County Antrim is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 3,086 square kilometres (1,192 sq mi) and has a population of 651,321, as of the 2021 census. County Antrim has a population density of 203 people per square kilometre or 526 people per square mile. It is also one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland, as well as part of the historic province of Ulster.
Carrickfergus is a large town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It sits on the north shore of Belfast Lough, 11 miles (18 km) from Belfast. The town had a population of 28,141 at the 2021 Census. It is County Antrim's oldest town and one of the oldest towns in Ireland as a whole. Carrickfergus Castle, built in the late 12th century at the behest of Anglo-Norman knight John de Courcy, was the capital of the Earldom of Ulster. After the earldom's collapse, it remained the only English outpost in Ulster for the next four centuries. Carrickfergus was the administrative centre for Carrickfergus Borough Council, before this was amalgamated into the Mid and East Antrim District Council in 2015, and forms part of the Belfast Metropolitan Area. It is also a townland of 65 acres, a civil parish and a barony.
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.
David Holmes is a Northern Irish musician and composer. He worked as a DJ before releasing several solo albums that have incorporated elements of trip hop, big beat, electronic and rock. In the late 1990s, he also began composing film scores, establishing a long-standing collaboration with director Steven Soderbergh that includes Out of Sight (1998) and the Ocean's trilogy.
Rachael Maureen Lampa is an American contemporary Christian singer, songwriter and record producer. At age 15, she rose to fame and critical acclaim in 2000 with the release of her debut album, Live for You.
Cormac McAnallen was an Irish Gaelic footballer who played for the Eglish St Patrick's club and the Tyrone county team.
Brian Edward Patrick Kennedy is an Irish singer. He scored a number of hit singles and albums in the UK and Ireland during the 1990s and 2000s. He represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 and finished in 10th place. Brian is the younger brother of the late musician Bap Kennedy.
Q Radio is a Northern Irish radio station. It broadcasts to Greater Belfast on 96.7 MHz FM and on DAB Digital Radio across all of Northern Ireland. From 5 April 2007, Citybeat became available on 102.5FM for North Belfast, Newtownabbey and Carrickfergus. On 2 November 2007, Citybeat launched a third FM transmitter also broadcasting on 102.5FM for Bangor. Citybeat reaches a weekly audience of 127,000 listeners in Belfast, around 22% of the adult population. It has won both Arqiva 'Station of the Year' and Sony Awards. The station was rebranded as Q Radio on-air at 6pm on Sunday 9 August 2015.
Castle FM is a currently inactive short-term radio station based in Carrickfergus, County Antrim
Portugal. The Man is an American rock band from Wasilla, Alaska, currently based in Portland, Oregon. The group consists of John Baldwin Gourley, Zach Carothers, Kyle O'Quin, Jason Sechrist, Eric Howk and Zoe Manville. Gourley and Carothers met and began playing music together in 2001 at Wasilla High School.
The Ulster Chess Championship is an annual chess tournament organised by the Ulster Chess Union which has been held since 1892. It is currently open to all players who qualify as having been born in any of the 9 counties of Ulster. Nearly all Championships since 1982 have been played in Belfast. Among the winners in recent years have been two players, both also Irish Champions, who now have the title of International Master (IM), Mark Orr and Brian Kelly (1994/95). Recent winners are Michael Waters Stephen Scannell Eugene O'Hare Adrian Gillen Tom Clarke, Michael Holmes (twice), Stephen Gillen (twice) and David Houston. Some winners have represented Ireland at chess Olympiads and European Team Chess Championship.
Belfast Harlequins is a multi-sports club located off the Malone Road in south Belfast, Northern Ireland. The club name provides the overall umbrella for rugby union, men's and ladies' hockey, and squash. The club is associated on and off the field with Methodist College Belfast (MCB).
The Lyric Theatre, or simply The Lyric, is the principal, full-time producing theatre in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Conleth Seamus Eoin Croiston Hill is a Northern Irish actor. He has performed on stage in productions in the UK, Ireland, Canada and the US. He has won two Laurence Olivier Awards and received two Tony Award nominations. He is best known for his role as Varys in the HBO series Game of Thrones (2011–2019).
Zoe Salmon is a Northern Irish television presenter who hosted the children's television programme Blue Peter from 23 December 2004 to 25 June 2008. She also appeared on Dancing on Ice in early 2009. She was the 1999 Miss Northern Ireland.
Keith Law self-describes as an actor, director, and musician, best known for some success as an actor in Just for Laughs, a BBC1/Paramount Comedy a 2008 BBC NI hidden camera show produced by Wild Rover Productions. He also served as a director for Just for Laughs.
Stuart Robinson is a Northern Ireland broadcaster with Cool FM, Downtown Radio and Downtown Country. He previously launched and became the longest running presenter to date on rival station Belfast CityBeat from 1996 before his defection in 2010. Robinson is the Content Director of Downtown Radio, Cool FM and Downtown Country; this gives him control over the largest radio audience in Northern Ireland.
Carrickfergus FM is a Restricted Service Licence community radio station which broadcasts bi-annually in the town of Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland during the Christmas and Summer periods. The station was launched in June 2005, and was set up by a committee of local traders and two commercial radio presenters who had many years experience in running and operating RSL's.
This is a timeline of the development of radio in Northern Ireland.