The Blackstaff River is a watercourse in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It rises on the eastern slope of the Black Mountain before flowing down into the Bog Meadows and passing under the city of Belfast, where it enters the River Lagan. Much of its course has been culverted and built upon since the 19th century, making it largely invisible today. Its tributaries include the Forth or Clowney River, which meets it beneath the Broadway Roundabout in West Belfast. [1]
The Blackstaff's name probably references a primitive crossing formed from blackened beams of oak. It was known in Irish as the Abhain Bheara or Owenvarra, meaning "river of the staff". [2] In earlier times the Blackstaff flowed into the Lagan immediately above the present-day Queen's Bridge at what is now Victoria Square, [3] and formed a wide, muddy estuary that extended as far up as Sandy Row. [4] Here, it was spanned by a stone crossing called the Saltwater Bridge, which stood where the Boyne Bridge stands today. [5] In the 17th century the situation of the Blackstaff became a problem for the newly built town of Belfast, which found its potential for expansion limited by the mud flats on its southern side. [6] A variety of improvements were made in the succeeding years. A new channel was cut at the river's mouth to allow boats to reach a wharf at Belfast Castle, and in the 1690s the river was diverted through a cutting in Cromac Wood, at what is now the Gasworks. [7] This work, commissioned by the Earl of Donegall during a lean period in order to provide relief for local labourers, allowed development to commence on the southern side of Ann Street, the original limit of the town. [8] [6]
In 1767, Henry Joy (whose family published the Belfast Newsletter ) purchased a parcel of land at Cromac in order to build a paper mill, which would be powered by the Blackstaff. The original outlet of the river was turned into a mill dam, giving additional power to the mill. [9] The dam was later drained and developed into the Markets district of the city, [10] while the paper mill closed in the 1850s. [11] The Gasworks here opened in 1823 and continued to operate until the 1980s, when the site was converted into a business park and the section of the Blackstaff that ran through it was culverted. [12] [13]
The Blackstaff remained open until the late 19th century, but became increasingly foul and polluted. In 1881, an article in the Newsletter complained that the river had gone from being "little more polluted than a mountain burn" to "the greatest eyesore in the town", and proposed a system of culverts to hide it from view. This work was accomplished in the succeeding decade, and the river was buried beneath the city. [14] Much like the neighbouring Farset, the Blackstaff is now largely invisible, although there are still unculverted sections along the Boucher Road in the west of the city. [15]
The Blackstaff is a "designated watercourse" of the Department for Infrastructure, and is controlled and maintained by the Rivers Agency. It has been cited as a main contributor to the high flood risk in central and low-lying areas of Belfast. [16] In particular on 16 August 2008, a newly opened underpass carrying the M1 motorway onto the A12 Westlink controversially flooded to a depth of 20 feet (6.1 m) [17] during heavy rain with water from the culverted Blackstaff and Clowney Rivers. [18]
Lisburn is a city in Northern Ireland. It is 8 mi (13 km) southwest of Belfast city centre, on the River Lagan, which forms the boundary between County Antrim and County Down. First laid out in the 17th century by English and Welsh settlers, with the arrival of French Huguenots in the 18th century, the town developed as a global centre of the linen industry.
Marquess of Donegall is a title in the Peerage of Ireland held by the head of the Chichester family, originally from Devon, England. Sir John Chichester sat as a Member of Parliament and was High Sheriff of Devon in 1557. One of his sons, Sir Arthur Chichester, was Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1605 to 1616. In 1613, he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Chichester, of Belfast in County Antrim. He died childless in 1625 when the barony became extinct.
The News Letter is one of Northern Ireland's main daily newspapers, published from Monday to Saturday. It is the world's oldest English-language general daily newspaper still in publication, having first been printed in 1737.
The River Lagan is a major river in Northern Ireland which runs 53.5 miles (86 km) from the Slieve Croob mountain in County Down to Belfast where it enters Belfast Lough, an inlet of the Irish Sea. The Lagan forms much of the border between County Antrim and County Down in the east of Ulster. It rises as a tiny, fast-moving stream near to the summit of Slieve Croob; Transmitter Road runs nearby. It runs to Belfast through Dromara, Donaghcloney and Dromore. On the lower slopes of the mountain, it combines with a branch from Legananny Mountain, just opposite Slieve Croob. The river then turns east to Magheralin into a broad plain between the plateaus of Antrim and Down.
The M1 is a motorway in Northern Ireland. It is the longest motorway in Northern Ireland and runs for 38 miles (61 km) from Belfast to Dungannon through County Antrim, County Down, County Armagh and County Tyrone. It forms part of the route via the A1 in Northern Ireland between Belfast and Dublin as well as being a part of the unsigned European E01 and E18 routes.
The Laganside Corporation was a non-departmental public body formed by the Laganside Development Order 1989 with the goal of regenerating large sections of land in Belfast, Northern Ireland adjacent to the River Lagan. This development area was expanded in 1996 to include areas closer to the city centre.
