The capital city of North Ireland is Belfast. The name means “rivermouth of the sandbanks”, and comes from an older Irish phrase meaning the same thing. It is situated on the coastline, so it is really a rivermouth. Belfast is the second largest city in Ireland, and is the largest city in Northern Ireland. Over one million people live in Belfast as of 2017. It has been a city since 1888, when Queen Victoria made it a city.
The city sits between two counties in Ireland. Some still see it as “straddling” the two, which means half in one, and half in the other, or so. Unlike some country cities in the 1800 and 1900s, the Industrial Revolution really helped Belfast. The population exploded as factory jobs became more readily available for those looking.
