1.
Newtownards
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Newtownards is a large town, townland and civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies at the most northern tip of Strangford Lough,10 miles east of Belfast and it is situated in the civil parish of Newtownards and the historic baronies of Ards Lower and Castlereagh Lower. Newtownards is the largest town in the former Borough of Ards and it is known colloquially by locals as Ards. It had a population of 28,039 people in the 2011 Census, in 545 AD, St. Finian founded a monastery close to present-day Newtownards. He named it Movilla, which suggests that the land had previously been a pagan site. The monastery was destroyed by the Vikings sometime after AD824, the Normans, who arrived in Ireland after 1169, founded a town in the same place around 1226, named it Nove Ville de Blathewyc. A Dominican priory was built in 1244, dissolved in 1541, in 1605, Hugh Montgomery was granted the lands and set about rebuilding what was by then known as Newtown, later expanded to Newtownards. Official records show the town was established in 1606, Montgomery built a residence in the ruins of the old priory, the tower of which remains. Scottish settlers arrived in numbers and the town grew quickly. Due to the mud of Strangford Lough, Newtown never developed as a port. Instead, it became a town, with the Market House in Conway Square constructed in 1770. The market still today on a weekly basis. They were met with fire from the market house and were defeated. The early 19th century saw the reclamation of the south of the town. The Belfast and County Down Railway connected Newtownards to Belfast, via Comber and Dundonald, in 1850, by the same year the towns population had risen to 9,500. On 12 July 1867, despite the Party Processions Acts, the Orange Order paraded from Bangor to Newtownards, the parade was organised by William Johnston and about 30,000 took part. Newtownards population reached 13,100 in 1961 and had doubled to 27,800 by the end of the 20th century, during the Troubles, Newtownards was the scene of a car bomb attack on 5 July 1993, when Romas Bar in Regent Street was targeted. The pub was destroyed, but has since been rebuilt, the attack was carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army with a 700 kg device
2.
County Down
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County Down is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland, situated in the northeast of the island of Ireland. Adjoined to the southeast shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 2,448 km² and has a population of about 531,665 and it is also one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland and is within the province of Ulster. The county was archaically called Downshire and it borders County Antrim to the north, the Irish Sea to the east and south, County Armagh to the west, and County Louth across Carlingford Lough to the southwest. In the east of the county is Strangford Lough and the Ards Peninsula, the largest town is Bangor, on the northeast coast. Three other large towns and cities are on its border, Newry lies on the border with County Armagh, while Lisburn. Down contains both the southernmost point of Northern Ireland and the easternmost point of Ireland and it is currently one of only two counties of Ireland to have a majority of the population from a Protestant background, according to the 2001 census. The other is County Antrim to the north, during the Williamite War in Ireland the county was a centre of Protestant rebellion against the rule of the Catholic James II. After forming a force the Protestants were defeated by the Irish Army at the Break of Dromore and forced to retreat. Later the same year Marshal Schombergs large Williamite expedition arrived in Belfast Lough, after laying siege to Carrickfergus Schomberg marched south to Dundalk Camp, clearing County Down and much of the rest of East Ulster of Jacobite troops. Down contains two significant peninsulas, Ards Peninsula and Lecale peninsula, the county has a coastline along Belfast Lough to the north and Carlingford Lough to the south. Strangford Lough lies between the Ards Peninsula and the mainland, down also contains part of the shore of Lough Neagh. Smaller loughs include Lough Island Reavy, the River Lagan forms most of the border with County Antrim. The River Bann also flows through the areas of the county. Other rivers include the Clanrye and Quoile, there are several islands off the Down coast, Mew Island, Light House Island and the Copeland Islands, all of which lie to the north of the Ards Peninsula. Gunn Island lies off the Lecale coast, in addition there are a large number of small islands in Strangford Lough. County Down is where, in the words of the song by Percy French, The mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea. Slieve Donard, at 849 m, is the highest peak in the Mournes, in Northern Ireland, another important peak is Slieve Croob, at 534 m, the source of the River Lagan. An area of County Down is known as the Brontë Homeland, after Patrick Brontë, father of Anne, Charlotte, Emily, Patrick Brontë was born in this region
3.
