1.
Private company limited by shares
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A private company limited by shares is a class of private limited company incorporated under the laws of England and Wales, Scotland, certain Commonwealth countries or the Republic of Ireland. It has shareholders with limited liability and its shares may not be offered to the general public, a shareholders personal assets are thus protected in the event of the companys insolvency, but any money invested in the company may be lost. A limited company may be private or public, a private limited companys disclosure requirements are lighter, but its shares may not be offered to the general public and therefore cannot be traded on a public stock exchange. This is the difference between a private limited company and a public limited company. Most companies, particularly small companies, are private, private companies limited by shares are usually required to have the suffix Limited or Incorporated as part of their name, though the latter cannot be used in the UK or the Republic of Ireland. In the Republic of Ireland Teoranta may be used instead, largely by Gaeltacht companies, cyfyngedig may be used by Welsh companies in a similar fashion. In the United Kingdom, every company must have formally appointed company officers, by statute, a private company must have at least one director and until April 2008 also had to have a secretary. The companys articles of association may require more than one director, at least one director must be an individual, not another company. Anybody can be a director, subject to certain exceptions, a person who is yet to be discharged from bankruptcy or who has been banned from being a company director by the court will be prohibited, except in certain cases. In addition, a person may not be a director of a company if he or she is unable to consent to their appointment. As of October 2008, the age required to give this consent is 16 years of age. This change was applied retroactively, with any directors under the age of 16 being removed from the register upon the implementation of the and this was already the case in Scotland, under the Age of Legal Capacity Act 1991. No formal qualifications are required to be a director or secretary. When a limited company is formed it must issue one or more subscriber shares to its initial members and it may increase capitalisation by issue of further shares. The issued share capital of the company is the number of shares existing in the company multiplied by the nominal value of each share. A company incorporated in England and Wales can be created with any number of shares of any nominal value, for example, there may be 10,000 shares with a nominal value of 1p, or 100 shares of £1 each. In each case the capital would be £100. Unissued shares can be issued at any time by the using a Form SH01 - Return of Allotment of Shares subject to prior authorisation by the shareholders
2.
Belfast
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Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, the second largest on the island of Ireland, and the heart of the tenth largest Primary Urban Area in the United Kingdom. On the River Lagan, it had a population of 286,000 at the 2011 census and 333,871 after the 2015 council reform, Belfast was granted city status in 1888. Belfast played a key role in the Industrial Revolution, and was an industrial centre until the latter half of the 20th century. It has sustained a major aerospace and missiles industry since the mid 1930s, industrialisation and the inward migration it brought made Belfast Irelands biggest city at the beginning of the 20th century. Today, Belfast remains a centre for industry, as well as the arts, higher education, business, and law, additionally, Belfast city centre has undergone considerable expansion and regeneration in recent years, notably around Victoria Square. Belfast is served by two airports, George Best Belfast City Airport in the city, and Belfast International Airport 15 miles west of the city. Although the county borough of Belfast was created when it was granted city status by Queen Victoria in 1888, the site of Belfast has been occupied since the Bronze Age. The Giants Ring, a 5, 000-year-old henge, is located near the city, Belfast remained a small settlement of little importance during the Middle Ages. The ONeill clan had a presence in the area, in the 14th century, Cloinne Aodha Buidhe, descendants of Aodh Buidhe ONeill built Grey Castle at Castlereagh, now in the east of the city. Conn ONeill of the Clannaboy ONeills owned vast lands in the area and was the last inhabitant of Grey Castle, evidence of this period of Belfasts growth can still be seen in the oldest areas of the city, known as the Entries. Belfast blossomed as a commercial and industrial centre in the 18th and 19th centuries, industries thrived, including linen, rope-making, tobacco, heavy engineering and shipbuilding, and at the end of the 19th century, Belfast briefly overtook Dublin as the largest city in Ireland. The Harland and Wolff shipyards became one of the largest shipbuilders in the world, in 1886 the city suffered intense riots over the issue of home rule, which had divided the city. In 1920–22, Belfast became the capital of the new entity of Northern Ireland as the island of Ireland was partitioned, the accompanying conflict cost up to 500 lives in Belfast, the bloodiest sectarian strife in the city until the Troubles of the late 1960s onwards. Belfast was heavily bombed during World War II, in one raid, in 1941, German bombers killed around one thousand people and left tens of thousands homeless. Apart from London, this was the greatest loss of life in a raid during the Blitz. Belfast has been the capital of Northern Ireland since its establishment in 1921 following the Government of Ireland Act 1920 and it had been the scene of various episodes of sectarian conflict between its Catholic and Protestant populations. These opposing groups in conflict are now often termed republican and loyalist respectively. The most recent example of conflict was known as the Troubles – a civil conflict that raged from around 1969 to 1998
3.
Ireland
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Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth. Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, in 2011, the population of Ireland was about 6.4 million, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain. Just under 4.6 million live in the Republic of Ireland, the islands geography comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. The island has lush vegetation, a product of its mild, thick woodlands covered the island until the Middle Ages. As of 2013, the amount of land that is wooded in Ireland is about 11% of the total, there are twenty-six extant mammal species native to Ireland. The Irish climate is moderate and classified as oceanic. As a result, winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, however, summers are cooler than those in Continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant, the earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC. Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century CE, the island was Christianised from the 5th century onward. Following the Norman invasion in the 12th century, England claimed sovereignty over Ireland, however, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, with the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s and this subsided following a political agreement in 1998. In 1973 the Republic of Ireland joined the European Economic Community while the United Kingdom, Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, especially in the fields of literature. Alongside mainstream Western culture, an indigenous culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music. The culture of the island shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, and sports such as association football, rugby, horse racing. The name Ireland derives from Old Irish Eriu and this in turn derives from Proto-Celtic *Iveriu, which is also the source of Latin Hibernia. Iveriu derives from a root meaning fat, prosperous, during the last glacial period, and up until about 9000 years ago, most of Ireland was covered with ice, most of the time
4.
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
5.
Dublin
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Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. Dublin is in the province of Leinster on Irelands east coast, the city has an urban area population of 1,345,402. The population of the Greater Dublin Area, as of 2016, was 1,904,806 people, founded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin became Irelands principal city following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800, following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland. Dublin is administered by a City Council, the city is listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network as a global city, with a ranking of Alpha-, which places it amongst the top thirty cities in the world. It is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts, administration, economy, the name Dublin comes from the Irish word Dubhlinn, early Classical Irish Dubhlind/Duibhlind, dubh /d̪uβ/, alt. /d̪uw/, alt /d̪u, / meaning black, dark, and lind /lʲiɲ pool and this tidal pool was located where the River Poddle entered the Liffey, on the site of the castle gardens at the rear of Dublin Castle. In Modern Irish the name is Duibhlinn, and Irish rhymes from Dublin County show that in Dublin Leinster Irish it was pronounced Duílinn /d̪ˠi, other localities in Ireland also bear the name Duibhlinn, variously anglicized as Devlin, Divlin and Difflin. Historically, scribes using the Gaelic script wrote bh with a dot over the b and those without knowledge of Irish omitted the dot, spelling the name as Dublin. Variations on the name are found in traditionally Irish-speaking areas of Scotland, such as An Linne Dhubh. It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. Baile Átha Cliath, meaning town of the ford, is the common name for the city in modern Irish. Áth Cliath is a name referring to a fording point of the River Liffey near Father Mathew Bridge. Baile Átha Cliath was an early Christian monastery, believed to have been in the area of Aungier Street, there are other towns of the same name, such as Àth Cliath in East Ayrshire, Scotland, which is Anglicised as Hurlford. Although the area of Dublin Bay has been inhabited by humans since prehistoric times and he called the settlement Eblana polis. It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. The subsequent Scandinavian settlement centred on the River Poddle, a tributary of the Liffey in an area now known as Wood Quay, the Dubhlinn was a small lake used to moor ships, the Poddle connected the lake with the Liffey. This lake was covered during the early 18th century as the city grew, the Dubhlinn lay where the Castle Garden is now located, opposite the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle
6.
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
7.
Republic of Ireland
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Ireland, also known as the Republic of Ireland, is a sovereign state in north-western Europe occupying about five-sixths of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, which is located on the part of the island. The state shares its land border with Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom. It is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the Celtic Sea to the south, Saint Georges Channel to the south-east, and it is a unitary, parliamentary republic. The head of government is the Taoiseach, who is elected by the Dáil and appointed by the President, the state was created as the Irish Free State in 1922 as a result of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. It was officially declared a republic in 1949, following the Republic of Ireland Act 1948, Ireland became a member of the United Nations in December 1955. It joined the European Economic Community, the predecessor of the European Union, after joining the EEC, Ireland enacted a series of liberal economic policies that resulted in rapid economic growth. The country achieved considerable prosperity between the years of 1995 and 2007, which known as the Celtic Tiger period. This was halted by a financial crisis that began in 2008. However, as the Irish economy was the fastest growing in the EU in 2015, Ireland is again quickly ascending league tables comparing wealth and prosperity internationally. For example, in 2015, Ireland was ranked as the joint sixth most developed country in the world by the United Nations Human Development Index and it also performs well in several national performance metrics, including freedom of the press, economic freedom and civil liberties. Ireland is a member of the European Union and is a member of the Council of Europe. The 1922 state, comprising 26 of the 32 counties of Ireland, was styled, the Constitution of Ireland, adopted in 1937, provides that the name of the State is Éire, or, in the English language, Ireland. Section 2 of the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 states, It is hereby declared that the description of the State shall be the Republic of Ireland. The 1948 Act does not name the state as Republic of Ireland, because to have done so would have put it in conflict with the Constitution. The government of the United Kingdom used the name Eire, and, from 1949, Republic of Ireland, for the state, as well as Ireland, Éire or the Republic of Ireland, the state is also referred to as the Republic, Southern Ireland or the South. In an Irish republican context it is referred to as the Free State or the 26 Counties. From the Act of Union on 1 January 1801, until 6 December 1922, during the Great Famine, from 1845 to 1849, the islands population of over 8 million fell by 30%
8.
