1.
County Down
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County Down is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland, situated in the northeast of the island of Ireland. Adjoined to the southeast shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 2,448 km² and has a population of about 531,665 and it is also one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland and is within the province of Ulster. The county was archaically called Downshire and it borders County Antrim to the north, the Irish Sea to the east and south, County Armagh to the west, and County Louth across Carlingford Lough to the southwest. In the east of the county is Strangford Lough and the Ards Peninsula, the largest town is Bangor, on the northeast coast. Three other large towns and cities are on its border, Newry lies on the border with County Armagh, while Lisburn. Down contains both the southernmost point of Northern Ireland and the easternmost point of Ireland and it is currently one of only two counties of Ireland to have a majority of the population from a Protestant background, according to the 2001 census. The other is County Antrim to the north, during the Williamite War in Ireland the county was a centre of Protestant rebellion against the rule of the Catholic James II. After forming a force the Protestants were defeated by the Irish Army at the Break of Dromore and forced to retreat. Later the same year Marshal Schombergs large Williamite expedition arrived in Belfast Lough, after laying siege to Carrickfergus Schomberg marched south to Dundalk Camp, clearing County Down and much of the rest of East Ulster of Jacobite troops. Down contains two significant peninsulas, Ards Peninsula and Lecale peninsula, the county has a coastline along Belfast Lough to the north and Carlingford Lough to the south. Strangford Lough lies between the Ards Peninsula and the mainland, down also contains part of the shore of Lough Neagh. Smaller loughs include Lough Island Reavy, the River Lagan forms most of the border with County Antrim. The River Bann also flows through the areas of the county. Other rivers include the Clanrye and Quoile, there are several islands off the Down coast, Mew Island, Light House Island and the Copeland Islands, all of which lie to the north of the Ards Peninsula. Gunn Island lies off the Lecale coast, in addition there are a large number of small islands in Strangford Lough. County Down is where, in the words of the song by Percy French, The mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea. Slieve Donard, at 849 m, is the highest peak in the Mournes, in Northern Ireland, another important peak is Slieve Croob, at 534 m, the source of the River Lagan. An area of County Down is known as the Brontë Homeland, after Patrick Brontë, father of Anne, Charlotte, Emily, Patrick Brontë was born in this region
2.
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
3.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
4.
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
5.
George Best Belfast City Airport
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George Best Belfast City Airport is a single-runway airport in Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Situated adjacent to the Port of Belfast it is 3 mi from Belfast City Centre and it shares the site with the Short Brothers/Bombardier aircraft manufacturing facility. The airport began operations in 1983. The airport was known as Belfast City Airport until it was renamed in 2006 in memory of George Best. The airport handled over 2.7 million passengers in 2010, the airport is a major base for Flybe, which began operations at the airport in 1993 and is now the largest operator at Belfast City. The airport has a CAA public use aerodrome licence that allows flights for the transport of passengers or for flying instruction. Ground handling is provided by Swissport and Menzies Aviation, in 2012 Aer Lingus opened a base at the airport transferring operations from Belfast International Airport. Sydenham Airport was established by Shorts beside its Belfast factory at Sydenham in 1937 and this became Belfasts main civilian airport from 1938 to 1939. The airfield was requisitioned by the Royal Navy during the Second World War, RAF Nutts Corner then became Belfasts main airport. The Sydenham airfield continued to be used for military purposes until the 1970s, including use by the Fleet Air Arm as an aircraft storage unit. In 1983, following interest from airlines and customers, the airfield was opened for commercial flights as Belfast Harbour Airport, following major capital investment Bombardier sold the airport in 2003 for £35 million to the Spanish company Ferrovial, the owner of BAA Airports. Ferrovial re-sold the airport in September 2008 for £132.5 million to ABN Amro Global Infrastructure Fund, in March 2006, it was announced that the airport would be renamed in memory of Northern Irish footballer George Best. The new name, George Best Belfast City Airport, and signage were revealed at the ceremony attended by Bests family and friends on 22 May 2006. The renaming of the airport caused controversy, with articles in local and national print media highlighting the mixed feelings of Belfast residents. Also in March 2006 Flybe announced that it would be naming its Belfast City – Manchester service after the footballer, on 30 October 2007, Ryanair established its 23rd base at the airport. The newest route was between Belfast and London Stansted, following Air Berlins announcement that it would discontinue the route on 31 October 2007, on 31 August 2010, Ryanair announced it would close its Belfast City base, meaning all Ryanair services were lost from 31 October 2010. Five routes and 800,000 passengers per annum will be lost at the airport as a result, the closure of the base was due to the planned runway extension being delayed for a further two years. The airline had stated it would fly to European destinations from the airport if the runway was extended, passenger numbers increased by 4. 5% from 2,621,763 in 2009 to 2,740,341 in 2010, the highest total on record at the airport
6.
