8 Guide to Belfast. 



running underground — ■ Bel or Beul Fearsat being the 

 early name of the place. In 1177 John de Courci, an 

 Anglo-Norman knight, held possession of the counties of 

 Antrim and Down, and of what was the first Castle of 

 Belfast of which there is any mention, and which he 

 probably erected on an ancient site commanding the ford. 



King John (12 10) passed through Belfast on his way to 

 Carrickfergus. It is impossible to trace the history of the 

 place as a town till the reign of Edward II., at which period 

 the Irish, galled by the oppression of the English, invited the 

 Scots, under Edward Bruce (1316), brother of the Scottish 

 king, to invade Ireland and expel the English. He hoped 

 to found an independent monarchy by uniting all the Irish 

 septs. Landing at Olderfleet, near Larne, with 6,000 men, 

 and having been joined by the Irish chiefs, Bruce "fell with 

 the fury of a devouring tempest upon the English settle- 

 ments," and the town and castle of Belfast were destroyed. 

 He was defeated and slain in a conflict near Dundalk by 

 the English later on. Could he have realized his ambition, 

 the later history of Ireland might have been very different. 



The distraction consequent upon his defeat, and the 

 subsequent murder of William de Burgo, Earl of Ulster, in 

 1333, by his own kinsman, at the Ford or Fearsat, did much 

 to lessen the power of the Anglo-Normans; the Irish clans 

 rose in arms, and, with the exception of the stout fortress 

 of Carrickfergus, this portion of Ulster remained for a long 

 period in the hands of the Irish. 



In 1503 Gerald, Earl of Kildare, Lord-Deputy of Ireland, 

 made an expedition into Ulster and destroyed the Castle of 

 Belfast. Kildare made a second excursion into the north 

 and again destroyed the castle, which had in the meantime 

 been fully erected and re-occupied by the O'Neill. The 

 castle seems to have been the scene of many a sanguinary 

 encounter, being taken and retaken several times during 

 this troublesome period. 



The entire district was granted to the Earl of Essex, who 

 was appointed Lord-Governor of the Province of Ulster by 

 Queen Elizabeth in 1573. His chief camping-ground was 

 at Belfast, which he proposed to make a fortified town and 

 build a bridge over the river — schemes of which proved 



