixed view of slavery which historian John G. Turner called a "bundle of contradictions". In the 1840s, Young strove to keep aloof from nationwide political debates over slavery, avoiding committing to either antislavery or proslavery positions. In the early 1850s, he expressed some support for the antislavery "free soil" position in American politics, and in January 1852, he declared in a speech that "no property can or should be recognized as existing in slaves", suggesting opposition to the existence of slavery. However, two weeks later Young declared himself a "firm believer in slavery".
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Family and descendants.
Young was a polygamist, having at least fifty-six wives. The policy and practice of polygamy was difficult for many in the church to accept. Young stated that upon being taught about plural marriage by Joseph Smith: "It was the first time in my life that I desired the grave." By the time of his death, Young had fifty-seven children by sixteen of his wives; forty-six of his children reached adulthood.
Sources have varied on the number of Young's wives, as well as their ages. This is due to differences in what scholars have considered to be a "wife". There were fifty-six women who Young was sealed to during his lifetime. While the majority of the sealings were "for eternity", some were "for time only", meaning that Young was sealed to these women as a proxy for their previous husbands who had died. Researchers state that not all of the fifty-six marriages were conjugal. Young did not live with a number of his wives or publicly hold them out as wives, which has led to confusion on the number and their identities. Thirty-one of his wives were not connubial and had exchanged eternity-only vows with him.
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Of Young's fifty-six wives, twenty-one had never been married before; seventeen were widows; six were divorced; six had living husbands; and the marital status of six others is unknown. Young built the Lion House, the Beehive House, the Gardo House, and the White House in downtown Salt Lake City to accommodate his sizable family. The Beehive House and the Lion House remain as prominent Salt Lake City landmarks. At the north end of the Beehive House was a family store, at which Young's wives and children had running accounts and could buy what they needed. In 1865, Karl Maeser began to privately tutor Young's fifty-six children and stopped when he was called on a mission to Germany in 1867.
At the time of Young's death, nineteen of his wives had predeceased him; he was divorced from ten, and twenty-three survived him. The status of four was unknown. A few of his wives served in administrative positions in the church, such as Zina Huntington and Eliza R. Snow. In his will, Young shared his estate with the sixteen surviving wives who had lived with him; the six surviving non-conjugal wives were not mentioned in the will.
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Notable descendants.
In 1902, 25 years after his death, "The New York Times" established that Young's direct descendants numbered more than 1,000. Some of Young's descendants have become leaders in the LDS Church, as well as prominent political and cultural figures.
In culture.
In comics.
Florence Claxton's "The Adventures of a Woman in Search of Her Rights" (1872), satirizes a would-be emancipated woman whose failure to establish an independent career results in her marriage to Young before she wakes to discover she's been dreaming.
Brigham Young appears at the end of the bande dessinée "Le Fil qui chante", the last in the "Lucky Luke" series by René Goscinny.
In literature.
The Scottish poet John Lyon, who was an intimate friend of Young, wrote "Brigham the Bold" in tribute to him after his death.
Arthur Conan Doyle gave Brigham Young a minor but pivotal in-person role in the Sherlock Holmes short novel "A Study in Scarlet". Young appears here in a scene set in 1860, some time before the novel's publication in 1887. Doyle had based this work, the first Holmes story, in part on Mormon history and portrays the Mormons and Young unsympathetically. When asked to comment, Doyle responded that he "provoked the animosity of the Mormon faithful" and that "all I said about the Danite Band and the murders is historical so I cannot withdraw that though it is likely that in a work of fiction it is stated more luridly than in a work of history." Doyle's daughter stated that, "You know father would be the first to admit that his first Sherlock Holmes novel was full of errors about the Mormons."
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Mark Twain devoted a chapter and much of two appendices to Young in "Roughing It". In the appendix, Twain describes Young as a theocratic "absolute monarch" defying the will of the U.S. government, and alleges using a dubious source that Young had ordered the Mountain Meadows massacre.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., talking about his fondness of trees, joked in his "The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table": "I call all trees mine that I have put my wedding-ring on, and I have as many tree-wives as Brigham Young has human ones."