Westminster Bank
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Considered one of the Big Five, it expanded during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and took over a number of smaller banking companies. In 1834, the London and Westminster Bank was the first firm founded under the auspices of the Bank Charter Act 1833, as a result, the bank opened only six London branches in its first three years and no additional offices were established until nearly 20 years later. London and Westminster made its first acquisition in 1847, when it bought Young & Son, in about 1870 it acquired Unity Joint-Stock Bank, and mergers with Commercial Bank of London and Middlesex Bank had been arranged in 1861 and 1863 respectively. By 1909 London and Westminster had opened or acquired 37 branches in, yet, despite this expansion effort, the bank felt the effects of competition from provincial banks like Lloyds and Midland. These two banks had already established large regional branch networks and were encroaching upon the London market. The Surrey, Kent and Sussex Banking Company had been established at Southwark in 1836 and soon had branches in places like Croydon, Brighton, Maidstone and it was renamed the London and County Banking Co. in 1839. By 1875 it had over 150 branches and was the largest British bank, the resulting entity was named the London County and Westminster Bank. The bank itself also directly established offices in Madrid, Barcelona, Antwerp, Brussels, Bilbao, all the Spanish branches were closed in 1923–4 due to deteriorating economic conditions in Spain and discrimination against foreign banks. Control of the branches was exercised from London, although between 1940 and 1944 contact with them was lost due to the German occupation. Birkbeck Building and Freehold Land Society, formed in 1851, developed a large deposit-taking business that developed into banking activity, cheque books were issued from 1858 and by 1872 the business was trading under the title of Birkbeck Bank. In 1910, when its balance sheet totalled £12.26 million and it had 112,817 accounts, continuing rumours about its financial position and a climate of depreciation in gilt-edged securities, led to a suspension of payments. In 1911 its goodwill and premises were purchased from the receiver by London County, in 1917, bank officials decided to acquire the Ulster Bank, with 170 branches throughout Ireland, and in 1918 bought Parrs Bank, with over 320 offices throughout England. These purchases made London County Westminster and Parrs the fifth-largest bank in England, the Parrs name survives in the Bloomsbury, Parrs Branch of National Westminster Bank at 214 High Holborn, London, WC1. It did mean that the bank escaped the bad debts and currency fluctuations that plagued many other banks between the wars, allowing the domestic side of the business to grow steadily. The bank continued to expand through acquisition, namely, Paid-up capital rose from £9 million in 1923 to £40.5 million in 1935. By 1939 there were 1,100 branches and at the time of the merger with National Provincial Bank in 1968, the present National Westminster Bank continues to use the portcullis in its common seal. The merger of Westminster and National Provincial Bank, announced in early 1968, shocked the British public, the District Bank, National Provincial, and Westminster Bank were fully integrated in the new firms structure, while Coutts & Co. Ulster Bank and the Isle of Man Bank continued as separate operations, duncan Stirling, chairman of Westminster Bank, became first chairman of the fifth largest bank in the world
9.
NatWest
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National Westminster Bank, commonly known as NatWest, is a large retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1968 by the merger of National Provincial Bank, since 2000 it has been part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Today it has more than 7.5 million personal customers and 850,000 small business accounts, in Ireland it operates through its Ulster Bank subsidiary. NatWest was named a runner-up for the Best Business Banking Provider category at the British Bank Awards 2016, the banks origins date back to 1658 with the foundation of Smiths Bank of Nottingham. Westminster Foreign Bank was restyled International Westminster Bank in 1973, duncan Stirling, outgoing chairman of Westminster Bank, became first chairman of the fifth largest bank in the world. In 1969 David Robarts, former chairman of National Provincial, assumed Stirlings position, in 1975 it was one of the first London banks to open a representative office in Scotland. It was a member of the Joint Credit Card Company which launched the Access credit card in 1972. The same banks, excluding Lloyds, were responsible for the introduction of the Switch debit card in 1988. Deregulation in the 1980s, culminating in the Big Bang in 1986, County Bank, its merchant banking subsidiary formed in 1965, acquired various stockbroking and jobbing firms to create the investment banking arm County NatWest. The Action Bank advertising campaign spearheaded a new marketing-led approach to business development, in 1982, the Frankfurt office of International Westminster Bank merged with Global Bank AG to form Deutsche Westminster Bank. In 1985, Banco NatWest España was formed and National Westminster Bank SA was incorporated in 1988, taking over the six branches in France. In 1989, International Westminster Bank was merged into National Westminster Bank by Act of Parliament, completed in 1980, the bank built the National Westminster Tower in London to serve as its international headquarters. Also worthy of note is National Westminster House in Birmingham, the building was sold to British Land in 2007, the banks expansion strategy hit trouble with the stock market crash of 1987 and involvement in the financial scandal surrounding the collapse of Blue Arrow. The Department of Trade and Industry report on the affair was critical of the management and resulted in the resignation of several members of the board. Later, the bank would divest its overseas subsidiaries, the North American operations were sold to Fleet Bank and Hong Kong Bank of Canada, and the Australian and New Zealand branches were sold to Salomon Smith Barney and the National Australia Bank. Thereafter the bank concentrated on its domestic business as the restyled NatWest Group. In 1993, the NatWest Tower was devastated by a Provisional IRA bomb, then, in 1997, NatWest Markets, the corporate and investment banking arm formed in 1992, revealed that a £50m loss had been discovered, revised to £90. 5m after further investigations. The banks move into complicated derivative products that it did not fully understand seemed to indicate poor management, by the end of 1997 parts of NatWest Markets had been sold, others becoming Greenwich NatWest in 1998
10.
Royal Bank of Scotland Group
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The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc is a British banking and insurance holding company, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. In the UK and Ireland, its subsidiary companies are The Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest, Ulster Bank. The group issues banknotes in Scotland and Northern Ireland and, as of 2014 and it received significant support from the UK government, which, as of August 2015, holds and manages a 73% stake through UK Financial Investments. The Group had a capitalisation of approximately £20.4 billion as of 4 March 2014. In addition to its primary listing on the LSE, the company is also listed on the New York Stock Exchange. By 1969, economic conditions were becoming difficult for the banking sector. In response, the National Commercial Bank of Scotland merged with the Royal Bank of Scotland, the resulting company had 662 branches. The merger resulted in a new holding company, National and Commercial Banking Group Ltd, the English and Welsh branches were reorganised, until 1985, as Williams & Glyns Bank, while the Scottish branches all transferred to the Royal Bank name. The holding company was renamed The Royal Bank of Scotland Group in 1979, during the late 1970s and early 1980s the Royal Bank was the subject of three separate takeover approaches. In 1979, Lloyds Bank, which had built up a 16. 4% stake in the Royal Bank. The offer was rejected by the board of directors on the basis that it was detrimental to the banks operations, however, when the Standard Chartered Bank proposed a merger with the Royal Bank in 1980, the board responded favourably. Standard Chartered Bank was headquartered in London, although most of its operations were in the Far East, however, the bid was scuppered by the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation which tabled a rival offer. The bid by HSBC was not backed by the Bank of England and was rejected by the Royal Banks board. However the British government referred both bids to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission, both were rejected as being against the public interest. The Bank did obtain an international partnership with Banco Santander Central Hispano of Spain, however this arrangement ended in 2005, when Banco Santander Central Hispano acquired UK bank Abbey National – and both banks sold their respective shareholdings. The first international office of the bank was opened in New York in 1960, subsequent international banks were opened in Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston and Hong Kong. In 1988 the bank acquired Citizens Financial Group, a bank based in Rhode Island, since then, Citizens has acquired several other American banks and in 2004 acquired Charter One Bank to become the 8th largest bank in the United States. In the Asia-Pacific region, the bank has offices in, Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, on 27 February 2014 after reporting a 2013 loss of £9bn the bank announced it would scale back its international presence
11.
Merchant Hotel
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The Merchant Hotel is a five-star luxury hotel in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The hotel is situated on Skipper Street, the building was built in the mid-nineteenth century as the headquarters of the Ulster Bank, and was transformed into a hotel in 2006. A modern extension was constructed as well, tyrone Crystal built the chandelier for the Great Room, the designer was Marcus Notley. It is made out of embellished gold on metal and 2600 blown out crystal pieces, with 4. 5m in height,2. 9m in diameter and a weight of 400 kg, it is the largest chandelier in Ireland. The chandelier was installed in 2006, in July 2009, Merchant Hotel won the Worlds Best Hotel Bar competition. In 2010, it was awarded Worlds Best Cocktail Bar at the Tales of the Cocktail awards, media related to Merchant Hotel, Belfast at Wikimedia Commons Official website
12.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
13.
Ballymena
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Ballymena /ˌbæliˈmiːnə/ is a large town in County Antrim, and the eighth largest in Northern Ireland. It is part of Mid and East Antrim Borough Council and it had a population of 29,467 people in the 2011 Census. The town is built on land given to the Adair family by King Charles I in 1626, as of 2016, the Saturday market still runs. Ballymena is the hometown of notable actor Liam Neeson, who was awarded Freedom of the Borough in 2013, the town used to host Irelands largest one-day agricultural show at the Ballymena Showgrounds. The town centre has many historic buildings, the Town Hall was built in 1924 on the site of the old Market House, and was refurbished in 2007 at a cost of roughly £20 million. The recorded history of the Ballymena area dates to the Early Christian period from the 5th to the 7th centuries, ringforts are found in the townland of Ballykeel and a site known as Camphill Fort in the townland of Ballee may also have been of this type. There are a number of sites within a 1 1⁄4 miles radius of the centre of Ballymena. Two miles north in the townland of Kirkinriola, the ancient parish church and graveyard possess several indicators of Early Christian settlement, also in 1868, a gravedigger found a large stone slab on which was carved a cross with the inscription ord do degen. This refers to Bishop Degen, who lived in Ireland during the 7th century and this stone is now in the porch of St. Patricks Church at the end of Castle Street. At the end of the 5th century, a church was founded in Connor and this was followed by a monastery at Templemoyle, Kells. In 831, however, the Norse invaded the Ballymena area, in the 12th century, the Normans conquered much of County Antrim and County Down after having taken over England the century before. They created the core of the Earldom of Ulster, during this campaign, they built great mounds of earth topped by wooden towers, referred to as mottes, as defensive structures. The Harryville areas motte-and-bailey is one of the best examples of type of fortification in Northern Ireland. In 1315, Edward Bruce invaded Ireland, on 10 September 1315, at the Battle of Tawnybrack, Edward conquered the army of Richard De Burgo, the Norman Earl of Ulster. In 1576, Queen Elizabeth I granted land, including the town of Ballymena, the lands had been forfeited to the crown after Shane ONeills resistance in the 1560s. Smith brought English settlers to the area, among the first pioneers in planting English, by 1581, Smiths settlement failed and the lands reverted to the crown. On 10 May 1607, King James I granted the native Irish chief, the estate passed through several owners, eventually passing into the possession of William Adair, a Scottish laird from Kinhilt in southwestern Scotland. The estate was temporarily renamed Kinhilstown after Adairs lands in Scotland, the original castle of Ballymena was built in the early 17th century, situated to take advantage of an ancient ford at the River Braid
14.
