Belfast is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel. It is the second-largest city on the island of Ireland, with an estimated population of 348,005 in 2022, and a metropolitan area population of 671,559.
The Belfast Giants are a professional ice hockey team based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. They compete in the UK's Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL) and are the current champions for the 7th time in their history. They play their home games at the SSE Arena. Since their inception in 2000, the Giants have won fourteen major honours, including seven British league championships, three British championships by winning the play-offs, and five Challenge Cups.
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.
The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) is situated in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is a division within the Engaged Communities Group of the Department for Communities (DfC).
Belfast City Centre is the central business district of Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Belfast Harbour is a major maritime hub in Belfast, Northern Ireland, handling 67% of Northern Ireland's seaborne trade and about 25% of the maritime trade of the entire island of Ireland. It is a vital gateway for raw materials, exports and consumer goods, and is also Northern Ireland's leading logistics and distribution hub.
Nottingham city centre is the cultural, commercial, financial and historical heart of Nottingham, England, and represents the central area of the Greater Nottingham conurbation.
Valley Centertainment is a leisure and entertainment complex in the Don Valley in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It was built on land previously occupied by steel mills which also includes what is now Meadowhall shopping centre and the Utilita Arena. It is home to several restaurants, bars, a cinema, and a bowling alley as well as other attractions.
Titanic Quarter in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is a large-scale waterfront regeneration, comprising historic maritime landmarks, film studios, education facilities, apartments, a riverside entertainment district, and the world's largest Titanic-themed attraction centred on land in Belfast Harbour, known until 1995 as Queen's Island. The 185-acre (75 ha) site, previously occupied by part of the Harland and Wolff shipyard, is named after the company's, and the city's, most famous product, RMS Titanic. Titanic Quarter is part of the Dublin-based group, Harcourt Developments, which has held the development rights since 2003.
SSE plc is a multinational energy company headquartered in Perth, Scotland. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. SSE operates in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
The Belfast quarters are distinctive cultural zones within the city of Belfast, Northern Ireland, whose identities have been developed as a spur to tourism and urban regeneration. These "quarters" differ from the traditional districts into which Belfast is divided.
The O2 is a large entertainment district on the Greenwich peninsula in South East London, England, including an indoor arena, a music club, a Cineworld cinema, an exhibition space, piazzas, bars, restaurants, and a guided tour to the top of the O2. It was built largely within the former Millennium Dome, a large dome-shaped canopy built to house an exhibition celebrating the turn of the third millennium; consequently The Dome remains a name in common usage for the venue. It is sometimes referred to as The O2 Arena, but that name properly refers to the indoor arena within The O2. Naming rights to the district were purchased by the mobile telephone provider O2 from its developers, Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), during the development of the district. AEG owns the long-term lease on the O2 Arena and surrounding leisure space.
The economy of Belfast, Northern Ireland was initially built on trade through Belfast Harbour. Later, industry contributed to its growth, particularly shipbuilding and linen. At the beginning of the 20th century Belfast was both the largest producer of linen in the world and also boasted the world's largest shipyard. Civil unrest impacted the city's industry for many years, but with the republican and loyalist ceasefires of the mid-1990s, Good Friday Agreement and the St Andrews Agreement in 2006, the city's economy has seen some resurgence once again.
Watching and playing sports is an important part of culture in Belfast, Northern Ireland where almost six out of ten (59%) of the adult population regularly participate in one or more sports. Belfast has several notable sports teams playing a diverse variety of sports including football, rugby, traditional Irish Gaelic games, and North American sports such as American football and ice hockey (at the SSE Arena where the multiple time Elite Ice Hockey League champion Belfast Giants are based. The Belfast Marathon is run annually on May Day, and attracted 14,300 participants in 2007. Cycling, triathlon and athletics are also popular as both participation and spectator sports, with the first two stages of the 2014 Giro d'Italia starting from Belfast City Centre, and the annual high profile Belfast International Cross Country event being held in the grounds of Stormont Castle every year until 2009. The Stormont Estate is also one of the four home grounds for the Ireland cricket team, alongside Bready, Malahide and Clontarf, and also hosts the Northern Cricket Union provincial teams.
Catalyst, formerly known as the Northern Ireland Science Park, was established in March 1999 to create a self-sustaining, internationally recognised, knowledge-based science park in Northern Ireland offering a commercial and research driven centre for knowledge-based industries. The park is headquartered in the Titanic Quarter, Queen's Island, Belfast, and hosts a range of international and local technology related companies. It currently has seven buildings in operation offering 210,000 square feet (20,000 m2) of workspace Belfast's Titanic Quarter. 2700 engineers, researchers, entrepreneurs and executives work across the four Catalyst sites in Belfast, Derry and Ballymena.
The Dundonald International Ice Bowl is an ice rink in Dundonald, County Down, Northern Ireland. It was opened in 1986 by Peter Robinson.
TitanicBelfast is a visitor attraction opened in 2012, a monument to Belfast's maritime heritage on the site of the former Harland & Wolff shipyard in the city's Titanic Quarter where the RMS Titanic was built. It tells the stories of the Titanic, which hit an iceberg and sank during her maiden voyage in 1912, and her sister ships RMS Olympic and HMHS Britannic. The building contains more than 12,000 square metres (130,000 sq ft) of floor space, most of which is occupied by a series of galleries, private function rooms and community facilities.
Events during the year 2012 in Northern Ireland.
Resorts World Birmingham is an entertainment complex in Solihull, near Birmingham England. It has the largest casino in the United Kingdom, shopping mall, restaurants and cinemas. Construction began in February 2013 and finished in autumn 2015. The Casino is owned by Genting.