In Fitz-James O'Brien's 1857 short story, "My Wife's Tempter", Brigham Young is depicted as an "apostle of hell", whose villainous disciple compels the hero's wife to annul her marriage and marry a Mormon.
In film and television.
Young has appeared in a number of films. Dean Jagger played him of the eponymous 1940 film "Brigham Young". In "The Avenging Angel" (1995), he is played by Charlton Heston. Terence Stamp plays him in the 2007 film "September Dawn". In Hell on Wheels (2011–2016), he is portayed by Gregg Henry. He is played by Kim Coates in the Netflix miniseries "American Primeval" (2025).
In theater.
In the 2011 satirical musical "The Book of Mormon", Young is portrayed as a tyrannical American regional warlord, cursed by God to have a clitoris for a nose—a parable cautioning against female genital mutilation.
Literary works.
Since Young's death, a number of works have published collections of his discourses and sayings. |
Burns supper
A Burns supper is a celebration of the life and poetry of the poet Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), the author of many Scots poems. The suppers are usually held on or near the poet's birthday, 25 January, known as Burns Night (; ) also called Robert Burns Day or Rabbie Burns Day (or Robbie Burns Day in Canada). Sometimes, celebrations are also held at other times of the year. Burns suppers are held all around the world.
History.
The first supper was held "in memoriam" at Burns Cottage in Ayrshire by Burns's friends, on 21 July 1801, the fifth anniversary of his death. The first still extant Burns Club was founded in Greenock in 1801 by merchants who were born in Ayrshire, some of whom had known Burns. They held the first Burns supper on what they thought was his birthday, 29 January 1802, but in 1803, they discovered the Ayr parish records that noted his date of birth was actually 25 January 1759. Since then, suppers have been held on or about 25 January.
The Scottish Parliament considers the celebration of Burns Night each year to be a key cultural heritage event.The Parliament welcomes the annual celebration of Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns, which is held on 25 January each year to mark the Bard’s birthday; considers that Burns was one of the greatest poets and that his work has influenced thinkers across the world; notes that Burns' first published collection, Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, also known as the "Kilmarnock Edition", published in 1786, did much to popularise and champion the Scots language, and considers that this is one of his most important legacies; believes that the celebration of Burns Night is an opportunity to raise awareness of the cultural significance of Scots and its status as one of the indigenous languages of Scotland, and further believes in the importance of the writing down of the Scots language to ensure its continuation through written documentation, as well as oral tradition.
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Burns suppers can be formal or informal. Both typically include haggis (a traditional Scottish dish celebrated by Burns in "Address to a Haggis"), Scotch whisky and the recitation of Burns's poetry. Formal dinners are hosted by organisations such as universities, sporting clubs, Burns Clubs, the Freemasons or St. Andrew's Societies; they occasionally end with dancing or a cèilidh. During the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, Burns Night celebrations moved online and were popular amongst families eating at home. Formal suppers follow a standard order.
Standard order.
Piping in guests.
A bagpiper sometimes greets the guests, who gather and mix as at any informal party. At less formal gatherings, traditional Scottish music is played.
Host's welcoming speech.
The host welcomes the guests to the supper and states the occasion.
Sometimes, the song "O Flower of Scotland" is sung at the beginning.
All the guests are then seated and grace is said, usually using the "", a thanksgiving said before meals that uses the Scots language. Although attributed to Burns, the "Selkirk Grace" was already known in the 17th century as the "Galloway Grace" or the "Covenanters' Grace". It came to be called the "Selkirk Grace" because Burns was said to have delivered it at a dinner given by the 4th Earl of Selkirk.
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Soup course.
The supper starts with the soup course, such as Scotch broth, potato soup, cullen skink, or cock-a-leekie.
Haggis.
Piping in the haggis.
Guests are asked to stand as the haggis is brought in. Haggis is a meat dish but in recent decades, a vegetarian alternative is often available. It is usually brought in by the cook on a large dish, generally while a bagpiper leads the way to the host's table, where the haggis is laid down. "A Man's A Man for A' That", "Robbie Burns Medley" or "The Star O' Robbie Burns" can be played. The host or a guest then recites the Address to a Haggis"."
