It is possible that the persistence of the two popular versions of how the community got its name is a function of ethnic antagonism. The Scottish settlers of Belfast may have been reluctant to admit that their community could possibly be named for an Irish city. This reluctance would have been particularly evident after antagonisms erupted in the violence of the 1847 “Belfast Riot.”

The Belfast Riot

After almost a century and a half, the “Belfast Riot” is still a part of the folkloric history of the community. The exact reason for the violence, which took the lives of at least four people, is not known. Certainly, a number of factors contributed to the outbreak: it was an election day, March 1, 1847, and then, as now, emotions ran high on election days. This would have been even more the case in the Belfast incident because it was a by-election, necessitated after voting irregularities in the 1846 General Election prompted the Legislative Assembly to declare results in the Belfast district void; and because it pitted reformer against tory, tenant against landlord, and Catholic against Protestant in a battle for voter support.‘

Any one of these factors alone could have incited the riot. The combination of several factors, along with the possibility that there was “too much rum,” as one latter—day observer put it, proved to be an unfortunate confluence of circumstance.2

Whatever its cause, the Belfast Riot has come to symbolize sectarian conflict in the community. The incident was an isolated event and there is no further evidence of ethnic or religious violence within the district. But despite the fact that the Riot has been immortalized in song and poetry, there appears to be a long-standing, yet unstated agreement, that the subject not be raised in polite conversation between the Scots and the Irish. This deferential memory of the Riot not only indicates peoples’ eagerness to defuse a potentially explosive issue, but it also points to the important role which religion continues to play in the community.

1. For more information on this interesting event in the Island’s political history, see H.T. Holman, “The Belfast Riot,” The Island Magazine, Number 14, Fall-Winter 1983, p.3.

2. See Edward Gillis, chapter 13.

4 BELFAST PEOPLE