Northern Ireland
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Northern Ireland is a constituent unit of the United Kingdom in the north-east of Ireland. It is variously described as a country, province, region, or part of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland shares a border to the south and west with the Republic of Ireland. In 2011, its population was 1,810,863, constituting about 30% of the total population. Northern Ireland was created in 1921, when Ireland was partitioned between Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland by an act of the British parliament, Northern Ireland has historically been the most industrialised region of Ireland. After declining as a result of the political and social turmoil of the Troubles, its economy has grown significantly since the late 1990s. Unemployment in Northern Ireland peaked at 17. 2% in 1986, dropping to 6. 1% for June–August 2014,58. 2% of those unemployed had been unemployed for over a year. Prominent artists and sports persons from Northern Ireland include Van Morrison, Rory McIlroy, Joey Dunlop, Wayne McCullough, some people from Northern Ireland prefer to identify as Irish while others prefer to identify as British. Cultural links between Northern Ireland, the rest of Ireland, and the rest of the UK are complex, in many sports, the island of Ireland fields a single team, a notable exception being association football. Northern Ireland competes separately at the Commonwealth Games, and people from Northern Ireland may compete for either Great Britain or Ireland at the Olympic Games. The region that is now Northern Ireland was the bedrock of the Irish war of resistance against English programmes of colonialism in the late 16th century, the English-controlled Kingdom of Ireland had been declared by the English king Henry VIII in 1542, but Irish resistance made English control fragmentary. Victories by English forces in war and further Protestant victories in the Williamite War in Ireland toward the close of the 17th century solidified Anglican rule in Ireland. In Northern Ireland, the victories of the Siege of Derry and their intention was to materially disadvantage the Catholic community and, to a lesser extent, the Presbyterian community. In the context of open institutional discrimination, the 18th century saw secret, militant societies develop in communities in the region and act on sectarian tensions in violent attacks. Following this, in an attempt to quell sectarianism and force the removal of discriminatory laws, the new state, formed in 1801, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, was governed from a single government and parliament based in London. Between 1717 and 1775 some 250,000 people from Ulster emigrated to the British North American colonies and it is estimated that there are more than 27 million Scotch-Irish Americans now living in the US. By the close of the century, autonomy for Ireland within the United Kingdom, in 1912, after decades of obstruction from the House of Lords, Home Rule became a near-certainty. A clash between the House of Commons and House of Lords over a controversial budget produced the Parliament Act 1911, which enabled the veto of the Lords to be overturned. The House of Lords veto had been the unionists main guarantee that Home Rule would not be enacted, in 1914, they smuggled thousands of rifles and rounds of ammunition from Imperial Germany for use by the Ulster Volunteers, a paramilitary organisation opposed to the implementation of Home Rule
4.
Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry
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Charles William Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry KG GCB GCH PC, born Charles William Stewart and raised to the peerage as Baron Stewart in 1814, was a British soldier, politician and nobleman. Charles Stewart was educated at Eton and was commissioned into the British army in 1794 and he saw active service in Flanders and Ireland before being elected a member of the Irish House of Commons. In 1803 he was aide-de-camp to King George III and four later became Under-Secretary of State for War. He fought in the Peninsula War under both Sir John Moore and Sir Arthur Wellesley, in 1810 Stewart was appointed Envoy Extraordinary to the Prussian Court in Berlin and remained in that position until end of the war in 1814. In 1815 he was appointed British Ambassador to Vienna, and was at the Congress of Vienna with his half brother Lord Castlereagh, Lord Stewart succeeded his half-brother as 3rd Marquess of Londonderry in 1822. The following year he was created Earl Vane and Viscount Seaham, from 1823 he was Governor of County Londonderry and was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Durham in 1842. He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1853, born in Dublin, Charles Stewart was the only son of Robert Stewart, 1st Marquess of Londonderry, by his second wife Lady Frances, daughter of Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden. Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, was his half-brother, Charles Stewart was educated at Eton, and at the age of 16 was commissioned into the British Army as a lieutenant. He saw service in Flanders in 1794, and was lieutenant colonel of the 5th Royal Irish Dragoons by the time he helped put down the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Two years later he was elected to the Irish House of Commons as Tory representative for Thomastown, County Kilkenny and he sat for the latter constituency until the Act of Union in 1801, and then represented Londonderry in the British House of Commons until 1814. By the time of the Great Irish Famine in the 1840s and he owned land across Ulster in addition to property in Britain. In 1803 Stewart was appointed aide-de-camp to King George III, and four later became Under-Secretary of State for War. During the Corunna Campaign of 1808–1809 he commanded a brigade of cavalry and he received the thanks of Parliament in 1810, and on 20 November 1813 was made Colonel of the 25th Light Dragoons, becoming a Knight of the Bath that same year. Until the end of the war he was Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Berlin, the recipient of numerous foreign honours, Stewart was also, in 1814, ennobled as Baron Stewart, of Stewarts Court and Ballylawn in the County of Donegal. That same year he received degrees from Oxford and Cambridge, was admitted to the Privy Council. He was appointed GCH in 1816 and made colonel of the 10th Regiment of Dragoons on 3 February 1820. His first wife was Lady Catherine Bligh, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Darnley and she died during the night of 10–11 February 1812, of fever following a minor operation, while her husband was on active service in the Peninsula. Lord Stewart married his second wife Lady Frances Anne Vane-Tempest, daughter and heiress of Sir Henry Vane-Tempest, on 3 April 1819 at her mothers house on Bruton Street, Mayfair
5.
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
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His defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 put him in the top rank of Britains military heroes. Wellesley was born in Dublin, belonging to the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland and he was commissioned as an ensign in the British Army in 1787, serving in Ireland as aide-de-camp to two successive Lords Lieutenant of Ireland. He was also elected as a Member of Parliament in the Irish House of Commons and he was a colonel by 1796, and saw action in the Netherlands and in India, where he fought in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War at the Battle of Seringapatam. He was appointed governor of Seringapatam and Mysore in 1799 and, as a newly appointed major-general, following Napoleons exile in 1814, he served as the ambassador to France and was granted a dukedom. During the Hundred Days in 1815, he commanded the army which defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. Wellesleys battle record is exemplary, he participated in some 60 battles during the course of his military career. Wellington is famous for his defensive style of warfare, resulting in several victories against numerically superior forces while minimising his own losses. He is regarded as one of the greatest defensive commanders of all time, after ending his active military career, Wellington returned to politics. He was twice British prime minister as part of the Tory party, from 1828 to 1830 and he oversaw the passage of the Catholic Relief Act 1829, but opposed the Reform Act 1832. He continued as one of the figures in the House of Lords until his retirement. As such, he belonged to the Protestant Ascendancy and his biographers mostly follow the contemporary newspaper evidence in saying that he was born 1 May 1769, the day that he was baptised. He was most likely born at his parents townhouse,24 Upper Merrion Street, Dublin, but his mother Anne, Countess of Mornington, recalled in 1815 that he had been born at 6 Merrion Street, Dublin. He spent most of his childhood at his familys two homes, the first a house in Dublin and the second Dangan Castle,3 miles north of Summerhill on the Trim Road in County Meath. In 1781, Arthurs father died and his eldest brother Richard inherited his fathers earldom and he went to the diocesan school in Trim when at Dangan, Mr Whytes Academy when in Dublin, and Browns School in Chelsea when in London. He then enrolled at Eton, where he studied from 1781 to 1784, moreover, Eton had no playing fields at the time. In 1785, a lack of success at Eton, combined with a shortage of funds due to his fathers death, forced the young Wellesley. Until his early twenties, Arthur showed little sign of distinction and his mother grew concerned at his idleness, stating. A year later, Arthur enrolled in the French Royal Academy of Equitation in Angers, where he progressed significantly, becoming a good horseman and learning French, upon returning to England in late 1786, he astonished his mother with his improvement
6.