"Address to a Haggis".
At the line ', the speaker normally draws and sharpens a knife. At the line ', he plunges it into the haggis and cuts it open from end to end. When done properly, the "ceremony" is a highlight of the evening.
Main course.
At the end of the poem, a whisky toast will be proposed to the haggis, and the company will sit down to the meal. The haggis is traditionally served with mashed potatoes (tatties) and mashed swede turnip (neeps).
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Other courses.
A dessert course, cheese courses, and coffee may also be part of the meal. The courses normally use traditional Scottish recipes. For instance, dessert may be cranachan or tipsy laird (whisky trifle), followed by oatcakes and cheese, all washed down with the "water of life" (), Scotch whisky.
Toasts.
When the meal reaches the coffee stage, speeches and toasts are given.
Immortal memory.
The main speaker gives a speech remembering some aspect of Burns's life or poetry. It may be either light-hearted or serious, and may include the recitation of a poem or a song by Burns. A toast to the Immortal Memory of Robert Burns then follows.
Address to the Lassies.
This was originally a short speech given by a male guest in thanks to the women who had prepared the meal. However, it is now much more wide-ranging and generally covers the male speaker's view on women. The men drink a toast to the women's health.
Reply to the Laddies.
This is occasionally (and humorously) called the "Toast to the Laddies". Like the previous toast, it is generally now quite wide-ranging. A female guest will give her views on men and reply to any specific points raised by the previous speaker. Quite often, the speakers giving this toast and the previous one will collaborate so that the two toasts complement each other.
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Works by Burns.
After the speeches there may be singing of songs by Burns (such as "Ae Fond Kiss", "Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation", and "A Man's A Man for A' That") and more poetry (such as "To a Mouse", "To a Louse", "Tam o' Shanter", "", and "Holy Willie's Prayer").
That may be done by the individual guests or by invited experts. It may include other works by poets influenced by Burns, particularly poets writing in Scots.
Closing.
Finally, the host will call on one of the guests to give the vote of thanks. Then, everyone is asked to stand, join hands, and sing "". |
Bill Bryson
William McGuire Bryson ( ; born 8 December 1951) is an American-British journalist and author. Bryson has written a number of nonfiction books on topics including travel, the English language, and science. Born in the United States, he has been a resident of Britain for most of his adult life, returning to the U.S. between 1995 and 2003, and holds dual American and British citizenship. He served as the chancellor of Durham University from 2005 to 2011.
In 1995, while in the United Kingdom, Bryson authored "Notes from a Small Island", an exploration of Britain. In 2003, he authored "A Short History of Nearly Everything". In October 2020, he announced that he had retired from writing books. In 2022, he recorded an audiobook for Audible, "The Secret History of Christmas". He has sold over 16 million books worldwide.
Early life and education.
Bryson was born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa, the son of Bill Bryson Sr., a sports journalist who worked for 50 years at "The Des Moines Register", and Agnes Mary (née McGuire), the home furnishings editor at the same newspaper. His mother was of Irish descent. He had an older brother, Michael (1942–2012), and a sister, Mary Jane Elizabeth. In 2006, Bryson published "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid", a humorous account of his childhood years in Des Moines. In 2006 Frank Cownie, the mayor of Des Moines, awarded Bryson the key to the city and announced that 21 October 2006 would be "Bill Bryson, The Thunderbolt Kid, Day."
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Bryson attended Drake University for two years before dropping out in 1972, deciding instead to backpack around Europe for four months. He returned to Europe the following year with a high school friend, Matt Angerer (the pseudonymous Stephen Katz). Bryson wrote about some of his experiences from the trip in his book "".
Career.
Bryson first visited Great Britain in 1973 during his tour of Europe and decided to stay after securing a job working in a psychiatric hospital, the now-defunct Holloway Sanatorium in Virginia Water, Surrey. He met a nurse there, Cynthia Billen, whom he married in 1975. They moved to Bryson's hometown of Des Moines, Iowa, in 1975 so Bryson could complete his degree at Drake University. In 1977 they settled in Britain.