First Active
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First Active was an Irish bank, and former building society which was merged into Ulster Bank in late 2009, ceasing trading in February 2010. First Active was founded in 1861 as the Workingmans Benefit Building Society and it was incorporated in Ireland in 1875 under the Building Societies Act,1874. In 1960 the name of the Society was changed to First National Building Society, in 1994 First National acquired Mortgage Trust Limited, a UK centralised mortgage lending business. In 1995 a deposit taking subsidiary commenced business in Guernsey, Channel Islands, the Groups UK operations were expanded in 1996 through the acquisition of The Mortgage Corporation. A retail deposit taking operation was established in England in 1996 to obtain sterling deposits to fund the Groups growing mortgage business in the UK. At the 1998 Annual General Meeting the members voted to convert to a limited company and to list the Company shares on the Irish. Between September 2000 and December 2002 First Active sold its investments in First Active Financial in the UK to Britannic Assurance plc, from the 1990s, it used an advertising campaign which involved contradicting received knowledge about finance. On 5 January 2004, First Active became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, the same year, Tesco Bank also began offering products provided by First Active. On 26 January 2009, it was announced that First Active would cease to operate as an entity and its operations would be merged with those of Ulster Bank. From September 2009, it ceased offering any new products to customers in preparation for the merger
15.
Prudential Regulation Authority (United Kingdom)
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The Prudential Regulation Authority is a United Kingdom financial services regulatory body, formed as one of the successors to the Financial Services Authority. It sets standards and supervises financial institutions at the level of the individual firm, the PRA was created by the Financial Services Act 2012 and formally began operating alongside the new Financial Conduct Authority on 1 April 2013. As the Bank of England is operationally independent of the Government of the United Kingdom, the PRA has its main offices at 20 Moorgate, near the Banks central offices on Threadneedle Street. In promoting safety and soundness, the PRA focuses primarily on the harm that firms can cause to the stability of the UK financial system, a stable financial system is one in which firms continue to provide critical financial services – a precondition for a healthy and successful economy. It will have working relationships with other parts of the Bank, including the Financial Policy Committee. The Board will be accountable to Parliament, a forward-looking approach, The PRA will assess firms not just against current risks, but also against those that could plausibly arise in the future. Where the PRA judges it necessary to intervene, it will aim to do so at an early stage. A focused approach, The PRA will focus on those issues, the PRA approach to supervision will not seek to operate a zero-failure regime. Rather, the PRA will seek to ensure that a firm which fails does so in a way that avoids significant disruption to the supply of critical financial services. The chief executive of the PRA is also the Bank of England Deputy Governor for Prudential Regulation, the following is a list of chief executives since the PRAs inception, Official website
16.
Financial Conduct Authority
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The FCA regulates financial firms providing services to consumers and maintains the integrity of the UK’s financial markets. It focuses on the regulation of conduct by both retail and wholesale financial services firms, like its predecessor the FSA, the FCA is structured as a company limited by guarantee. On 19 December 2012 the Financial Services Act 2012 received royal assent, the Act created a new regulatory framework for financial services and abolished the Financial Services Authority. The authority has significant powers, including the power to conduct related to the marketing of financial products. It is able to specify minimum standards and to place requirements on products and it has the power to investigate organisations and individuals. The authority is responsible for regulating the consumer credit industry from 1 April 2014, in April 2015, the FCA created a separate body, the Payment Systems Regulator, in accordance with section 40 of the Financial Services Act 2013. The PSRs role is to promote competition and innovation in payment systems, the Financial Services Act of 2012 set out a new system for regulating financial services in order to protect and improve the UK’s economy. In June 2012 it was confirmed that John Griffith-Jones would become the chair of the FCA once the FSA ceases operations in 2013. Griffith-Jones joined the FSA board in September 2012 as a non-executive director, Griffith-Jones retired from KPMG, where he was chairman of the UK division, in August 2012. In December 2013, it was announced that head of asset management supervision Ed Harley had left the regulator to take up a role at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, many had no concept of the instrument they were being pressured to buy. This applies to embedded swaps as much as standalone products, the response by the FSA and FCA has been inadequate. The FCA was rebuked by the Treasury Select Committee for lack of concern over the increase in mortgage interest rates of the Bank of Irelands UK subsidiary. There have been calls for the resignation of chairman John Griffith-Jones because of his responsibility for auditing HBOS as chairman of KPMG at the time of the crisis of 2007–08. There has also been criticism of chief executive Martin Wheatley because of his responsibility for the fiasco in Hong Kong. On 16 December 2014, the Treasury Select Committee commenced taking evidence on the press briefing, Financial Policy Committee Prudential Regulation Authority Financial Services Authority FCA Controlled Functions Financial Conduct Authority – official site
17.
Financial Services Compensation Scheme
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The Financial Services Compensation Scheme is the UK’s statutory compensation scheme for customers of authorised financial services firms. This means that FSCS can pay compensation if a firm is unable, or likely to be unable, FSCS is an independent body, set up under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, and funded by a levy on authorised financial services firms. The scheme covers deposits, insurance policies, insurance brokering, investments, mortgages, FSCS is free to consumers and, since 2001, has helped more than 4.5 million people and paid out more than £26 billion. Since 31 December,2010, maintaining a single customer view has become mandatory for United Kingdom banks, the FSCS came into existence in 2001 and replaced former multiple schemes. Between 2001 and 2006 the scheme paid out close to 1 billion pounds in compensation, in the period from 2006 to 2011 the financial crisis resulted in compensation of over 26 billion pounds being paid out by the FSCS. In 2008 the FSCS was given a loan by the Bank of England in order to be able to guarantee the deposits of customers of Bradford & Bingley. The compensation limits were last amended in 2010 to bring them into line with the EU deposit guarantee requirements under the European Union directive 94/19/E. On 31 August 2012 UK authorised banks, building societies and credit unions were required to display information about FSCS protection in branch and online and this action followed the introduction of new Financial Services Authority rules obliging deposit takers to display information about FSCS protection available to consumers. The UK branches of banks from the European Economic Area have to specify that their customers are not covered by FSCS. On 14 January 2013 FSCS launched an awareness programme, aiming to reassure consumers and boost confidence. It follows on from the requirements and uses icons of protection to engage with the consumers and highlight the safety FSCS provides to savings. The advertising programme is scheduled to run in national press, radio, online, the FSCS is funded by levies on firms authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority. FSCSs costs are made up of management expenses and compensation payments, FSCS protects UK authorised banks, building societies and credit unions up to £85,000 in the event of their insolvency. If deposits or savings are in a joint account the total of FSCS protection doubles to £170,000, FSCS protection is free and automatic. If anything happens to your bank, building society or credit union, in the vast majority of cases savings are refunded in less than 7 days. From 3 July 2015 some types of temporary high balances of up to £1,000,000 are protected for up to six months, what if Northern Rock goes bust. FSCS - Consumer home page - What we cover - Eligibility rules - Compensation Limits, FSCS - Consumer home page - What we cover - Questions and Answers. New deposit protection limit coming on 1 January, new protection from today for temporary high balances
18.
British Bankers' Association
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The British Bankers’ Association is a trade association for the UK banking and financial services sector. Its members collectively provide a range of banking and financial services. The Association lobbies for its members and gives its view on the legislative, the resulting organisation is due to begin operating in 2017. The BBA describes itself as the trade association for the UK banking sector with more than 230 member banks headquartered in over 50 countries with operations in 180 jurisdictions worldwide. The BBA is a trade association owned and governed by its members, the Board is the governing body of the Association, and it agrees major strategies and policies. Member Segment Advisory Boards provide a forum to inform the agenda of the BBA Board, the BBA has four high-level committees, representing retail policy, financial policy and risk, wholesale policy, and corporate policy. Below its Board, Member Segment Advisory Boards and high-level committees, the BBA responds to the full range of issues affecting retail and wholesale banking and the wider financial services industry. As well as its interaction with current affairs, it works to form and reform lasting policy decisions, LIBOR is the primary benchmark for short-term interest rates. It indicates the rate at which a leading bank can obtain unsecured funding for a given period in a given currency. It therefore represents the lowest real-world cost of unsecured funding in the London market, as such, LIBOR is one of the fundamental standards for global financial markets. Prior to September,2012, BBA LIBOR was calculated and published by Thomson Reuters on behalf of the BBA, in July 2012, it came out that LIBOR had been systematically rigged by Barclays for many years, leading to the LIBOR scandal. Paul Tucker, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, compared the BBA LIBOR market to a cesspit of dishonesty, in September,2012, it was decided that the BBA would be stripped of its role in LIBOR rate setting. Martin Wheatley said the BBA acts as the organisation for the same submitting banks that they nominally oversee, creating a conflict of interest that precludes strong. In 2014 the BBA held 67 events attracting over 4,500 attendees and this included the Association’s annual conference and annual industry dinners, as well as a number of forums, briefings and training courses. The BBA produces a report on high street banking figures which is used by banks. This data informs the BBA Annual Abstract of Banking Statistics which is published each August, the BBA manages the Global Operational Loss Database for its members. GOLD is an important tool for managing operational risk, in line with the UK Government’s drive to support UK business, the BBA is a committed participant in the Business Growth Fund. The BBA is leading efforts to increase funding to small and medium-sized enterprises through the Better Business Finance campaign, the BBA collaborated with the British Chambers of Commerce to deliver 15 outreach events across the UK throughout 2011 in support of this initiative
19.
