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Built on shipping and the Linen trade and the largest city on the Irish mainland behind Dublin, Belfast is the capital of both Ulster and Northern Ireland and despite its 'colourful' history, the city has in recent years undergone redevelopment and is now a major financial and business centre and popular tourist destination.
The city, which has a population of nearly three hundred thousand - though over half a million people live in the Greater Belfast area - is set at the end of Belfast Lough, a naturally formed harbour at the mouth of the river Lagan. This inlet made the city accessible to large shipping and, during the 18th and 19th centuries, Belfast made it's name as the first port of call for trade from the New World across the Atlantic.
To this day large ship contractors operate from Belfast's extensive docks: the world famous Harland and Wolff, designers of the Titanic, for instance, have a functioning shipyard there dominated by Samson and Goliath - two huge ship-cranes which can be seen for miles.
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