h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Belfast, Northern Ireland - A2835597
Author: Demon Drawer (Wearing a Black Armband for H2G2's Spirit) - U104826

Ok I know they only asked for the six counties of Northern Ireland. But you can't really include Belfast in either of hte two that it straddles. It does contain over a third of Northern Ireland's population so here at last is my long awaited entry on Belfast to complete the set.

Before you shout. I know I should have spell checked this I forgot before submitting and I'm just off out to watch the football so I'll do that an let you know when I'm done before you all spend time checking for me.

DD

Ok I have spell checked this now.

"Communities were living tooth by jowl"

I thought the phrase was 'cheek by jowl'?

Maybe worth mentioning that The Farset now runs under High Street, which was previously a loading dock.

You could add a footnote to 'Old Firm' to explain exactly what it is.

Regarding H&W, I think some mention of the yard today needs to be made. Anvil Point, the last ship to be built there launched in 2003. They now operate with a much smaller workforce on ship repair and design, as well as diversifying to include bridge building. The main dry dock is, as far as I know, the largest in the world.

Have checked and verified the dry dock at Harland's is the biggest in the world.

Good entry DD. A fine overview of the city.

"Troubles", "Protestant" and "Catholic" should be capitalised.

The section on Belfast Castle is quite prominent, and somehow I think it is placed in the wrong area. You interrupt the history segment with it, and the fact that it is purely focused on the castle and discusses its fortunes right up to the present day causes it to interrupt the dialogue about the history of the place. It should be relocated further down the entry in my opinion.

The Bruce Invasion is also noteworthy in that the Scots devastated half the country during the invasion. I'm not sure what the effect on Belfast or its surroundings were.

In the piece about the Shankill and Falls, it is probably worthwhile noting the fact that there are a number of high walls (peace-lines?) separating the two communities. (Interestingly the wall building has not abated since the end of the Troubles.) Other areas that have also reached worldwide attention are worth mentioning, such as the Ardoyne, Tiger Bay, etc. Is it worthwhile talking a little bit about what life was like during the troubles, as a way of comparing it to the present day, i.e. the helicopters, soldiers on the streets, high-rise towers with listening posts, and the often heard sounds of gunfire and the occasional bomb blast interrupting the peace? I expect it's changed a lot since then.

In the bit about redevelopment, I guess that it is also noteworthy to mention that the German bombing campaigns of the Second World War caused significantly greater damage to the city than the combined effect of the 30 years of "the Troubles".

"One of the things the club has turn is turn away other sporting colours" : can you rephrase?

Worth adding a few good bars and restaurants, such as the Crown, etc?

It's a really good entry.

How could I forget the Crown Bar?

..and while you're at it, I think the Grand Opera House deserves a mention too.

And the Ulster Hall, where Led Zepplin first performed "Stairway to Heaven"

The regeneration along the river was started (or possibly assisted) with the construction of the weir. (Can't remember when...)

Transport links used to be an absolute nightmare, but the city now has a well integrated local train and bus network.

Oh, and the sea-cat and other ferries that now travel from the heart of the city.

Along with the Odyssey, maybe mention the W5 science museum. other museums include the Ulster museum (with some artefacts from the Titanic), and the Folk and Transport museum (though it's a wee bit outside the city proper). The City airport (formerly the harbour airport) has also enormously improved transport links with the rest of the UK, and low-cost airlines have made this much more affordable.

Famous people? George Best, Van Morrison, Stiff Little Fingers, Kenneth Branagh, Barry Douglas, Roy Walker (I'm guessing here - need to check if they're genuine Belfastonians or not)

The City Hall

The biggest UK bank robbery at the Northern Bank, December 2004.

Great work - I'm sure more ideas will come to me

Jocelyn Bell, the astronomer, Mary Peters, James Galway, C S Lewis, Louis McNeice, actors Ciaran Hinds and Stephen Rea, president Mary McAleese...

Well done LS you've named two of my to do list and one of my entries in that list of people.

Oh please tell me it's Roy "Good but it's nat right" Walker

Say what you see! What's Mr Chips doing? Legend!

