Belfast, Bristol and Dublin

Abstract

In his reminiscences of Belfast at the turn of the century the Irish labour leader Thomas Johnson was critical of many things but admitted, with a certain pride that

Belfast was prosperingin the first decade of the century, and if wages were relatively low there was little unemployment. The city was growing and new areas were being developed on the traditional lines of long monotonously similar kitchen-and-parlour houses.¹

The city in which Johnson lived and worked was the creation of the Victorian era. In 1815 the town was a port and commercial centre with a small but prosperous cotton industry and a population of about 20 000. By the census of 1841 flax spinning had become a major industry and workers in the new mills boosted population to 70 747. By 1861 the adoption of machine weaving increased the demand for labour and 121 602 were resident in the city. The disruption of cotton supplies caused by the American Civil War created a boom in the Belfast linen industry and population reached 174 412 by 1871. By 1901 with the linen, shipbuilding and engineering trades expanding Belfast’s population reached 386 974.²