He worked as a journalist, first for the "Bournemouth Evening Echo", eventually becoming chief copy editor of the business section of "The Times" and deputy national news editor of the business section of "The Independent".
The Brysons moved around the United Kingdom, living in Virginia Water (Surrey), Purewell (Dorset), Burton (Dorset), Kirkby Malham, and the Old Rectory in Wramplingham, Norfolk (2003–2013). They currently live in rural Hampshire and maintain a small flat in South Kensington, London. From 1995 to 2003 they lived in Hanover, New Hampshire.
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Although able to apply for British citizenship, Bryson said in 2010 that he had declined a citizenship test, declaring himself "too cowardly" to take it. In 2014, he said that he was preparing to take it and in the prologue to his 2015 book "" he describes doing so, in Eastleigh. His citizenship ceremony took place in Winchester and he now holds dual citizenship.
Writings.
While living in the U.S. in the 1990s, Bryson wrote a column for a British newspaper for several years, reflecting on humorous aspects of his repatriation in the United States. These columns were selected and adapted to become his book "I'm a Stranger Here Myself", alternatively titled "Notes from a Big Country" in Britain, Canada, and Australia. During his time in the U.S., Bryson decided to walk parts of the Appalachian Trail with his friend Stephen Katz (a pseudonym), about which he wrote the book "A Walk in the Woods". In the 2015 film adaptation of "A Walk in the Woods", Bryson is portrayed by Academy Award winner Robert Redford, and Katz by Nick Nolte.
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In 2003, in conjunction with World Book Day, British voters chose Bryson's book "Notes from a Small Island" as that which best summed up British identity and the state of the nation. Also in 2003, he was appointed a Commissioner for English Heritage.
His popular science book, the 500-page "A Short History of Nearly Everything", explores not only the histories and current statuses of the sciences, but also their humble and often humorous beginnings. Although one "top scientist" is alleged to have jokingly described the book as "annoyingly free of mistakes", Bryson makes no such claim, and a list of some of its reported errors is available online.
In November 2006, Bryson interviewed the prime minister, Tony Blair, on the state of science and education. Bryson also wrote two popular works on the history of the English language, "The Mother Tongue" and "Made in America"—and, more recently, an update of his guide to usage, "Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words" (first published as "The Penguin Dictionary of Troublesome Words" in 1983). He also released a podcast, "Bill Bryson's Appliance of Science", in 2017.
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Litigation.
In 2012, Bryson sued his agent, Jed Mattes Inc., (which had been taken over by a man named Fred Morris upon Mattes death in 2003) in New York County Supreme Court, claiming it had "failed to perform some of the most fundamental duties of an agent". The case was settled out of court with confidential terms.
In 2013, Bryson claimed copyright on an interview he had given nearly 20 years previously, after the interviewer republished it as an 8,000-word e-book. Amazon removed the e-book from publication.
Awards, positions and honours.
In 2004, he won the Aventis Prize for best general science book that year, with "A Short History of Nearly Everything". In 2005, the book won the European Union's Descartes Prize for science communication. In 2005, he received the President's Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry for advancing the cause of the chemical sciences. In 2007, he won the Bradford Washburn Award, from the Museum of Science in Boston, for contributions to the popularization of science.
In 2005, Bryson was appointed chancellor of Durham University, succeeding the late Sir Peter Ustinov. He had praised Durham as "a perfect little city" in "Notes from a Small Island".
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With the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Bill Bryson Prize for Science Communication was established in 2005. The competition engages students from around the world in explaining science to non-experts. As part of its 350th anniversary celebrations in 2010 the Royal Society commissioned Bryson to edit a collection of essays by scientists and science writers about the history of science and the Royal Society over the previous three and a half centuries entitled "Seeing Further".
He was made an honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his contribution to literature on 13 December 2006. In 2007, he was awarded the James Joyce Award by the Literary and Historical Society of University College Dublin. After he received British citizenship, his OBE was made substantive.