Central Bank of Ireland
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The Central Bank of Ireland is Irelands central bank, and as such part of the European System of Central Banks. It is also the financial services regulator for most categories of financial firms. It was the issuer of Irish pound banknotes and coinage until the introduction of the euro currency and its head office is located on Dame Street, Dublin, where the public may exchange non-current Irish coinage and currency for euros. It also operates from premises in Spencer Dock, Iveagh Court, the Currency Centre at Sandyford is the currency manufacture, warehouse and distribution site of the bank. By March 2017 its city centre staff will move to a new building at North Wall Quay, on the independence of the Irish Free State in 1922, the new states trade was overwhelmingly with the United Kingdom, so the introduction of an independent currency was a low priority. British banknotes, and notes issued by Irish banks circulated and coins remained in circulation and these coins entered circulation on 12 December 1928. The Central Bank broadened its activities over the decades, but it remained in effect a currency board until the 1970s, such was the proliferation of small industrial banks and hire purchase firms in the late 1960s, the 1971 Central Bank Act introduced significantly enhanced authorisation and supervision standards. In the inevitable consolidation in the marketplace, in 1976 a liquidator was appointed to Irish Trust Bank Ltd after Central Bank investigations and in 1982 Merchant Banking Ltd also collapsed. The 1970s was a decade of change, which began with the decimalisation of the currency came into effect on 15 February 1971. Decimalisation would have provided an opportunity to break the link with Sterling. At the same time moves to create a market in Dublin. In the mid to late 1970s, opinion within the bank was moving toward breaking the link with sterling and devaluing the Irish currency in order to limit inflationary effects from abroad, at this time, however, an alternative option became available. The Irish government had to decide whether or not to participate in the EMS, despite this, on 15 December 1978 it was announced that Ireland would participate in the EMS. Countries were given the option of either a 2. 25% or 6% margin of fluctuation within the EMS Exchange Rate Mechanism, after over 50 years, the parity of the Irish and British currencies was broken, and the Irish currency became known as the Irish pound. The initial experience of the EMS was disappointing, by late 1980 the Irish Pound had fallen in value to less than 80 British pence, and Irish inflation was higher than British. Eventually the EMS settled down, and Irish inflation was consistently the same or lower than Britains inflation rate from 1987 onwards, the idea of a single European currency goes back to the Schumann Plan of 1950. The first blueprint for how to go about implementing the currency, the Werner Report of 1970 was not proceeded with, but the ultimate aim was always kept in mind. The Delors Report endorsed by the Madrid Summit of June 1989 envisaged a three-stage process to monetary union, and this envisaged the start of monetary union on 1 January 1999 and the introduction of notes and coins on 1 January 2002
20.
Visa Debit
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Visa Debit is a major brand of debit card issued by Visa in many countries around the world. Numerous banks and financial institutions issue Visa Debit cards to their customers for access to their bank accounts, in many countries the Visa Debit functionality is often incorporated on the same plastic card that allows access to ATM and any domestic EFTPOS networks. In many countries the Visa Debit functionality has been added to existing ATM cards to customers to use the card for internet. However, Interacs dominance has left room for alternative debit networks such as Visa or MasterCard to be used for domestic transactions. Although Visa has in the past floated the prospect of competing directly with Interac in regards to point-of-sale transactions, germanys banking industry strongly favours its proprietary Girocard technology that can be co-branded with Maestro or V-Pay, but not with the more powerful Debit MasterCard or Visa Debit. These cards allow free cash withdrawals on ATMs owned by other banks, in Greece Piraeus Bank and Alpha Bank offer Visa Debit cards to their customers as an option, having updated from the Visa Electron cards that they used to offer. In Italy the first Visa Debit branded card was issued by Fineco as their default option for debit cards, all new customers cards will be replaced by a Visa Debit card co-branded with the national Bancomat network. The first debit card in the United Kingdom was launched by Barclays in June 1987 under the Connect brand, natWest followed with the Switch debit card in October 1988. Connect was later merged into Visa, the Visa Debit card was previously known as Visa Delta solely in the UK. The Delta name began to be phased out in favour of the Visa Debit branding from September 1998, numerous banks issue Visa-branded debit cards linked to accounts. Some issuing banks call their cards Visa check cards, Cards allow for purchases at any merchant where any type of Visa card is accepted, transactions are processed one of three ways. A signed transaction is processed through the regular Visa credit network, PIN-based transactions, including ATM withdrawals, are processed through the Visa-owned Plus and Interlink networks. Many retailers allow cash back with PIN-based transactions, also, in line with other credit and debit purchases, transactions under $25 are exempt from requiring signatures or PINs. The competitors to Visa Debit in the debit card market are Maestro and Debit MasterCard debit cards, as well as Visas V-Pay cards in Europe
21.
Maestro (debit card)
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Maestro is a multi-national debit card service owned by Mastercard that was founded in 1992. Maestro cards are obtained from banks and can be linked to the card holders current account. Maestro often requires on-line electronic authorization for every transaction, although Mastercards rules permit the establishment of floor limits on Maestro EMV chip transactions only. This is different from most other debit and credit cards, where the information can be entered manually into the terminal and still be approved by the issuer or stand-in processor. In most countries, other than specified in Mastercards rules. Maestro is accepted at around fifteen million point of sale outlets, in Germany and Austria, Maestro replaced the Eurocheque system. Austrian Maestro cards are always pure Maestro cards. German Maestro cards, however, are in most cases co-branded with the German Girocard logo, in Belgium, Maestro cards are co-branded with the Belgian Bancontact logo. In the United Kingdom, the former Switch debit card system was re-branded as Maestro, underneath the branding, however, the system was still the old Switch one and the cards were still fundamentally Switch. In 2011, MasterCard aligned UK Domestic Maestro with the standard international Maestro proposition and this change also led to the discontinuation of the Solo. In January 2009 First Direct and HSBC discontinued the use of Maestro card, issuing Visa Debit cards to new customers, likewise, in the same month the Royal Bank of Scotland Group switched from Maestro to Visa Debit, a process that took two years to complete. This effectively meant that only a few smaller UK banks would be issuing Maestro cards, in 2015, Bank of Ireland UK replaced its Maestro debit cards with Visa Debit cards. In Ireland, Laser, which was co-branded with Maestro, has replaced by Visa Debit and Debit MasterCard. The Laser debit card has been phased out by all banks, Irish Laser cards carried Maestro co-branding from 2008 onwards. They were intended to be used with chip and PIN POS systems, the chip on the card was programmed with two applications, one for Laser and one for Maestro. POS transactions were processed over the Laser network in Ireland. Some POS terminals prompted users to manually select Laser or Maestro before completing the transaction, Laser cards could be processed as Maestro in most POS terminals worldwide for chip and PIN or swipe and sign transactions. Internet and telephone-based retailers, however, needed to be set up specifically to accept Irish Laser/Maestro cards, transactions made with these cards were often secured by MasterCards SecureCode system to verify the cardholders identity
22.
Switch (debit card)
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Switch was a debit card brand in the United Kingdom from 1988 until 2002. It was then renamed Maestro by its owner MasterCard, of which it is still known, prior to its renaming it had built a strong brand within the UK and people continued to use the name to mean debit transaction for a number of years after it was discontinued. Switch was launched in 1988 by Midland Bank, National Westminster Bank, the brand was merged with Maestro, an international debit card brand owned by MasterCard, in late 2002. This merger was referred to as the wedding, due to its distinctive advertisements of penguins in different international settings created by Joel Veitch. Since then, Switch has been out of circulation and banks migrated customers from Switch to Maestro, the merger was also intended to increase the acceptance of foreign Maestro cards in the UK. However, despite the Maestro brand name, point of sale transactions in the UK were still processed by Switch Card Services Limited, in 2011, MasterCard aligned UK Domestic Maestro with the standard international Maestro proposition, ending its status as a separate card scheme. This change also led to the discontinuation of Solo debit cards, switch/Maestro cards issued by certain banks carried an issue number on the bottom of the card corresponding to the number of times a card had been issued on a particular account. In January 2009 First Direct and HSBC discontinued the use of Maestro card, issuing Visa Debit cards to new customers, likewise, in the same month The Royal Bank of Scotland Group switched from Maestro to Visa Debit, a process that would take two years to complete
23.
Laser (debit card)
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Laser was a debit card scheme in Ireland. The scheme was launched in 1996 and in 2010 there were almost 3 million Laser cards in circulation,195 million transactions worth almost €11.2 billion were carried out on those cards in 2009. From 2007, the institutions which had issued Laser cards began to replace them with Visa or MasterCard debit cards. Laser cards were withdrawn from the market on 28 February 2014, Laser was primarily an electronic point of sale debit card, but could also be used by telephone and internet, at ATMs and to pay regular bills by direct debit. When purchasing goods or services with a Laser card up to €100 cashback could be given to cardholders, some retailers set a lower maximum cashback value, depending on what cash was available to them in the till or their own policy. Many Irish businesses that operate online accepted Laser Cards prior to their discontinuation, from 2005, some Laser card holders were provided with co-branded Laser/Maestro cards, from 1 January 2008, all Laser cards were co-branded. The co-branded cards were chip and PIN cards with both Laser and Maestro functions, the Maestro facility was not usable internationally online or by telephone. While it was possible for any bank in the Single Euro Payments Area, regardless of location, to join the Laser card scheme, no interest in joining the scheme was expressed by banks outside Ireland. In 2007, Halifax announced that it would be the first bank in the Republic of Ireland to offer a Visa Debit card rather than the Laser debit card, in 2008, Ulster Bank dropped the Laser card in favour of the Visa Debit card. Permanent TSB withdrew Laser cards and began to replace them with Visa Debit cards in September 2010, in late October 2010, Bank of Ireland announced they were ceasing their involvement in the partnership in 2011. On 9 February 2011, EBS Building Society said that it would issue MasterCard debit cards instead of Laser from the half of 2011. It was reported that banks were turning away from Laser because of difficulties encountered by consumers in making online purchases. However, customers began to complain almost immediately about numerous difficulties caused by the withdrawal of Laser cards. Other retailers who had charged a small flat-rate per-transaction fee for Laser transactions found that they were charged a percentage of the value of the transaction for the replacement cards. Organisations such as Betfair which did not charge customers for Laser card deposits began to charge these customers 1. 5% commission on deposits using the replacement Visa debit cards. Merchant Services companies did not advertise whether there were any differences in their charges for the two types of debit card, some customers reported being charged foreign usage fees on Visa debit cards in Northern Ireland, which had not been charged on the old cards. Ogone, ICEPAY, WorldPay, Netbanx. com, Moneybookers. com, CreditCall, DataCash, Realex, TNS, list of Irish companies Official site Irish Payments Services Organisation
24.