Maybe mention the city's main football teams? The mighty Glens at the Oval, and Linfield at Windsor - which also doubles as Norn Iron's national stadium.

Also on football - Norman Whiteside, Danny Blanchflower and Sammy McIlroy.

Donegall Street - St Anne's Cathedral and the other one, ashamedly I can't remember the name. Although I'm not sure the one on Donegall Street is the main Catholic cathedral? Newspapers - The Belfast Telegraph, The Irish News and The Newsletter (oldest newspaper in the world I think?) all published here.

Also worth a mention are Alex Higgins, Chaim Herzog and the one and only Mickey Marley.

You mean St. Peter's. RC Cathedral

Can you check the following words by listening to the song?

"But there's sadness abound"

Those words do not make any sense, so I'd like to be sure they are correct.

Béal Feirsté -- there should be an accent on the first e of Féirste, but none on the second e.


"this river has been superseded by the River Lagan as the main waterway through Belfast." -- what does this mean? I presume that the Farset was a small river that flowed into the Lagan and is now underground. You can't surely mean that it was once bigger than the Lagan?

reclaimed for industrial land usage --> reclaimed for industrial use

"As both names indicate the most important aspect of Belfast was the river" -- but your first explanation is talking about a different river, if I understand it correctly.

over looking what today is --> overlooking what today is

Beannchar -- you say this is old Norse, but it doesn't look remotely Norse to me (there's no ch in Norse), it looks like Gaelic. Beann means headland in Gaelic.

" Probably beating Harland and Woolf1to the Queen’s Island site by over a millennium." -- this isn't a proper sentence. Join it to the previous one.

" De Courcy was famous for fortifying Ireland, one of his most famous castles" -- You shouldn't have the word famous twice in the one sentence.

"when Edward de Bruce2 who attempted to invade with 6000 men to be crowned King of Ireland " -- remove the word "who" in this.

"Two years later the Earl of Essex is granted Belfast from Queen Elizabeth and defeats O’Neill’s men at the ford and builds a fort. In 1597 O’Neill retaliates by retaking the castle and bloodletting on the English occupiers, slitting their throats and disembowelling the remains." -- this bit is in present tense, but all the rest of it was in past tense.

"but the castle has as have many others has had a turbulent past" -->
but, as many others, the castle has had a turbulent past

the Fitzgerald’s -- remove the rogue apostrophe

English based absentee landlords --> English-based absentee landlords

The costs of the build --> "The costs of the building" or "The costs of the building work"

The project was nearly was left uncompleted --> The project was left uncompleted

"An unusual feature, which appears on the exterior staircase, is a section of the Shaftesbury coat of arms. This was not part of the original design but was grafted on to the building in 1894. It is in an Italian serpentine style"

This appears to be describing the SHaftesbury coat of arms, saying that it was not part of the original design etc. I think you were actually intending to describe the staircase, not the coat of arms.

I haven't time to look at any more of it at the moment.

Ta Gnomon.

I'll get unto this after I do some work on Belfast's sadly recently departed son.

Awww, bless our man Best

And coincidentally, I was recently given a tour of where his funeral service will take place - Stormont. Fabulous building! Do you know, Belfast was the 3rd most bombed UK city during WW2? And how did the RAF camouflage Stormont, a big white building on top of a hill??

With bitumen and cow manure, apparently. Took 5 years to clean off.


Also by the by - Peter Corry, who will be performing at Bestie's funeral, sang at my second wedding.

All updates made as suggested.

Gnomon the ylrics are correct. The fact that they do not make sense in not my fault nor yours.

Are you sure the lyrics are right DD? I thought it was "some say troubles abound". I'm going by memory though.

Some things below:

- full stop after Farset

- built

- sounds a bit odd. Sand is different from silt - not sure how a sandbank can be made of it

Maybe "Vikings who settled..." - it wasn't actually the settlements who worked on the boats.

Isn't the public records library a different place? Where the PRO is in Balmoral?

Another major industry was...

Delorean - maybe a word or two about the corruption scandal that wound up operations?

Question - how can things converge in a parallel line? Although I get what you mean.

It'll be a good addition to get this into the Guide!

SB