Belfast Castle is a castle on the slopes of Cavehill Country Park in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in a prominent position 400 feet (120 m) above sea level. Its location provides unobstructed views over the City of Belfast and Belfast Lough. The current castle is a Victorian structure, built between 1867 and 1870, and is listed as being Grade B+. The main entrance into the Belfast Castle Demesne is now where Innisfayle Park meets Downview Park West, just off the Antrim Road. The original main entrance into the demesne was formerly on the Antrim Road itself, where Strathmore Park now meets the Antrim Road.
The M3 is an urban motorway 0.8 miles (1.3 km) in length owned by Siac Construction and Cintra, S.A. that connects the M2 in north Belfast, Northern Ireland to the A2 Sydenham Bypass in east Belfast. It is the shortest motorway in Northern Ireland, and one of the busiest, carrying 60,000 vehicles per day as of 2005. It has a permanent speed limit of 50 mph (80 km/h).
The River Farset is a river in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is a late tributary of the River Lagan.
The Belfast–Newry line operates from Lanyon Place station in County Antrim to Newry in County Down, Northern Ireland. The manager for this line is based at Portadown railway station, although the line extends to the border to include the Scarva and Poyntzpass halts and Newry. Newry is on the fringe of the network, being the last stop before the border with the Republic of Ireland. The line follows the route of the northern half of the main Dublin–Belfast line, with the exception of calling at Belfast Great Victoria Street.
Belfast was an Irish Borough constituency in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Comprising the city of Belfast, it elected one Member of Parliament (MP) from 1801 to 1832, and then two MPs from 1832 until the constituency was divided for the 1885 general election.
Stranmillis is an area in south Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is also an electoral ward for Belfast City Council, part of the Laganbank district electoral area. As part of the Queen's Quarter, it is the location for prominent attractions such as the Ulster Museum and Botanic Gardens. The area is located on Stranmillis Road, with Malone Road to the west and the River Lagan to the east. Its name, meaning "the sweet stream" in Irish, refers to the Lagan, whose waters are still fresh at this point, before becoming brackish as the river flows onward toward its mouth in Belfast Lough.
Dunmurry is an urban townland in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Dunmurry is in the Collin electoral ward for the local government district of Belfast City Council.
The Donegall Road is a residential area and road traffic thoroughfare that runs from Shaftesbury Square on what was once called the "Golden Mile" to the Falls Road in west Belfast. The road is bisected by the Westlink – M1 motorway. The largest section of the road, east of the Broadway junction with the Westlink, has a community which self-identifies as predominantly Protestant while the community on the other side of the Westlink – M1 motorway self-identifies as predominantly Catholic.
John Harold Hewitt, who was born in Belfast, Ireland, was perhaps the most significant Belfast poet to emerge before the 1960s generation of Northern Irish poets that included Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon and Michael Longley. He was appointed the first writer-in-residence at Queen's University Belfast in 1976. His collections include The Day of the Corncrake (1969) and Out of My Time: Poems 1969 to 1974 (1974). He was also made a Freeman of the City of Belfast in 1983, and was awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Ulster and Queen's University Belfast.
The subdivisions of Belfast are a series of divisions of Belfast, Northern Ireland that are used for a variety of cultural, electoral, planning and residential purposes.
Ormeau Road is a road in south Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland. Ormeau Park is adjacent to it. It forms part of the A24.
The Linen Quarter is a vibrant area of Belfast city centre. The name is derived from the great many linen warehouses that are still present in the area. The Linen Quarter is host to some of the major cultural venues of Belfast, including the Ulster Hall and Grand Opera House, alongside a large number of hotels, bars, restaurants and cafes. The district also includes the main transport hub of Belfast.
Laganbank was one of the nine district electoral areas in Belfast, Northern Ireland which existed from 1985 to 2014. Located in the south of the city, the district elected five members to Belfast City Council and contained the wards of Ballynafeigh, Botanic, Shaftesbury, Stranmillis, and Rosetta. Laganbank, along with neighbouring Balmoral, formed the greater part of the Belfast South constituencies for the Northern Ireland Assembly and UK Parliament.
The Lagan Canal was a 44-kilometre (27 mi) canal built to connect Belfast to Lough Neagh. The first section, which is a river navigation, was opened in 1763, and linked Belfast to Lisburn. The second section from Lisburn to Lough Neagh includes a small amount of river navigation, but was largely built as a canal. At its peak it was one of the most successful of the Irish canals, but ultimately it was unable to compete with road and rail transport, and the two sections were closed in 1954 and 1958. The central section from Sprucefield to Moira was destroyed by the construction of the M1 motorway in the 1960s. Responsibility for most of its remains passed first to the Department of Agriculture and then to the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure, although the section between Aghalee Bridge and Lough Neagh, including the final ten locks, passed into private ownership. There is an active campaign to re-open the canal, including reinstatement of the central section.