Napoleonic Wars
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The wars resulted from the unresolved disputes associated with the French Revolution and the Revolutionary Wars, which had raged on for years before concluding with the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. Napoleon became the First Consul of France in 1799, then Emperor five years later, inheriting the political and military struggles of the Revolution, he created a state with stable finances, a strong central bureaucracy, and a well-trained army. The British frequently financed the European coalitions intended to thwart French ambitions, by 1805, they had managed to convince the Austrians and the Russians to wage another war against France. At sea, the Royal Navy destroyed a combined Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar in October 1805, Prussian worries about increasing French power led to the formation of the Fourth Coalition in 1806. France then forced the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to sign the Treaties of Tilsit in July, although Tilsit signified the high watermark of the French Empire, it did not bring a lasting peace for Europe. Hoping to extend the Continental System and choke off British trade with the European mainland, Napoleon invaded Iberia, the Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support. The Peninsular War lasted six years, featured extensive guerrilla warfare, the Continental System caused recurring diplomatic conflicts between France and its client states, especially Russia. Unwilling to bear the consequences of reduced trade, the Russians routinely violated the Continental System. The French launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the collapse and retreat of the Grand Army along with the destruction of Russian lands. In 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France, a lengthy military campaign culminated in a large Allied army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813. The Allies then invaded France and captured Paris in the spring of 1814 and he was exiled to the island of Elba near Rome and the Bourbons were restored to power. However, Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France once again, the Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June. The Congress of Vienna, which started in 1814 and concluded in 1815, established the new borders of Europe and laid out the terms, Napoleon seized power in 1799, creating a de facto military dictatorship. The Napoleonic Wars began with the War of the Third Coalition, Kagan argues that Britain was irritated in particular by Napoleons assertion of control over Switzerland. Furthermore, Britons felt insulted when Napoleon stated that their country deserved no voice in European affairs, for its part, Russia decided that the intervention in Switzerland indicated that Napoleon was not looking toward a peaceful resolution of his differences with the other European powers. The British quickly enforced a blockade of France to starve it of resources. Napoleon responded with economic embargoes against Britain, and sought to eliminate Britains Continental allies to break the coalitions arrayed against him, the so-called Continental System formed a league of armed neutrality to disrupt the blockade and enforce free trade with France
7.
Mount Stewart
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Mount Stewart is an 19th-century house and garden in County Down, Northern Ireland, owned by the National Trust. Situated on the east shore of Strangford Lough, a few miles outside the town of Newtownards and near Greyabbey, it was the Irish seat of the Vane-Tempest-Stewart family, Marquesses of Londonderry. The house and its contents reflect the history of the Vane-Tempest-Stewart family, Mount Stewart was formed by the Stewart family, holders of the title Marquess of Londonderry since 1816. The family bought the estate in 1744 with money acquired by Alexander Stewart and this new wealth came from the sales of materials like linen. At the time, the house was known as Mount Pleasant, Alexander Stewarts son, Robert Stewart, became the first Marquess of Londonderry. In about 1800 he added a wing to the west. He died in 1821 leaving the house to his son, also Robert, better known as Viscount Castlereagh, Castlereagh lived in Mount Stewart during his childhood until he went to University in Cambridge. Lord Castlereagh inherited his fathers title only a year before his own death, the next owner of the house was his half-brother, Charles, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry. He married twice but it was his marriage which increased the familys finances greatly. His second wife was Lady Frances Anne Vane-Tempest and she was the greatest heiress of her time. This huge new wealth prompted the refurbishment and enlargement of the newly renamed Mount Stewart, controversially the Londonderrys, while spending £150,000 on the refurbishment only gave £30 to famine relief in Ireland in the 