Belfast is not an ancient city. We cannot, as in the case of many a town in Great Britain, go back to the early centuries and discover in a Roman fortification a military origin, nor can we go to mediaeval times and find in a church or monastery an ecclesiastical beginning. Of Ireland it can be said that no Caesar with his Roman legions came, saw and conquered. Although Agricola in the first century of this era came as far as Stranraer, and saw with longing eyes, he returned without having crossed to Belfast Lough to conquer as he had intended.
But, although Belfast is a place of modern growth, it is somewhat difiicult to fix upon a point at which to commence the story of its rise and development. Towns and cities in the same country, although standardized in their form of government and their municipal institutions and presenting outwardly many common features, vary considerably in character. This is evident when the surface is penetrated slightly and a comparison made, for instance, between Belfast and Dublin or Liverpool and Glasgow.