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
7.
NI Railways
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NI Railways, also known as Northern Ireland Railways and for a brief period Ulster Transport Railways, is the railway operator in Northern Ireland. It has a common Board of Management with the two companies in the group, Ulsterbus and Metro. NIR jointly runs the Enterprise train service between Belfast and Dublin with Iarnród Éireann. There is no link to the system in Great Britain, although proposals have been made, though allowances would have to be made for the different rail gauge in use in Britain. NIR was formed in 1968 when it took over from the Ulster Transport Authority, much of the network closed during the 1950s and 1960s, declining from 900 miles to 206.61 miles at present. NIRs last steam locomotives were withdrawn in 1970, in 1970, NIR re-launched the once-popular Enterprise between Dublin and Belfast with three new NIR Class 101 diesel locomotives built by Hunslet in England and Mark 2B carriages built by BREL. Despite frequent interruptions due to bomb scares, the service has remained a more or less constant feature of the NIR network, as older trains became obsolete in the 1970s, the Class 80 slam-door diesel-electric multiple unit was introduced. BREL built these units between 1974 and 1977 to British Rails Mk 2B design with some trailer cars rebuilt from hauled stock, the power cars are powered by an English Electric 4SRKT engine, nicknamed Thumpers due to their characteristic sound, and have two English Electric 538 traction motors. These entered service on the lines around Belfast, becoming a stalwart on the whole network. They remained in service until 2012, latterly primarily on the Larne-Belfast line, in the early 1980s, NIR purchased one of the prototype LEV Railbuses built to test the railbus concept. This was intended for the Coleraine-Portrush branch, but was due to the capacity constraints of a single car. A plan was mooted to use it on the Lisburn-Antrim line to prevent it from being closed and this proposal failed, again because of the limited capacity. NIR has three EMD class 111 locomotives, 111–113, for freight and passenger use, built in 1980 and 1984, during the eighties it was apparent that additional trains would be needed. BREL built nine 450 Class sets on former Mk 1 underframes between 1985 and 1987, the power cars had an English Electric 4SRKT engine recovered from former 70 Class units and had two English Electric 538 traction motors. The sets were three-car diesel-electric multiple units, based on a more modern British design and they were withdrawn from service in 2012 and replaced by new 4000 class diesel multiple units. In 1994, NIR bought two EMD208 Class locomotives identical to Iarnród Éireanns 201 Class and these haul the cross-border Enterprise dedicated trains of modern carriages. In 2004/2005, NIR received 23 Class 3000 diesel multiple units from CAF of Spain in an £80m order, the final unit,3023, arrived in Belfast Harbour on 18 July 2005. All units had entered service by 24 September 2005 and they operate principally between Bangor, Portadown and Londonderry and Belfast
8.
