Distributed for University College Dublin Press
In Belfast by the Sea
"In Belfast by the Sea" originally appeared as a series of 61 articles in the "Belfast Telegraph", 1923-4. They comprise Moore’s recollections of Victorian Belfast and Bangor between his childhood in the 1860s and his departure for London in 1892. Highpoints are a tour of the city centre in which he recollects the shops and public buildings as they were in his youth, his reminiscences of his education at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, and his description of the city’s musical and theatrical life. His descriptions of the development of the city’s water and transport networks include an account of the first public appearance of the Dunlop inflatable tyre and travelling conditions on the early railway services.
Table of Contents
Introduction by Patrick Maume. I In Old Belfast II The Clan MacMahon III Mainly About Bangor That Was IV Pews and their Occupants More than Forty years Ago V Omitted VI Great Organist at Bangor Castle VII Kindly Curate and the ’Divil’ VIII Royal Ulster Club’s Origin IX Hesperus Becalmed off Black Head X-XI Omitted XII Wreck as Fishing Rendezvous XIII From Garmoyle to South Atlantic XIV Boats with Electric Names XV Custom House Steps Reached XVI Custom House Steps Recollections XVII Purchase of Ormeau - A Piano Story XVIII The Petrified Eaves on Quayside XIX Alabama’s Hurried Flight Spoils a Projected ’Raid’ XX One-Time Picturesque Blackstaff XXI How Solicitor Fooled the Court XXII American Civil War and Linen Boom XXIII Greatest ’Fry’ City Ever Had XXIV When World First Saw Dunlop Tyres XXV Irish Jaunting Car’s Merits XXVI Pony-Drawn Cromac Water-Cart XXVII Recollections of St George’s XXVIII Ulster Coat’s Origin XXIX The Royal Ulster Works XXX Beggared by Kindness XXXI Belfast’s Main Artery, or Rise of Royal Avenue XXXII In the Heart of Belfast XXXIII Doubles of Royalty XXXIV Unrecognised Festivals XXXV Belfast and Darwinism XXXVI Famous Belfast Firms XXXVII Great Irish Artist XXXVIII Wielding the Long Bow XXXIX Dead Man Who Groaned XL Presbyterian Champions XLI Oysters and Singing XLII Belfast and Jenny Lind XLIII Duval the Versatile XLIV Song that Saved ’Dorothy’ XLV Barton M’Guckin’s Nose XLVI Irving and Belfast XLVII Belfast Musical Memories XLVIII Philharmonic Jubilee XLIX Belfast Music Stories L Nightingales’ Discord LI Belfast Hotel Problem LII Newspapers of Belfast LIII Two Remarkable Careers Start in Donegall Street LIV Belfastman on Woolsack LV The Days of My Youth LVI 50 Years Ago at ’Inst’ LVII Father of Lady Pirrie. LVIII Boys of the Old Brigade LIX ’Murdering’ Cleopatra and Wrecking her Barge LX On the Stage and Off LXI The Stage in Belfast Notes.