Title: Portrait of an industrial city : "clanging Belfast", 1750-1914 /
Authors: Royle, Stephen A.
Year: 2011
Subjects: Belfast (Northern Ireland) History.
Abstract: "Hammer's clanging" was the sound that the great ninetheenth century novelist Wililam Makepeace Thackeray associated with Belfast when he visited in 1842. Eventually Belfast outstripped Dublin as the largest city on the island of Ireland, and ranked third in the British empire, while still echoing to the sound of those clanging hammers. Industry lay at the heart of the city's manufacturing prowess with shipyards, textile mills and other industrial ventures. The constant movement of workers and goods, the smells and sounds of constant industrial activity, and the distinctive clang of metal on metal dominated the city's daily life. Throughout the book the use of primary sources documents and illuminates the story of Belfast.
Contents: Preface: 'clanging Belfast' -- 'The town broke loose': growth -- 'A permanent and profitable channel of industrial enterprise' -- A 'saturnalia of bigotry and ruffianism': street life and politics -- 'The inhabitants of this town are industrious and careful. But methinks not so sociable as other places' -- Postscript: Belfast in 1914: 'really a wonder'?