Debit card
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A debit card is a plastic payment card that can be used instead of cash when making purchases. It is similar to a card, but unlike a credit card. Some cards may bear a stored value with which a payment is made, in some cases, the primary account number is assigned exclusively for use on the Internet and there is no physical card. In many countries, the use of cards has become so widespread that their volume has overtaken or entirely replaced cheques and, in some instances. The development of debit cards, unlike credit cards and charge cards, has generally been country specific resulting in a number of different systems around the world, which were often incompatible. Since the mid-2000s, a number of initiatives have allowed debit cards issued in one country to be used in countries and allowed their use for internet. Unlike credit and charge cards, payments using a card are immediately transferred from the cardholders designated bank account. Debit cards usually also allow for instant withdrawal of cash, acting as the ATM card for withdrawing cash, merchants may also offer cashback facilities to customers, where a customer can withdraw cash along with their purchase. There are currently three ways that debit card transactions are processed, EFTPOS, offline debit and the Electronic Purse Card System, One physical card can include the functions of all three types, so that it can be used in a number of different circumstances. Some debit cards are branded with the logo of the national card as well as Maestro. The use of a card system allows operators to package their product more effectively while monitoring customer spending. Online debit cards require electronic authorization of every transaction and the debits are reflected in the user’s account immediately, some on-line debit systems are using the normal authentication processes of Internet banking to provide real-time on-line debit transactions. Offline debit cards have the logos of major credit cards or major debit cards and are used at the point of sale like a credit card. This type of debit card may be subject to a daily limit, transactions conducted with offline debit cards require 2–3 days to be reflected on users’ account balances. Smart-card-based electronic purse systems are in use throughout Europe since the mid-1990s, most notably in Germany, Austria, in Austria and Germany, almost all current bank cards now include electronic purses, whereas the electronic purse has been recently phased out in the Netherlands. Those prepaid debit cards that can be reloaded are also called reloadable debit cards, the primary market for prepaid debit cards has traditionally been unbanked people, that is, people who do not use banks or credit unions for their financial transactions. But prepaid cards also appeal to other users attracted by their advantages, and if a user has doubts about online security, using a prepaid debit card for online purchases protects their normal credit card from risk. If the card provider offers a website for letting you check the cards balance
25.
Pound sterling
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It is subdivided into 100 pence. A number of nations that do not use sterling also have called the pound. At various times, the sterling was commodity money or bank notes backed by silver or gold. The pound sterling is the worlds oldest currency still in use, the British Crown dependencies of Guernsey and Jersey produce their own local issues of sterling, the Guernsey pound and the Jersey pound. The pound sterling is also used in the Isle of Man, Gibraltar, the Bank of England is the central bank for the pound sterling, issuing its own coins and banknotes, and regulating issuance of banknotes by private banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Sterling is the fourth most-traded currency in the exchange market, after the United States dollar, the euro. Together with those three currencies it forms the basket of currencies which calculate the value of IMF special drawing rights, Sterling is also the third most-held reserve currency in global reserves. The full, official name, pound sterling, is used mainly in formal contexts, otherwise the term pound is normally used. The abbreviations ster. or stg. are sometimes used, the term British pound is commonly used in less formal contexts, although it is not an official name of the currency. The pound sterling is also referred to as cable amongst forex traders, the origins of this term are attributed to the fact that in the 1800s, the dollar/pound sterling exchange rate was transmitted via transatlantic cable. Forex brokers are sometimes referred to as cable dealers, as another established source notes, the compound expression was then derived, silver coins known as sterlings were issued in the Saxon kingdoms,240 of them being minted from a pound of silver. Hence, large payments came to be reckoned in pounds of sterlings, in 1260, Henry III granted them a charter of protection. And because the Leagues money was not frequently debased like that of England, English traders stipulated to be paid in pounds of the Easterlings, and land for their Kontor, the Steelyard of London, which by the 1340s was also called Easterlings Hall, or Esterlingeshalle. For further discussion of the etymology of sterling, see sterling silver, the currency sign for the pound sign is £, which is usually written with a single cross-bar, though a version with a double cross-bar is also sometimes seen. The ISO4217 currency code is GBP, occasionally, the abbreviation UKP is used but this is non-standard because the ISO3166 country code for the United Kingdom is GB. The Crown dependencies use their own codes, GGP, JEP, stocks are often traded in pence, so traders may refer to pence sterling, GBX, when listing stock prices. A common slang term for the pound sterling or pound is quid, since decimalisation in 1971, the pound has been divided into 100 pence. The symbol for the penny is p, hence an amount such as 50p properly pronounced fifty pence is more colloquially, quite often, pronounced fifty pee /fɪfti, pi and this also helped to distinguish between new and old pence amounts during the changeover to the decimal system
26.
Banknote
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A banknote is a type of negotiable instrument known as a promissory note, made by a bank, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by banks, who were legally required to redeem the notes for legal tender when presented to the chief cashier of the originating bank. These commercial banknotes only traded at face value in the served by the issuing bank. Commercial banknotes have primarily been replaced by national banknotes issued by central banks, national banknotes are generally legal tender, meaning that medium of payment is allowed by law or recognized by a legal system to be valid for meeting a financial obligation. Historically, banks sought to ensure that they could always pay customers in coins when they presented banknotes for payment and this practice of backing notes with something of substance is the basis for the history of central banks backing their currencies in gold or silver. Today, most national currencies have no backing in precious metals or commodities and have value only by fiat, with the exception of non-circulating high-value or precious metal issues, coins are used for lower valued monetary units, while banknotes are used for higher values. The idea of using a durable light-weight substance as evidence of a promise to pay a bearer on demand originated in China during the Han Dynasty in 118 BC, the first known banknote was first developed in China during the Tang and Song dynasties, starting in the 7th century. Its roots were in merchant receipts of deposit during the Tang Dynasty, as merchants, during the Yuan Dynasty, banknotes were adopted by the Mongol Empire. In Europe, the concept of banknotes was first introduced during the 13th century by such as Marco Polo. Counterfeiting, the forgery of banknotes, is an inherent challenge in issuing currency and it is countered by anticounterfeiting measures in the printing of banknotes. Fighting the counterfeiting of banknotes and cheques has been a driver of security printing methods development in recent centuries. Paper currency first developed in the Tang Dynasty China during the 7th century, although true paper money did not appear until the 11th century, the usage of paper currency later spread throughout the Mongol Empire. European explorers like Marco Polo introduced the concept in Europe during the 13th century, napoleon issued paper banknotes in the early 1800s. Paper money originated in two forms, drafts, which are receipts for value held on account, and bills, the perception of banknotes as money has evolved over time. Originally, money was based on precious metals, Banknotes were seen as essentially an I. O. U. or promissory note, a promise to pay someone in precious metal on presentation. With the gradual removal of precious metals from the system, banknotes evolved to represent credit money. Notes or bills were referred to in 18th century novels and were often a key part of the plot such as a note drawn by Lord X for £100 which becomes due in 3 months time. Its roots were in merchant receipts of deposit during the Tang Dynasty, as merchants, before the use of paper, the Chinese used coins that were circular, with a rectangular hole in the middle
27.
George Best
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George Best was a Northern Irish professional footballer who played as a winger for Manchester United and the Northern Ireland national team. In 1968 he won the European Cup with Manchester United, and was named the European Footballer of the Year, the Irish Football Association described him as the greatest player to ever pull on the green shirt of Northern Ireland. After making his debut for United aged 17, he scored 179 goals from 470 appearances over 11 years, One of the greatest dribblers of all time, his playing style combined pace, skill, balance, feints, two-footedness, goalscoring and the ability to beat defenders. Best unexpectedly quit United in 1974 at age 27, but returned to football for a number of clubs around the world in short spells, until retiring in 1984 and these issues affected him on and off the field, at times causing controversy. He said of his career, I spent a lot of money on booze, birds, after football, he spent some time as a football analyst, but his financial and health problems continued into his retirement. He died in 2005, age 59, due to complications from the drugs he needed to take after a liver transplant in 2002. Best was married twice, to two models, Angie Best and then Alex Best. His son Calum Best was born in 1981 from his first marriage, before he died, Best was voted 8th in the World Soccer 100 greatest football players of the 20th century election in 1999 and was voted 16th in the IFFHS World Player of the Century election in 1999. He was on the six man short list for the BBCs Sports Personality of the Century in 1999, Best was one of the inaugural 22 inductees into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2004 he was voted 19th in the public UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll and was named in the FIFA100 list of the worlds greatest living players, former Brazilian footballer Pelé stated, “George Best was the greatest player in the world. Best was once quoted as saying, “Pelé called me the greatest footballer in the world and that is the ultimate salute to my life. ”On what would have been his 60th birthday, Belfast City Airport was renamed the George Best Belfast City Airport. According to the BBC, Best was remembered by mourners at his funeral held in Belfast as the beautiful boy beautiful game. Mark Garnett and Richard Weight have explored the enduring appeal of George Best, George Best was the first child of Richard Dickie Best and Anne Best. He was born on 22 May 1946 and grew up in Cregagh, Best was brought up in the Free Presbyterian faith. His father was a member of the Orange Order and as a boy George carried the strings of the banner in his local Cregagh lodge, in his autobiography, Best mentioned how important the order was to his family. Best had four sisters, Carol, Barbara, Julie and Grace, Bests father died on 16 April 2008, at the age of 88, in the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald, Northern Ireland. Bests mother Anne died from alcoholism-related cardiovascular disease in 1978, at the age of 55, in 1957, the academically gifted Best passed the 11 plus and went to Grosvenor High School, but he soon played truant as the school specialised in rugby. Best then moved to Lisnasharragh Secondary School, reuniting him with friends from primary school and he grew up supporting Glentoran and Wolverhampton Wanderers
28.