1840s. This remodelling created the present exterior of Mount Stewart, the small Georgian house and the small portico on the west wing were demolished and the house was increased to eleven bays. On the entrance front, a portico was added in the centre. The marriage also brought in much of the Vane-Tempest property, including land, Wynyard Park, County Durham was redesigned in the Neo-classical style. The couple bought Seaham Hall, also in County Durham, and this was later renamed Londonderry House. The 4th Marquess of Londonderry married the widow of Viscount Powerscourt and lived at her home, Powerscourt, the 5th Marquess lived at his wifes ancestral property, Plas Machynlleth in Wales, and his son, the 6th Marquess, lived at Wynyard. These long periods of neglect nearly destroyed Mount Stewart, the 7th Marquess, a well-known Ulster Unionist politician, and his wife brought a new lease of life to the house and its plain grounds. The Marchioness of Londonderrys ancestral home was Dunrobin Castle in Scotland and she also redesigned and redecorated much of the interior, for example, the huge drawing room, smoking room, the Castlereagh Room and many of the guest bedrooms
8.
Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh
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Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry, KG, GCH, PC, PC, usually known as Lord Castlereagh, was an Irish/British statesman. As British Foreign Secretary, from 1812 he was central to the management of the coalition that defeated Napoleon and was the principal British diplomat at the Congress of Vienna. Castlereagh was also leader of the British House of Commons in the Liverpool government from 1812 until his suicide in August 1822. Early in his career, as Chief Secretary for Ireland, he was involved in putting down the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and was instrumental in securing the passage of the Irish Act of Union of 1800. Castlereaghs challenge at the office was to organize and finance an alliance to destroy Napoleon. He successfully brought Napoleons enemies together at the Treaty of Chaumont in 1814, thereafter he worked with Europes leaders at the Congress of Vienna to provide a peace consistent with the conservative mood of the day. At Vienna he was successful in his primary goal of creating a peace settlement that would endure for years. He saw that a treaty based on vengeance and retaliation against France would fail. He employed his skills to block harsh terms. He held the Chaumont allies together, most notably in their determination to finally end Napoleons 100 Days in 1815 and he had a vision of long-term peace in Europe the united efforts of the great powers. At the same time he was watchful of Britains mercantile and imperial interests and he purchased the Cape Colony and Ceylon from the Netherlands. Frances colonies were returned, but France had to give up all its gains in Europe after 1791 and he also worked to abolish the international slave trade. He was unsuccessful in avoiding the War of 1812 with the United States, it ended in a stalemate in 1814, after 1815 Castlereagh was the leader in imposing repressive measures at home. He was hated for his attacks on liberty and reform. However, in 1919 diplomatic historians recommended his wise policies of 1814-1815 to the British delegation to the conferences that ended the First World War. Historian Charles Webster underscores the paradox, There probably never was a statesman whose ideas were so right, such disparity between the grasp of ends and the understanding of means amounts to a failure in statesmanship. Robert Stewart acquired the courtesy title Viscount Castlereagh in 1796 when his father was created Earl of Londonderry in the Irish peerage, upon his fathers death in 1821, he succeeded as 2nd Marquess of Londonderry, a title to which his father had been raised in 1816. His younger half-brother, the soldier, politician and diplomat Charles Stewart succeeded him as 3rd Marquess of Londonderry
9.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established as a sovereign state on 1 January 1801 by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The growing desire for an Irish Republic led to the Irish War of Independence, Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, and the state was consequently renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Britain financed the European coalition that defeated France in 1815 in the Napoleonic Wars, the British Empire thereby became the foremost world power for the next century. The Crimean War with Russia and the Boer wars were relatively small operations in a largely peaceful century, rapid industrialisation that began in the decades prior to the states formation continued up until the mid-19th century. A devastating famine, exacerbated by government inaction in the century, led to demographic collapse in much of Ireland. It was an era of economic modernization and growth of industry, trade and finance. Outward