A2 road (Northern Ireland)
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Mainly a single lane in each direction, the road follows most of the coastline of Northern Ireland. It is connected in several places to other major roads, the road begins in the city of Newry, County Down and heads North-East through the fishing towns of Warrenpoint, Rostrevor and Kilkeel. After Dundrum the road continues via Ardglass to Strangford, where traffic wishing to stick to this route can take the Portaferry - Strangford Ferry to Portaferry. Along this stretch and further out the Shore Road, the route runs along the line of the M2 and M5. Another section finishes at Culmore, County Londonderry and Muff, County Donegal, where it approaches Derry City the A2 is a dual carriageway from City of Derry Airport to The Foyle Bridge. The Antrim Coast Road is regarded as one of the great tourist routes of the world and this part of the road has seen a dramatic increase in traffic in recent years. It runs along the coast for about 25 miles, from the Black Arch near Larne to the Red Arch near Cushendall, passing through the villages of Ballygalley, Glenarm, Carnlough and Waterfoot. Motorists, cyclists and pedestrians should pay due care and attention as there are no cycle lanes. The Commissioners conceived a project to build the Antrim Coast Road to give better access for the inhabitants, open up the Glens for trade. The Antrim Coast Road was promoted by the Commissioners, but it was their civil engineer, William Bald and he did so between 1832 and 1842, supervised by the County Surveyors of the day – Thomas Woodhouse and Charles Lanyon. It was an achievement for its day and made a great difference to the people of the Glens. Before the road was built they sailed across the North Channel to Scotland to trade their goods, William Bald had the vision of building the road along the foot of the cliffs, some of them over 330 feet high. This was an idea, as previous plans had been to build the road some distance inland. But this would have meant steep gradients as the road traversed the valleys of the Glens as they ran down from the Antrim Plateau to the sea, Bald decided to blast the cliff face which then fell down onto the foreshore to form the base for the new road. In his report to the Commissioners Bald stated,30,0000 cubic yards of rock have been hurled down on the shore almost entirely by blasting, which has been executed by care and judgement. The Antrim Coast Road was completed in 1842 at a cost of £37,140 – some £12,000 over budget – much to the displeasure of the Commissioners and it then remained largely unchanged until the late 1960s. In February 1967 there was a fall of rock onto the road south of Glenarm. At this point the cliffs are about 330 feet high so Antrim County Council decided to build a new road 100 feet on the side of the old one
9.
Short Brothers
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Short Brothers plc, usually referred to as Shorts or Short, is an aerospace company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Shorts was founded in 1908 in London, and was the first company in the world to make production aircraft and it was particularly notable for its flying boat designs manufactured into the 1950s. In 1943 Shorts was nationalised and later denationalised, and in 1948 moved from its base at Rochester. In the 1960s, Shorts mainly produced turboprop airliners, major components for aerospace primary manufacturers, in 1989 Shorts was bought by Bombardier, and is today the largest manufacturing concern in Northern Ireland. Prior to that merger, the capital share by the owner was, HM Government,69. 5% Rolls-Royce Ltd,15. 25%. The Short Brothers business started in 1897 when Eustace Short bought a coal gas filled balloon. In 1900 the two visited the 1900 Paris Exposition, where they saw the balloons of Édouard Surcouf. In 1902 Eustace and Oswald started offering balloons for sale and they manufactured the balloons at Hove, Sussex, in premises above the acoustic laboratory run by a third brother, Horace Short. Horace had invented an acoustic amplifier, and was working to perfect it with Thomas Edisons European agent, in 1905 they won a contract for three balloons for the British Indian Army. The quality of their work impressed Colonel Templer, superintendent of the Royal Balloon Factory, Rolls commissioned them to build him a large balloon to compete in the 1906 Gordon Bennett balloon race. More orders soon followed from members of the Aero Club of Great Britain. Oswald succeeded in persuading Horace to leave his job with Parsons, at the end of 1908 Horace started work on the two designs, and in early 1909 construction was started of McCleans aircraft, the Short No.1 biplane. In March 1909 it was exhibited, without its fabric covering, meanwhile, the brothers had obtained the British rights to build copies of the Wright design. In February 1909 Shorts started construction of a new workshop on unobstructed marshland at Leysdown and this had been acquired by the Aero Club for use as a flying ground, together with Mussell Manor, which became its clubhouse. Construction of a batch of six aircraft was started immediately. Short Brothers thus became the first aircraft manufacturing company in the world to undertake production of an aircraft design. In 1910 the business, together with the Royal Aero Club, moved to premises at Eastchurch. Here the Short-Dunne 5, designed by John W. Dunne, was built, in 1911 Shorts built one of the worlds first successful twin-engine aircraft, the Triple Twin
10.