Banknotes of Northern Ireland
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Banknotes have been issued for use specifically in Northern Ireland since 1929, and are denominated in pounds sterling. They are legal currency, but technically not legal tender anywhere, however, the banknotes are still widely accepted as currency by larger merchants and institutions elsewhere in the United Kingdom. Issuing banks have been granted rights to issue currency. Notes were initially issued in denominations of 1,5,10,20,50 and 100 pounds, of these denominations, only the 1 pound has ceased to be issued, by all banks with the last produced by the Allied Irish Bank in 1984. The 5 pound note is only issued now by Bank of Ireland, until April 2008, all Bank of Ireland notes featured Queens University of Belfast on the reverse side. A new series of £5, £10 and £20 notes was issued in May 2008, all featuring an illustration of the Old Bushmills Distillery, and these notes will gradually replace the previous series. The various denominations are differentiated by their colour and size,5 pound note, blue 10 pound note, pink 20 pound note, green 50 pound note, First Trust Bank is a subsidiary of the Allied Irish Banks. It was formed by the 1991 merger of AIB with TSB Northern Ireland, AIB was the successor to the Provincial Bank of Ireland following another merger. The banknotes issued by First Trust Bank continue the series issued by the Provincial Bank of Ireland. First Trust Banks current notes have a depiction of a Northern Irish person. A young middle-aged man appears on the £10 note, a woman on the £20 note, an elderly man on the £50 note. The reissue began on 14 March 2005 and was scheduled to take one month, in 2012, Northern Bank adopted the name of its Copenhagen-based parent company Danske Bank Group and now trades as Danske Bank. Northern Bank had previously been a subsidiary of the Midland Bank and subsequently National Australia Bank, most Danske Bank banknotes depict a range of notable people associated with industry in Northern Ireland on the obverse. The reverse of each note has an illustration of the portico of Belfast City Hall and it is the only one of the banks pre-2004 notes still in circulation, all others were recalled following the 2004 robbery. The Isle of Man issued a polymer £1 note between 1983 and 1988, but, technically, the island is a Crown Dependency, and not part of the UK. Ulster Banks current notes all share a rather plain design of a view of Belfast harbour flanked by landscape views, the principal difference between the denominations is their colour and size. Notes issued from 1 January 2007 feature the new logo. It appears beside the name, which appears in a different typeface
29.
Banknotes of the pound sterling
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Sterling banknotes are the banknotes in circulation in the United Kingdom and its related territories, denominated in pounds sterling. One pound is equivalent to 100 pence, three British Overseas Territories also have currencies called pounds which are at par with the pound sterling. The Bank of England does act as a bank in that it has a monopoly on issuing banknotes in England and Wales. Pounds issued by Crown Dependencies and other areas are regulated only by local governments, until the middle of the 19th century, privately owned banks in Great Britain and Ireland were free to issue their own banknotes. Paper currency issued by a range of provincial and town banking companies in England, Wales. Under the Act, no new banks could start issuing notes, the last private English banknotes were issued in 1921 by Fox, Fowler and Company, a Somerset bank. However, some of the provisions of the Bank Charter Act only applied to England. The Bank Notes Act was passed the year, and to this day. Notes issued in excess of the value of outstanding in 1844 must be backed up by an equivalent value of Bank of England notes. Following the partition of Ireland, the Irish Free State created an Irish pound in 1928, in 1928 a Westminster Act of Parliament reduced the fiduciary limit for Irish banknotes circulating in Northern Ireland to take account of the reduced size of the territory concerned. Elizabeth II was not the first British monarch to have her face on UK banknotes. George II, George III and George IV appeared on early Royal Bank of Scotland notes, however, prior to the issue of its Series C banknotes in 1960, Bank of England banknotes generally did not depict the monarch. Today, notes issued by Scottish and Northern Irish banks do not depict the monarch, the monarch is depicted on banknotes issued by the Crown dependencies and on some of those issued by overseas territories. Their acceptance may depend on the experience and understanding of individual retailers, and it is important to understand the idea of legal tender, which is often misunderstood. The assumption that all sterling notes are legitimate and of equal value, in summary, the various banknotes are used as follows, Bank of England banknotes Most sterling notes are issued by the Bank of England. These are legal tender in England and Wales, and are accepted by traders throughout the UK. Bank of England notes are accepted in the Overseas Territories which are at parity with sterling. In Gibraltar, there are examples of pairs of automatic cash dispensers placed together, one stocked with BoE notes, Scottish banknotes These are the recognised currency in Scotland, although they are not legal tender
30.
Bank of England note issues
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The Bank of England, which is now the Central Bank of the United Kingdom, has issued banknotes since 1694. Banknotes were originally hand-written, although they were printed from 1725 onwards, cashiers still had to sign each note. Notes were fully printed from 1855, since 1970, the Bank of Englands notes have featured portraits of British historical figures. Of the eight banks authorised to issue banknotes in the UK, only the Bank of England can issue banknotes in England and Wales, Bank of England notes are not legal tender in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but are accepted there along with the respective countries national banknotes. There are currently four different denominations of notes – £5, £10, £20 and £50 – in circulation, each value has its own distinct colour scheme and the size of each note increases in length and width as the value increases. There are two £5 note designs in circulation, the one is being phased out and will cease to be legal tender on 5 May 2017. These images are to scale at 0.7 pixels per millimetre, for table standards, see the banknote specification table. Source, Bank of England website All current Bank of England banknotes are printed by contract with De La Rue at Debden and they include the printed signature of the Chief Cashier of the Bank of England. All the notes issued since Series C in 1960 also depict Elizabeth II in full view, a watermark, hidden, featuring the Queen facing right is shown in the left hand side of the £20 and £50, and the central window of the paper £5 and £10. The new polymer notes do not contain a watermark, more recent issues also include the EURion constellation. This is a pattern of circles which stop copying of banknotes. They are easily identified by photocopiers, the custom of depicting historical figures on the reverse began in 1970 with Series D, designed by the banks first permanent artist, Harry Eccleston. A petition to include a woman on the new £10 note gained over 35,000 signatures, on 24 June 2013, Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney announced that a newly-designed £10 banknote, featuring novelist Jane Austen, will be issued in 2017. The campaign for a woman to appear celebrated the choice as a brilliant day, like the £5 note featuring Churchill, it will be made from polymer rather than cotton paper. The bank also said that the new note would depict, The quotation – I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading, commissioned by James Edward Austen Leigh in 1870, which was adapted from an original sketch of Jane Austen drawn by her sister, Cassandra Austen. An illustration of Miss Elizabeth Bennet undertaking the examination of all the letters which Jane had written to her – from a drawing by Isabel Bishop, godmersham was home of Edward Austen Knight, Jane Austens brother. Jane Austen visited the house often and it is believed that it was the inspiration for a number of her novels. Jane Austens writing table – the central design in the background will be based on the writing table
31.
Irish pound
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The Irish Pound was the currency of Ireland until 2002. Its ISO4217 code was IEP, and the notation was the prefix £. The Irish pound was superseded by the euro on 1 January 1999, euro currency did not begin circulation until the beginning of 2002. The earliest Irish coinage was introduced in the year 997, with a pound divided like the English pound into twenty shillings, each of twelve silver pence. Parity with the sterling was established by King John around 1210, so that Irish silver could move freely into the English economy. However, from 1460, Irish coins were minted with a different silver content to those of England, during the Williamite War of 1689–1691, King James II, no longer reigning in England and Scotland, issued an emergency base-metal coinage known as gun money. In 1701, the relationship between the Irish pound and the English pound sterling was fixed at thirteen Irish pounds equalling twelve English pounds. This relationship made it possible for Irish copper coins to circulate with English silver coins, in 1801, Ireland became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, but the Irish pound continued to exist until January 1826. Between 1804 and 1813 silver tokens worth tenpence were issued by the Bank of Ireland and were denominated in pence Irish, the last copper coins of the Irish pound were minted in 1823, and in 1826 the Irish pound was merged with the pound sterling. From continuing to use sterling after independence, the new Irish Free State brought in its own currency from 1928, de facto rather than de jure, parity with sterling was maintained for another fifty years. As with sterling, the £sd system was used, with the Irish names punt, scilling, distinctive coins and notes were introduced, the coins from 1928 – all with the same dimensions as their British counterparts. However, the pound sterling generally continued to be accepted on a one-for-one basis everywhere, from 1938, the means of tender was referred to as the Irish Pound, after the Constitution of Ireland changed the states name. The Currency Act,1927, Adaptation Order,1938 was the mechanism by which change took place. Decimalisation of the currency was discussed during the 1960s, when the British government decided to decimalise its currency, the Irish government followed suit. The legislative basis for decimalisation in the Republic was the Decimal Currency Act,1969, the number of pence in the Irish pound was redefined from 240 to 100, with the penny symbol changing from d to p. The pound itself was not revalued by this act and therefore pound banknotes were unaffected, the new 5 pence coin correlated with the old 1 shilling coin, and the new 10 pence coin correlated with the old 2 shilling coin. New coins were issued of the dimensions and materials as the corresponding new British coins. The Decimal Currency Act,1970 made additional provisions for the changeover not related with the issue of coins, decimalisation was overseen by the Irish Decimal Currency Board, created on 12 June 1968
32.