migration was heavy to the colonies and to the United States. Britain also built up a large British Empire in Africa and Asia, India, by far the most important possession, saw a short-lived revolt in 1857. In foreign policy Britain favoured free trade, which enabled its financiers and merchants to operate successfully in many otherwise independent countries, as in South America. Britain formed no permanent military alliances until the early 20th century, when it began to cooperate with Japan, France and Russia, and moved closer to the United States. A brief period of limited independence for Ireland came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the British governments fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with the French resulted in the decision to unite the two countries. This was brought about by legislation in the parliaments of both kingdoms and came into effect on 1 January 1801, however, King George III was bitterly opposed to any such Emancipation and succeeded in defeating his governments attempts to introduce it. When the Treaty of Amiens ended the war, Britain agreed to return most of the territories it had seized, in May 1803, war was declared again. In 1806, Napoleon issued the series of Berlin Decrees, which brought into effect the Continental System and this policy aimed to eliminate the threat from the British by closing French-controlled territory to foreign trade. Frances population and agricultural capacity far outstripped that of the British Isles, Napoleon expected that cutting Britain off from the European mainland would end its economic hegemony. The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent, after Napoleons surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to have returned. The Allies united and the armies of Wellington and Blucher defeated Napoleon once, simultaneous with the Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes, arming hostile Indians and British impressment of American sailors led to the War of 1812 with the United States. The war was little noticed in Britain, which could devote few resources to the conflict until the fall of Napoleon in 1814, American frigates inflicted a series of defeats on the Royal Navy, which was short on manpower due to the conflict in Europe
10.
Charles Lanyon
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Sir Charles Lanyon DL, JP was an English architect of the 19th century. His work is most closely associated with Belfast, Northern Ireland, Lanyon was born in Eastbourne, Sussex in 1813. His father was John Jenkinson Lanyon, a purser in the Royal Navy, following his education, he became an apprentice civil engineer with Jacob Owen in Portsmouth. When Owen was made senior Engineer and Architect of the Irish Board of Works and moved to Dublin, in 1835 he married Owens daughter, Elizabeth Helen. They had ten children, including Sir William Owen Lanyon, an army officer, Charles Lanyon was County Surveyor in Kildare briefly, before moving on to Antrim in 1836. He remained County Surveyor of Antrim until 1860 when he resigned from the post to concentrate on private work, Lanyon was elected Mayor of Belfast in 1862, and Conservative MP for the city between 1865 and 1868. In 1868 he was knighted and served on the Select Committee on Scientific Instruction. He lost his seat in Westminster, but became a councillor in Belfast Town Council from 1861 to 1871, from 1862 to 1886 he was Belfast Harbour Commissioner. He served as Deputy Lieutenant for County Antrim and was appointed High Sheriff of Antrim in 1876 and he was also a Justice of the Peace for many years. His other business interests included being director of the Blackstaff Flax Spinning Company and he was made director of the Northern Counties Railway in 1870, but resigned in 1887 because of ill-health. Lanyon lived at The Abbey a grand house in Whiteabbey, which became a sanitorium during World War I and is now part of Whiteabbey Hospital. He died there on 31 May 1889 and is buried in Newtownbreda graveyard and his will is recorded in the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland,8 August 1889, LANYON, Sir Charles, Effects £53,785 1s 3d. The will of Sir Charles Lanyon, late of the Abbey, Whiteabbey, the north Antrim coast was difficult to reach for many years. The Irish Commissioners of Public Works promoted the construction of the Antrim Coast Road between 1832 and 1842 by civil engineer William Bald, Lanyon was the County Surveyor for part of this time and would have had a considerable supervisory role. The route runs from Larne up through Ballygalley, Glenarm, Carnlough and it involved removal of thousands of tonnes of rock using explosives, and building sea walls. Part of this included the Glendun Viaduct. This building one of Charles Lanyons earlier buildings was completed in 1838 and it cost £1,125, plus £40 for the bench and fitting up. It is made mostly of basalt blocks with brick dressings, the main doorway is surrounded by a thick stone frame
11.