Harland and Wolff
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Harland & Wolff Heavy Industries is a Northern Irish heavy industrial company, specialising in shipbuilding and offshore construction, located in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Harland & Wolff is most famous for having all of the ships intended for the White Star Line including RMS Titanic. Harland and Wolffs official history, Shipbuilders to the World, was published in 1986, as of 2011, the expanding offshore wind power industry has been the prime focus, and 75% of the companys work is based on offshore renewable energy. Harland & Wolff was formed in 1861 by Edward James Harland, in 1858 Harland, then general manager, bought the small shipyard on Queens Island from his employer Robert Hickson. After buying Hicksons shipyard, Harland made his assistant Wolff a partner in the company, Wolff was the nephew of Gustav Schwabe, Hamburg, who was heavily invested in the Bibby Line, and the first three ships that the newly incorporated shipyard built were for that line. When Harland died in 1895, William James Pirrie became the chairman of the company until his death in 1924, thomas Andrews also became the general manager and head of the draughting department in 1907. In 1912, due primarily to increasing instability in Ireland. The three neighbouring yards were amalgamated and redeveloped to provide a total of seven building berths, a fitting-out basin, Harland & Wolff specialised in building tankers and cargo ships at Govan. The nearby shipyard of A. & J. Inglis was also purchased by Harland & Wolff in 1919, along with a stake in the primary steel supplier. Harland & Wolff also established shipyards at Bootle in Liverpool, North Woolwich in London and Southampton and these shipyards were all eventually closed from the early 1960s however, when the company opted to consolidate its operations in Belfast. In the First World War, Harland and Wolff built monitors and cruisers, in 1918, the company opened a new shipyard on the eastern side of the Musgrave Channel which was named the East Yard. This yard specialised in mass-produced ships of standard design developed in the First World War, the company started an aircraft manufacturing subsidiary with Short Brothers, called Short & Harland Limited in 1936. Its first order was for 189 Handley Page Hereford bombers built under licence from Handley Page for the Royal Air Force, in the Second World War, this factory built Short Stirling bombers as the Hereford was removed from service. The shipyard was busy in the Second World War, building six aircraft carriers and it also manufactured tanks and artillery components. It was in period that the companys workforce peaked at around 35,000 people. However, many of the built in this era were commissioned right at the end of World War II, as Harland. The yard on Queens Island was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe in April and May 1941 causing considerable damage to the shipbuilding facilities, with the rise of the jet-powered airliner in the late 1950s, the demand for ocean liners declined. This, coupled with competition from Japan, led to difficulties for the British shipbuilding industry, the last liner that the company launched was MV Arlanza for Royal Mail Line in 1960, whilst the last liner completed was SS Canberra for P&O in 1961
11.
Belfast and County Down Railway
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The Belfast and County Down Railway was an Irish gauge railway in Ireland linking Belfast with County Down. It was built in the 19th century and absorbed into the Ulster Transport Authority in 1948, all but the line between Belfast and Bangor was closed in the 1950s, although some of it has been restored near Downpatrick by a heritage line, the Downpatrick and County Down Railway. The company was incorporated on 26 June 1846 with the first section of line from Belfast to Holywood opening for traffic on 2 August 1848. The line was extended to Bangor by the Belfast, Holywood and Bangor Railway, opening on 1 May 1865. The line to Downpatrick was opened on 25 March 1859, the line from Downpatrick to Newcastle was built by the Downpatrick, Dundrum and Newcastle Railway, opening on 25 March 1869 and absorbed by BCDR on 14 July 1884. The railways first chief engineer was Sir John Macneill, who was responsible for allowing the railway to cross the marshy River Quoile, a branch to Ballynahinch was opened in 1858 via Ballynahinch Junction. A branch line from Downpatrick to Ardglass was opened in 1892, thanks to the triangular layout, trains were still capable of operating directly from the main Downpatrick station to Belfast or Newcastle. The branch from Newcastle to Castlewellan was opened on 24 March 1906, the company operated 80 miles of track exclusively in County Down, with its longest route being from Belfast to Castlewellan, a distance of 41 miles. All locomotives were