Portrait of an industrial city

"Hammer's clanging" was the sound that the great ninetheenth century novelist Wililam Makepeace Thackeray associated with Belfast when he visited in 1842. Eventually Belfast outstripped Dublin as the largest city on the island of Ireland, and ranked third in the British empire, while still echoing to the sound of those clanging hammers. Industry lay at the heart of the city's manufacturing prowess with shipyards, textile mills and other industrial ventures. The constant movement of workers and goods, the smells and sounds of constant industrial activity, and the distinctive clang of metal on metal dominated the city's daily life. Throughout the book the use of primary sources documents and illuminates the story of Belfast.