Belfast Harbour
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Belfast Harbour is a major maritime hub in Northern Ireland, handling 67% of Northern Ireland’s seaborne trade and about 25% of the maritime trade of the entire island of Ireland. It is a gateway for raw materials, exports and consumer goods. Over 700 firms employing 23,000 people are located within the estate, Belfast Harbour handled 23 million tonnes of cargo during 2015, similar to its throughput for 2014. The tonnages suggest a varying performance between sectors in the wider Northern Ireland economy, records show that by 1663 there were 29 vessels owned in Belfast with a total tonnage of 1,100 tonnes. Trade continued to expand throughout the century, to the extent that the quay was enlarged. By the early 18th century Belfast had replaced Carrickfergus as the most important port in Ulster, a number of privately owned wharves were subsequently constructed on reclaimed land. Throughout the century continued to expand as Belfast assumed a greater role in the trading activities of the country as a whole. In 1785 the Irish Parliament passed an act to deal with the burgeoning port. As a result, a new body was constituted, The Corporation for Preserving and Improving the Port and Harbour of Belfast, although already well established by this stage, the Port remained disadvantaged by the natural restrictions of shallow water, bends in the channel approach and inadequate quays. These problems, together with a volume of trade, led to a new government act of 1837 under the Westminster Parliament. This reconstituted the Board and gave it powers to improve the port, initial work on straightening the river commenced in 1839 and by 1841 the first bend had been eliminated. Thus beginning the creation of what was to become known as the Victoria Channel, in 1847 the Belfast Harbour Act repealed previous acts and led to the formation of the Belfast Harbour Commissioners. This new body, with wider powers, completed the second stage of the new channel two years later. From that time the Commissioners have developed and improved the Port, reclaiming land to accommodate new quays and she is the second oldest commissioned warship in the Royal Navy. Belfast West Power Station was opened in 1961 on a site in the port subleased to the Belfast Corporation Electricity Department and this subleased is today held by Northern Ireland Electricity. The station continued to generate electricity until its closure in March 2002, on 6 July 2007 the stations three 240 ft chimneys were demolished by controlled explosion and the remainder of the site was cleared in the following months. Belfast Harbour is one of the UKs many Trust Ports and is an independent statutory body, Trust Ports are not owned by Government, they are obliged to operate independently and on a commercial basis. Its Board – known as Belfast Harbour Commissioners - is appointed by Northern Ireland’s Department for Regional Development on the basis of open public advertisement, the Commissioners currently number fifteen and are led by a Chairman
33.
Coat of arms
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A coat of arms is an heraldic visual design on an escutcheon, surcoat, or tabard. The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the heraldic achievement which in its whole consists of shield, supporters, crest. A coat of arms is traditionally unique to a person, family, state. The ancient Romans used similar insignia on their shields, but these identified military units rather than individuals, the first evidence of medieval coats of arms has been attributed to the 11th century Bayeux Tapestry in which some of the combatants carry shields painted with crosses. However, that heraldic interpretation remains controversial, coats of arms came into general use by feudal lords and knights in battle in the 12th century. By the 13th century, arms had spread beyond their initial battlefield use to become a flag or emblem for families in the social classes of Europe. Exactly who had a right to use arms, by law or social convention, in the German-speaking regions both the aristocracy and burghers used arms, while in most of the rest of Europe they were limited to the aristocracy. The use of spread to the clergy, to towns as civic identifiers. Flags developed from coats of arms, and the arts of vexillology, the coats of arms granted to commercial companies are a major source of the modern logo. Despite no widespread regulation, heraldry has remained consistent across Europe, some nations, like England and Scotland, still maintain the same heraldic authorities which have traditionally granted and regulated arms for centuries and continue to do so in the present day. In England, for example, the granting of arms is and has controlled by the College of Arms. Unlike seals and other emblems, heraldic achievements have a formal description called a blazon. Many societies exist that also aid in the design and registration of personal arms, in the heraldic traditions of England and Scotland, an individual, rather than a family, had a coat of arms. In those traditions coats of arms are legal property transmitted from father to son, wives, undifferenced arms are used only by one person at any given time. Other descendants of the bearer could bear the ancestral arms only with some difference. One such charge is the label, which in British usage is now always the mark of an apparent or an heir presumptive. Because of their importance in identification, particularly in seals on legal documents and this has been carried out by heralds and the study of coats of arms is therefore called heraldry. In time, the use of arms spread from military entities to educational institutes, the author Helen Stuart argues that some coats of arms were a form of corporate logo
34.
Northern Ireland national football team
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The Northern Ireland national football team represents Northern Ireland in international association football. From 1882 to 1921 all of Ireland was represented by a single side, the Football Association of Ireland organises the separate Republic of Ireland national football team. Northern Ireland has competed in three FIFA World Cups, reaching the stage in the 1958 and 1982 tournaments. At UEFA Euro 2016, the team made its first appearance at the European tournament, on 18 February 1882,15 months after the founding of the Irish FA, Ireland made their international debut against England, losing 13–0 in a friendly played at Bloomfield in Belfast. This remains the record defeat for the team, and also Englands largest winning margin, on 25 February 1882, Ireland played their second international, against Wales at the Racecourse Ground, Wrexham, and an equaliser from Johnston became Ireland’s first ever goal. In 1884, Ireland competed in the inaugural British Home Championship, Ireland did not win their first game until 19 February 1887, a 4–1 win over Wales in Belfast. Between their debut and this game, they had a run of 14 defeats and 1 draw, despite the end of this run, heavy defeats continued. On 3 March 1888, they lost 11–0 to Wales and three weeks later, on 24 March, lost 10–2 to Scotland. Further heavy defeats came on 15 March 1890 when they lost 9–1 to England, on 18 February 1899 when they lost 13–2 to England, in 1899, the Irish FA also changed its rules governing the selection of non-resident players. Before then the Ireland team selected its players exclusively from the Irish League, on 4 March 1899, for the match against Wales, McAteer included four Irish players based in England. The change in policy produced dividends as Ireland won 1–0, in 1920, Ireland was partitioned into Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. In 1922, Southern Ireland gained independence as the Irish Free State, amid these political upheavals, a rival football association, the Football Association of Ireland, emerged in Dublin in 1921 and organised a separate league and international team. The Irish FA continued to organise its national team on an all-Ireland basis, between 1928 and 1946, the IFA were not affiliated to FIFA and the two Ireland teams co-existed, never competing in the same competition. On 8 March 1950, however, in a 0–0 draw with Wales at the Racecourse Ground in a FIFA World Cup qualifier, the IFA fielded a team that included four players who were born in the Irish Free State. All four players had played for the FAI in their qualifiers. After complaints from the FAI, FIFA intervened and restricted players eligibility based on the political border. In 1953 FIFA ruled neither team could be referred to as Ireland, decreeing that the FAI team be designated as the Republic of Ireland. Until the 1950s, the competition for Northern Ireland/Ireland was the British Home Championship
35.
Manchester United F.C.
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Manchester United Football Club is a professional football club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. Nicknamed the Red Devils, the club was founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to its current stadium, Old Trafford, in 1910. Manchester United have won a record 20 League Titles, a joint-record 12 FA Cups,5 League Cups, the club has also won three European Cups, one UEFA Cup Winners Cup, one UEFA Super Cup, one Intercontinental Cup and one FIFA Club World Cup. In 1998–99, the became the first in the history of English football to achieve the treble of the Premier League, the FA Cup. The 1958 Munich air disaster claimed the lives of eight players, in 1968, under the management of Matt Busby, Manchester United became the first English football club to win the European Cup. Alex Ferguson won 38 trophies, including 13 Premier League titles,5 FA Cups and 2 UEFA Champions Leagues, José Mourinho is the clubs current manager, having been appointed on 27 May 2016. As of June 2015, it is the worlds most valuable football brand and it is one of the most widely supported football teams in the world. In August 2012, Manchester United made a public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. The club holds several rivalries, most notably with Liverpool, Manchester City and Leeds United, Manchester United was formed in 1878 as Newton Heath LYR Football Club by the Carriage and Wagon department of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway depot at Newton Heath. By 1888, the club had become a member of The Combination. Following the leagues dissolution after only one season, Newton Heath joined the newly formed Football Alliance and this resulted in the club starting the 1892–93 season in the First Division, by which time it had become independent of the railway company and dropped the LYR from its name. After two seasons, the club was relegated to the Second Division, in January 1902, with debts of £2,670 – equivalent to £260,000 in 2017 – the club was served with a winding-up order. The following season began with victory in the first ever Charity Shield, Manchester United won the First Division for the second time in 1911, but at the end of the following season, Mangnall left the club to join Manchester City. In 1922, three years after the resumption of football following the First World War, the club was relegated to the Second Division, relegated again in 1931, Manchester United became a yo-yo club, achieving its all-time lowest position of 20th place in the Second Division in 1934. Gibson, who, in December 1931, invested £2,000, in the 1938–39 season, the last year of football before the Second World War, the club finished 14th in the First Division. Busby led the team to second-place league finishes in 1947,1948 and 1949, in 1952, the club won the First Division, its first league title for 41 years. With an average age of 22, the title winning side of 1956 were labelled the Busby Babes by the media. In 1957, Manchester United became the first English team to compete in the European Cup, despite objections from The Football League, who had denied Chelsea the same opportunity the previous season
36.
