Skip to content

20 things you might not know about Belfast...

Posted under Heritage

Belfast is a fascinating place...

11 Sep
1998

Victoria Square, Belfast Creative Commons Image Jonny Baillie under CC-BY-NC licence
Victoria Square, Belfast

1. Titanic was built in Belfast

2. Tourism brings £123 million to Belfast every year

3. Belfast Zoo is home to the only group of purple-faced langurs in Europe

Zoo sign Production team

4. John Wood Dunlop invented the pneumatic tyre in Belfast

Car wheel Production team

5. Liam Neeson first trod the boards at Belfast’s Lyric Theatre

6. Napoleon’s nose overlooks the city

Napoleon's Nose Production team

7. Queen’s University taught both Protestants and Catholics from 1845

Queen's University Production team

8. Poet Seamus Heaney, David Trimble and Irish President Mary MacAleese are all alumni of Queen’s University

9. James Murray invented Milk of Magnesia in Belfast

Milk of magnesia Production team

10. Belfast’s famous cranes are called Samson and Goliath. Some women think they should be called Samson and Delilah Cranes

Cranes Production team

11. One third of the population of Northern Ireland lives in Belfast

12. Women could hold any office at Queen’s University in Belfast, twelve years before they could study at Oxford

13. Belfast has the world’s largest dry dock

Belfast docks Production team

14. Oscar Wilde thought that there was only one beautiful building in Belfast. It is now home to Marks and Spencer

Marks & Spencer Production team

15. Led Zeppelin’s 'Stairway to Heaven' was first played live in the Ulster Hall

Ulster Hall Production team

16. The Albert Clock is Ireland’s leaning tower of Pisa

Albert clockface Production team

Albert Clock Production team

17. One and a half million tourists visit Belfast every year

Statue of Lord Kelvin Production team

18. Lord Kelvin came up with the 2nd law of thermodynamics in Belfast

Lord Kelvin statue Production team

19. The Glass Jar is the narrowest bar in the city

The Glass Jar pub Production team

20. There are 3000 acres of park in Belfast

Botanic park Production team

Take it further

Interested in finding more out about society and social issues? Get to know the faculty of social sciences.

Rate and share this page:

You haven't rated. Average rating 4 out of 5, based on 1 rating

Share this page:

.

More like this

Comments

Be the first to post a comment.

Login or Register to post comments

Article Information

Publication details
Friday, 11th September 1998
Friday, 11th September 1998

Copyright information
• Body text - Copyrighted: The Open University
• Image 'Victoria Square, Belfast' - Creative-Commons: Jonny Baillie under CC-BY-NC licence
• Image 'Zoo sign' - Copyrighted: Production team
• Image 'Car wheel' - Copyrighted: Production team
• Image 'Napoleon's Nose' - Copyrighted: Production team
• Image 'Queen's University' - Copyrighted: Production team
• Image 'Milk of magnesia' - Copyrighted: Production team
• Image 'Cranes' - Copyrighted: Production team
• Image 'Belfast docks' - Copyrighted: Production team
• Image 'Marks & Spencer' - Copyrighted: Production team
• Image 'Ulster Hall' - Copyrighted: Production team
• Image 'Albert clockface' - Copyrighted: Production team
• Image 'Albert Clock' - Copyrighted: Production team
• Image 'Statue of Lord Kelvin' - Copyrighted: Production team
• Image 'Lord Kelvin statue' - Copyrighted: Production team
• Image 'The Glass Jar pub' - Copyrighted: Production team
• Image 'Botanic park' - Copyrighted: Production team

Article Feeds

If you enjoyed this, why not follow a feed to find out when we have new things like it? Choose an RSS feed from the list below. (Don't know what to do with RSS feeds?)
Remember, you can also make your own, personal feed by combining tags from around OpenLearn.

About OpenLearn

Hide

Explore

Try

Study

OU Courses

OpenLearn Now

Hide
The truth behind the torch Copyrighted Image London 2012

As the Olympic flame wings its way around the UK, the OU's Aarón Alzola Romero asks: just how immemorial is the Olympic torch relay?

Tag Clouds

Hide

My Cloud

Discover the latest about your passions - Sign In or Register and start a personal tag cloud.

What are Tag Clouds?
http://www.open.edu/openlearn/sites/all/themes/ole/flash/tagcloud.swf

Creative Commons License Except for third party materials and otherwise stated, content on this site is made available
under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence

/openlearn/sites/all/themes/ole/