In May 2007, he became the president of the Campaign to Protect Rural England. His first focus in this role was the establishment of an anti-littering campaign across England. He discussed the future of the countryside with Richard Mabey, Sue Clifford, Nicholas Crane, and Richard Girling at CPRE's Volunteer Conference in November 2007. In 2011, Bryson won the Golden Eagle Award from the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild.
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In October 2010, it was announced that Bryson would step down as chancellor of Durham University at the end of 2011.
In 2012, he received the Kenneth B. Myer Award, from the Florey Institute of Neuroscience, in Melbourne, Australia.
On 22 November 2012, Durham University officially renamed the Main Library the Bill Bryson Library for his contributions as the university's 11th chancellor (2005–2011). The library also has a cafe named after Bryson's book "Notes from a Small Island".
Bryson was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2013, becoming the first non-Briton to receive this honour. His biography at the Society reads,
Bill Bryson is a popular author who is driven by a deep curiosity for the world we live in. Bill's books and lectures demonstrate an abiding love for science and an appreciation for its social importance. His international bestseller, "A Short History of Nearly Everything" (2003), is widely acclaimed for its accessible communication of science and has since been adapted for children.
He is a Vice President of the National Churches Trust.
In January 2007, Bryson was the Schwartz Visiting Fellow at the Pomfret School in Connecticut.
Bibliography.
Bryson has written the following books: |
Big Audio Dynamite
Big Audio Dynamite (later known as Big Audio Dynamite II and Big Audio, and often abbreviated BAD) were an English band, formed in London in 1984 by Mick Jones, former lead guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the Clash. The band mixed various musical styles, incorporating elements of punk rock, dance music, hip hop, reggae, and funk. After releasing a number of well-received studio albums and touring extensively throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Big Audio Dynamite broke up in 1997. In 2011, the band embarked on a reunion tour.
History.
T.R.A.C. (1984).
After being fired from the Clash in 1983 and following a brief stint with new wave band General Public, Mick Jones formed a new band called Top Risk Action Company (T.R.A.C.). He recruited bassist Leo "E-Zee Kill" Williams, saxophonist John "Boy" Lennard (from post-punk band Theatre of Hate), and former Clash drummer Topper Headon. Headon was quickly fired for his heroin addiction and Lennard either left or was fired and the band folded. Although the band released no material (only demos were recorded, which have yet to be officially released), T.R.A.C. can be seen as a forerunner to Big Audio Dynamite in much the same way that London SS can be seen as an early incarnation of the Clash.
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Big Audio Dynamite (1984–1990).
Jones then formed Big Audio Dynamite with film director Don Letts (maker of 1978 film "The Punk Rock Movie", various Clash music videos, and later the Clash documentary "" in 2000), bassist Leo Williams (from T.R.A.C.), drummer Greg Roberts, and keyboardist Dan Donovan. In November 1985 the band's debut studio album, "This Is Big Audio Dynamite", was released. The album's cover shows the band as a four-piece, minus Donovan who took and designed the photograph.
1986's "No. 10, Upping St." reunited Jones for one last album with former Clash lyricist and lead vocalist Joe Strummer, who was credited with co-producing the album and co-writing five of its nine tracks. BAD supported Irish rock band U2 on their Joshua Tree Tour on certain dates, then released 1988's "Tighten Up Vol. 88" and 1989's "Megatop Phoenix". "Tighten Up, Vol. 88" contained "Just Play Music!", which was the second No. 1 single on "Billboard"s Modern Rock Tracks chart.
In 1990, the original line-up wrote and recorded the song "Free" for the soundtrack to the adventure comedy film "Flashback", starring Dennis Hopper and Kiefer Sutherland. This would be the final song written with the original line-up, as the band would break-up shortly after. "The Bottom Line" from the band's first album was remixed and used as the title track for "Flashback" (1990). However, this track was not included on the film's official soundtrack. It can be found on the 12" or by download. Later in 1990, Jones debuted Big Audio Dynamite II and released the UK only studio album "Kool-Aid". Keyboardist Dan Donovan remained in BAD II for one song, a re-working of the final BAD track "Free" renamed "Kickin' In".
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