Belfast (Béal Feirste Irish meaning "The sandy ford at the mouth of the river") is the Northern Ireland capital, in the United Kingdom. It is the largest city in Northern Ireland and the province of Ulster, and the second largest city on the island of Ireland after Dublin. In the 2001 census the population within the city limits (Belfast Urban Area) was 276,459 inhabitants, while 579,554 people lived in the vast metropolitan area of Belfast. This made it the fifteenth largest city in the United Kingdom, and the eleventh largest conurbation in the country.

Belfast is located on the east coast of Northern Ireland. The city is flanked to the west by a series of hills, including Cavehill Hill, thought that inspired the novel by Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels. He imagined that it was shaped like a sleeping giant safeguarding the city. Belfast is also located west of Belfast Lough (lake Belfast / Belfast Lough) and the mouth of the River Lagan making it an ideal location for the shipbuilding industry ever made so famous. When the Titanic was built in Belfast in 1912, Harland and Wolff had the largest shipyard in the world. Originally a town in County Antrim, the town of Belfast was created when Belfast achieved city status by Queen Victoria in 1888.

Belfast suffered the worst of the Conflict in Northern Ireland. However, since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, has been a further modernization in the city. There are two airports in the city: Airport George Best Belfast City adjacent to Belfast Lough and Belfast International Airport which is near Lough Neagh. Queens University of Belfast is the largest university in the city. The University of Ulster also has a campus in the city, where most studies of the fine arts and design.

The place where the current is Belfast has been occupied since the Bronze Age. The archaeological site known as Giant's Ring (Ring of the Giant), located near the city is 5000 years old and you can still see remnants of fortifications dating from the Iron Age in the hills surrounding the city.

It became a major settlement in the seventeenth century when a large number of English and Scottish settlers established themselves in the process of colonization of Ulster, with the aim to eradicate the Catholic population of Ulster. In 1641, Catholics rebelled, but were harshly suppressed. Belfast blossomed as a major commercial and industrial center during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and became the most industrialized city in Ireland including Dublin beating thanks to its shipyards, its textile industry and tobacco among others. The Harland and Wolff shipyards became the world's largest, employing up to 35,000 workers. In these tragic shipyards built the famous RMS Titanic.

Belfast was established in the capital of Northern Ireland since the creation of this administrative region in 1920 by the Government of Ireland Act. Since then it has been growing in population and has witnessed the fighting in their Catholic citizens (mostly "nationalists" in favor of independence from Britain) and Protestant (or "loyal" opposed to any process to result in separation of the British Empire).

Belfast was bombed three times during World War II by Luftwaffe bombers. The bombing caused more damage occurred on the night of April 15, 1941, when 200 bombers, including Heinkel He 111, Junkers and Dornier, attacked the city without significant resistance. An estimated thousand people died during the bombing or injury incurred during the year. In addition, about 100,000 people homeless. Although the shipyards and aircraft factories were hit, recovered quickly, as demand for ships and planes was high. This, of course, meant the rapid recovery of the economy in Belfast.

On July 21, 1972, the Provisional IRA detonated 22 bombs in and around the city, killing nine people, including two policemen, and wounding 130. In addition to the British Army and local police, the Provisional IRA faced two paramilitary groups: the Ulster Defence Association and Ulster Volunteer Force. Until 1994, sporadic clashes took place between the two forces in Belfast. Although the cease-fire between both sides and has sparked violence in the city, the city remains an important component of the Catholic population segregation between Republican and Unionist Protestant population.

In 1997, the "loyal" lost control of the Board of Belfast for the first time in its history. This defeat was confirmed in the elections of 2001 and 2005. This has allowed members of the nationalist SDLP and Sinn Féin occupy the office of mayor for the first time. The current mayor, Jim Rodgers, member of the Ulster Unionist Party.