A new history of Belfast (due in April 2009)
W.A. MaguireTwo hundred years ago Belfast was a market town and port of just 20,000 people. During the nineteenth century it became a great manufacturing city and a major port, with the largest linen industry, shipyard, ropeworks and tobacco factory in the world.
Belfast's industrial and economic growth had been spectacular, although not so different to that of many other British cities of the time. Glasgow and Liverpool both shared characteristics with Victorian Belfast in many ways ... not only in terms of maritime-related urban growth, but also in religious division and tension.
William A. Maguire charts a thousand years of Belfast's history, from the first establishment of a Norman castle at the mouth of the Lagan in the middle ages right through to the power-sharing deal which at the beginning of the present century promises a long-awaited resolution between the main political and religious communities in the city.
The text is complemented by many important illustrations, maps and photographs.