Belfast Festival at Queen's
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The Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queens is an annual arts festival held in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The 50th Festival took place from 19 October to 4 November 2012 and it was announced in March 2015 that the University would not continue with the festival and was going to stop funding the festival. However, the festival has continued with the new name of the Belfast International Arts Festival, held annually, usually in November, the festival is primarily run by Queens University Belfast. It was founded by student Michael Emmerson in 1962, from small beginnings the festival grew through the 1960s and 1970s, expanding to a two-week-long event. Performers during this time included Jimi Hendrix, Laurence Olivier, Rowan Atkinson and Billy Connolly. The 2004 Festival covered the areas of World / Theatre / Dance, Music / Opera Song /, Jazz / Blues / World /, Tours, Folks / Roots, Comedy, Exhibitions, Talks, Sounds, Family. Among the acts to take place, Alladeen, Jimi Carr, Mark Thomas, Ross Noble, Paul Abbott, the Festival replaced its Box Office software in an effort to improve online sales and catch-up on the trend developing in the city. With funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland a replacement system was installed in the months with a view to a major overhaul of the Festivals online presence to come. In recent years the festival has expanded further and now claims to be the largest arts festival in Ireland, showcasing local talent as well as international artists. The 2005 festival took place between 21 October and 6 November, and covered theatre, politics, dance, classical music, literature, jazz, comedy, visual arts, folk music and popular music. Guests included Harry Hill, Joanne Harris, George Galloway, Robert Fisk, Louis Theroux, Grandmaster Flash, Rich Hall, BBC Northern Ireland provided comprehensive radio and television coverage of the Festival, principally through Festival Nights on BBC2, presented by Marie-Louise Muir and Ralph McLean. The 2006 festival programme was launched on 7 September 2006 at Queens Film Theatre, the 44th festival ran from 19 October to 4 November. Performances included José Cura, a musical theatre company from South Africa. The 2007 festival ran from 19 October to 3 November 2007, acts included The Blind Boys of Alabama, John Prine, Bill Bailey, Sean Hughes, Ute Lemper, Andreas Scholl and a performance of Brian Irvines The Tailors Daughter. The campaign received support from the Belfast Telegraph and celebrities including Patrick Kielty, on 16 February 2007 the Minister announced a £150,000 one-off payment to the Belfast Festival at Queens, although the campaign to raise more funds continued throughout the year. The university subsequently announced that the 2007 festival would go ahead, albeit on a reduced scale, on 18 December 2007, Arts Minister, Edwin Poots, announced a grant of £300,000 over three years for the Belfast Festival at Queens. On 8 February 2008, Ulster Bank Group chief executive, Cormac McCarthy and it was hailed as a new dawn for the festival which had been suffering underfunding. Belfast Film Festival Brian Friel Theatre Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival Féile an Phobail Queens Film Theatre Official Website Save Belfast Festival
37.
All-Ireland Senior Football Championship
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The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, the premier competition in Gaelic football, is an annual series of games played in Ireland and organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association. The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final is played on the third or fourth Sunday in September at Croke Park in Dublin, the first Championship to be held featured club teams who represented their respective counties after their county championship. The 21 a-side final was between Commercials of Limerick and Young Irelands of Louth, the final was played in Beech Hill, Clonskeagh on 29 April 1888 with Commercials winning by 1–4 to 0–3. Unlike later All-Ireland competitions, there were no championships. The second Championship was unfinished owing to the American Invasion Tour, the 1888 provincial championships had been completed but after the Invasion tour returned, the All-Ireland semi-final and final were not played. English team London reached the four times in the early years of the competition. In 1892, inter-county teams were introduced to the All-Ireland Championship, Congress granted permission for the winning club to use players from other clubs in the county, thus the inter-county teams came into being. The rules of hurling and football were also altered, goals were made equal to five points, the 1903 Championship brought Kerrys first All-Ireland title. They went on to become the most successful team in the history of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. The first half of the century brought the rise of several teams who won two or more All-Ireland titles in that period, such as Kildare, Mayo, Cavan, Wexford. In the 1990s, a significant sea change took place, as the All-Ireland was claimed by an Ulster team in four consecutive years, since then Ulster has produced more All-Ireland winning teams than any other province. The All-Ireland Qualifiers were introduced in 2001, later that year, the 2001 final brought victory for Galway who became the first football team to win an All-Ireland by springing through the back door. In 2013, Hawk-Eye was introduced for Championship matches at Croke Park and it was first used to confirm that Offaly substitute Peter Cunninghams attempted point had gone wide 10 minutes into the second half of a game against Kildare. 2013 also brought the first Friday night game in the history of the Championship - a first round qualifier between Carlow and Laois, the county is a geographical region in Ireland, and each of the thirty-two counties in Ireland organises its own GAA affairs through a County Board. The county teams play in their respective Provincial Championships in Connacht, Leinster, Munster, kilkenny is currently unique among the 32 Irish county associations in not participating in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. The Provincial Championships operate through a cup competition format. They take place during the months of May, June and July, the winners of each of the four Provincial Championships earn a place in the All-Ireland Quarter-Finals, which take place in the month of August. Each match is played as a single leg, if a match is drawn there is a replay
38.
NatWest Markets
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NatWest Markets is the investment banking arm of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group. It was created from the Groups corporate and institutional banking division in 2016, the Act implements the Independent Commission on Banking recommendation that domestic retail banking should be ring-fenced from riskier trading activities by 2019. The NatWest Markets name was used from 1992 to 1997. NatWest Markets origins lie in County Bank, which was formed in Manchester in 1862. District Bank was itself acquired by National Provincial Bank in 1962 and this County Bank acquired various stockbroking and jobbing firms, becoming County NatWest in 1987 and was later consolidated with corporate banking to form NatWest Markets. NatWest Markets acquired US-based Greenwich Capital in 1996 and became Greenwich NatWest following disposal of large parts of the business, RBS Securities RBS International NatWest Markets The Royal Bank of Scotland Group
39.
Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
40.
Belfast Telegraph
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The Belfast Telegraph is a daily newspaper published in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Independent News & Media. It was first published as the Belfast Evening Telegraph on 1 September 1870 by brothers William and its first edition cost half a penny and ran to four pages covering the Franco-Prussian war and local news. The evening edition of the newspaper was called the Sixth Late. Its competitors are The News Letter and The Irish News but the editions of the London-based red tops are also competitors. The Belfast Telegraph was entirely broadsheet until 19 February 2005, when the Saturday morning edition was introduced, the weekday morning Compact Edition, launched on 22 March 2005, struggled to replicate the evening newspapers success. Its editorial content has been much more tabloid, with a greater entertainment story count than the evening paper, much prominence is given to English-based sport, and some general features and columns are shared with The Independent and Irish Independent. The paper now publishes two editions daily, Belfast Telegraph final edition and the North West Telegraph which is distributed in Derry, circulation was 109,571 for the period July to December 2002. Circulation was 68,024 for the period January to June 2009, circulation was 49,228 for the period January to June 2013. Circulation was 41,912 for the period January to June 2016, circulation was 40,042 for the period July to December 2016. The Belfast Telegraph is the title of Independent News & Media Ltd. It carries many supplements including, nijobfinder - appears in the paper every Tuesday and Friday, the nijobfinder brand launched its website in December 2008, www. nijobfinder. co. uk, which quickly rose to prominence to provide be the number one Job Site in Northern Ireland. An ad in nijobfinder is read by 466,000 people making it the no 1 resource for finding employment in Northern Ireland, nicarfinder - is the Wednesday supplement, every ad published with nicarfinder is seen by 130,000 people. Nicarfinder launched a new version of their website, www. nicarfinder. co. uk, in May 2012, it has one of the most powerful search engines offering users unique functionality in car search. HomeFinder - the property supplement, focusing on the home - from interior decor, to house prices, propertynews. com is the topmost property website in Northern Ireland, showing thousands of houses currently on the market and content from the Home Finder. Weekend Supplement OutThere Guide - the OutThere guide is printed monthly and is a resource for those socialising around Northern Ireland, family Life - won supplement of the year in the 2016 CIPR NI Media Awards They ceased to print the Irelands Saturday Night sports evening newspaper in July 2008. A sister paper is Sunday Life, also associated is Ads for Free. And the paper holds the contract for The Daily Mirror, The Sun, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, The Irish Daily Star, The Daily Star. The Belfast Telegraph was named as Best UK Regional Newspaper of the Year 2012 by the Society of Editors Regional Press Awards
41.
Royal Bank of Scotland
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Royal Bank of Scotland, commonly abbreviated as RBS, is one of the retail banking subsidiaries of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc, together with NatWest and Ulster Bank. The Royal Bank of Scotland has around 700 branches, mainly in Scotland though there are branches in many towns and cities throughout England. The Equivalent Society became the Equivalent Company in 1724, and the new company wished to move into banking, the British government received the request favourably as the Old Bank, the Bank of Scotland, was suspected of having Jacobite sympathies. Accordingly, the New Bank was chartered in 1727 as the Royal Bank of Scotland, with Archibald Campbell, Lord Ilay, on 31 May 1728, the Royal Bank of Scotland invented the overdraft, which was later considered an innovation in modern banking. It allowed William Hogg, a merchant in the High Street of Edinburgh, competition between the Old and New Banks was fierce and centred on the issue of banknotes. The policy of the Royal Bank was to drive the Bank of Scotland out of business. The Royal Bank built up large holdings of the Bank of Scotlands notes, to pay these notes, the Bank of Scotland was forced to call in its loans and, in March 1728, to suspend payments. Despite talk of a merger with the Bank of Scotland, the Royal Bank did not possess the wherewithal to complete the deal. By September 1728, the Bank of Scotland was able to start redeeming its notes again, with interest, the bank opened its first branch office outside Edinburgh in 1783 when it opened one in Glasgow, in part of a drapers shop in the High Street. Further branches were opened in Dundee, Rothesay, Dalkeith, Greenock, Port Glasgow, in 1821, the bank moved from its original head office in Edinburghs Old Town to Dundas House, on St. Andrew Square in the New Town. The building as seen along George Street forms the end of the central vista in New Town. It was designed for Sir Lawrence Dundas by Sir William Chambers as a Palladian mansion, an axial banking hall behind the building, designed by John Dick Peddie, was added in 1857, it features a domed roof, painted blue internally, with gold star-shaped coffers. The banking hall continues in use as a branch of the bank, the rest of the nineteenth century saw the bank pursue mergers with other Scottish banks, chiefly as a response to failing institutions. The assets and liabilities of the Western Bank were acquired following its collapse in 1857, by 1910, the Royal Bank of Scotland had 158 branches and around 900 staff. In 1969, the merged with the National Commercial Bank of Scotland to become the largest clearing bank in Scotland. The first London branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland opened in 1874, an agreement was reached, under which English banks would not open branches in Scotland and Scottish banks would not open branches in England outside London. This agreement remained in place until the 1960s, although various cross-border acquisitions were permitted, the latter two were merged in 1970 to form Williams and Glyns Bank, but not rebranded as the Royal Bank of Scotland until 1985. Also in 2011, Royal Bank of Scotland prevented Basic Account holders from using the ATMs of most rival banks, in June 2012, computer problems prevented customers accessing accounts