constructed by Beyer, Peacock, except No,2, which was from Harland and Wolff. By 1948 the company had 29 locomotives, two steam railcars from Kitson & Co. were acquired in 1905. The locomotive works were at Belfast Queens Quay railway station and closed in 1950, new carriage works had been opened in 1886, with the last carriage being built in 1923. The BH&BR did not exercise power, but several years after it had been taken over by the B&CDR the latter company started running scheduled passenger steamship services on the route. The B&CDR took advice from the Glasgow and South Western Railway, for the 1893 season the G&SWR had ordered a new ship, PS Minerva, to be built by J&G Thomson at Clydebank. The two railways then ordered from Thomsons two sister ships of a revised design, PS Glen Rosa for the G&SWR and PS Slieve Donard for the B&CDR. Thomsons launched Slieve Donard on 20 May 1893 and she entered service between Belfasts Donegall Quay and Bangor on 20 June and she was named after Slieve Donard, the highest peak in the Mourne Mountains in County Down. In October 1893 the B&CDR ordered a slightly larger paddle steamer, PS Slieve Bearnagh, named after Slieve Bearnagh and she made her first voyage on Belfast Lough on 1 May 1894. Donard and Bearnagh worked between Donegall Quay and Bangor, between them providing six sailings per day from Mondays to Saturdays and five on Sundays, from Mondays to Saturdays one mid-afternoon sailing per day extended around the coast to Donaghadee. On Saturday afternoons other sailings continued from Bangor across Belfast Lough to Larne and these ships were older and smaller than those that Thomson had supplied, and the B&CDR seems to have made little use of them
12.
Newcastle, County Down
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Newcastle is a small town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 7,444 in the 2001 Census, the seaside resort lies on the Irish Sea coast at the base of Slieve Donard, one of the Mourne Mountains, and is known for its sandy beach and the Royal County Down Golf Club. The town lies within the Down District Council area, the town aims to promote itself as the activity resort for Northern Ireland and its most special attribute is its location at the foot of Slieve Donard. The town has benefited from a multi million upgrade which makes it a quality seaside attraction. The town is twinned with New Ross, County Wexford, in the Republic of Ireland, the name of the town is thought to derive from the castle built by Felix Magennis of the Magennis clan in 1588, which stood at the mouth of the Shimna River. This castle was demolished in 1830, the town is referred to as New Castle in the Annals of the Four Masters in 1433 so it is likely that he built on the site of an existing structure. In the 17th century Ulster ports began to rise in prominence, in 1625 William Pitt was appointed as Customer of the ports of Newcastle, Dundrum, Killough, Portaferry, Donaghadee, Bangor and Holywood. The Montgomery Manuscripts record that Newcastle was besieged and later captured by Sir James Montgomery of the Ards in April 1642 in the aftermath of the 1641 Rebellion, the date 1588 was inscribed on a stone placed over the front entrance of the Castle, built by Felix Magenis. Newcastle passed from the Magills to the Mathews, and subsequently to the Annesleys, in the late 1700s the Castle was modernised by the Matthews and then the Annesleys, and rented by the Board of Customs for the accommodation of revenue officers. Around 1830 the castle was demolished and the Annesley Arms Hotel was constructed within the castle compound. The 3rd Earl Annesley built a new residence, called Donard Lodge on the lower mountain slope above the town. St. Johns Church was also opened on The Rock in 1832 to accommodate the visitors, on 13 January 1843, boats from Newcastle and Annalong set out for the usual fishing stations, and were caught in a gale. 14 boats were lost in the heavy seas including a boat which had gone to the rescue, only two boats survived, the Victoria and the Brothers. 76 men perished,46 of whom were from Newcastle and they left twenty seven widows, one hundred and eighteen children, and twenty one dependants. A Public Subscription was raised and the cottages, known as Widows Row, were built for the widows and he completed the flight in an attempt to win a £100 prize offered by the town for the first powered flight along the strand. His first take off ended badly, but according to a newspaper report He flew a distance of almost three miles along the foreshore at a low altitude varying between fifty and five hundred feet. This event is recorded by a plaque on the promenade, the towns history is poorly recorded and is held mostly by local people and their stories of the past. Information on the town is available on signs throughout the forests, the Mourne Mountains is the setting for many local myths and legends
Victoria