William Henry Lynn
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William Henry Lynn was an Irish-born architect with a practice in Belfast and the north of England. He is noted for his Ruskinian Venetian Gothic public buildings, which include Chester Town Hall, in 1846 Lynn was articled to Sir Charles Lanyon in Belfast, under Lanyon he prepared the drawings for the original building housing Queens College, Belfast. He and Lanyon formed a partnership in 1854, in 1860, with Charles son John Lanyon as junior partner, they incorporated as Lanyon, Lynn, the partnership dissolved in 1872, when Lynn struck out on his own. Antrim, they designed the Romanesque Revival Church of St Patrick and, in England, in the 1860s a second Shanes Castle was designed with Charles Lanyon for 1st Lord ONeill, and in 1870 Castle Leslie was designed for Sir John Leslie, 1st Baronet. Among his other public commissions in Belfast were the Central Library, the Bank Buildings. One of his last designs was for the baptistry of Belfast Cathedral
12.
Bob Shaw
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Robert Bob Shaw was a science fiction writer and fan from Northern Ireland, noted for his originality and wit. He won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 1979 and 1980 and his short story Light of Other Days was a Hugo Award nominee in 1967, as was his novel The Ragged Astronauts in 1987. Shaw was born and raised in Belfast, the eldest of three sons of a policeman and he learned of science fiction at about 11 years old when he read an A. E. van Vogt short story in an early edition of Astounding Science-Fiction magazine. He later described the experience as being more significant and long-lasting than taking LSD and he attended Belfast College of Technology. In 1950 he joined the group Irish Fandom which met at the house of James White, another Northern Irish science fiction writer, the group was influential in the early history of science fiction fandom and produced fanzines Hyphen and Slant, to the latter of which Shaw contributed material. Shaw acquired the nickname BoSh during this period and he published his first science-fiction short story in 1951, followed by several others. He gave up writing and went with his first wife Sadie and their son and his novel Vertigo is set in Alberta, and Orbitsvilles limitless grasslands may have been influenced by this period in his life. In April 1973, during the Troubles, Shaw and his family moved from Northern Ireland to England, Sadie died suddenly in 1991 and Shaw lived alone there for some years. Shaw had nearly lost his sight through illness, and suffered migraine-induced visual disturbances throughout his life and these, and references to eyes and vision, appear as a theme in some of his works. He was known as a drinker, and at one stage considered himself an alcoholic and he was quoted in 1991 as saying, I write science fiction for people who dont read a great deal of science fiction. He married American Nancy Tucker in 1995 and went to the US to live with her, Shaw died of cancer on 11 February 1996. Shaw is the author of Light of Other Days, the story introduced the concept of slow glass. Shaw sold this story to Analog editor John W. Campbell, the original story was written in four hours, but after years of planning. Shaw expanded on the concept in the novel Other Days, Other Eyes, and his work ranged from essentially mimetic stories with fantastic elements far in the background to van Vogtian extravaganzas. Orbitsville and its two sequels deal with the discovery of a habitable shell completely surrounding a star, and the consequences for humanity and it won him the 1976 British SF Association Award. Later in his career he wrote the Land trilogy, set on a system of worlds where technology has evolved with no metals, like Philip K. Dick he continually focused on the nature of perception in his work. Shaw was known in the fan community for his wit, following his early membership of Irish Fandom, with Walt Willis, and James White, he always remained a keen reader of and contributor to fanzines. For these he won the 1979 and 1980 Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer and he wrote The Enchanted Duplicator with Walt Willis in 1954, a piece of fiction about science fiction fandom modelled on John Bunyans The Pilgrims Progress
13.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
