Portal:Northern Ireland/Selected article
Selected article 1
Portal:Northern Ireland/Selected article/1
RMS Titanic was a British ocean liner that sank on 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, approximately 1,500 died (figures vary), making the incident one of the deadliest peacetime sinkings of a single ship. Titanic, operated by the White Star Line, carried some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as hundreds of emigrants from the British Isles, Scandinavia, and elsewhere in Europe who were seeking a new life in the United States and Canada. The disaster drew public attention, spurred major changes in maritime safety regulations, and inspired a lasting legacy in popular culture.
RMS Titanic was the largest ship afloat upon entering service and the second of three Olympic-class ocean liners built for the White Star Line. The ship was built by the Harland and Wolff shipbuilding company in Belfast. Thomas Andrews Jr., the chief naval architect of the shipyard, died in the disaster. Titanic was under the command of Captain Edward John Smith, who went down with the ship.
The first-class accommodation was designed to be the pinnacle of comfort and luxury. It included a gymnasium, swimming pool, smoking rooms, fine restaurants and cafes, a Victorian-style Turkish bath, and hundreds of opulent cabins. A high-powered radiotelegraph transmitter was available to send passenger "marconigrams" and for the ship's operational use. Titanic had advanced safety features, such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, which contributed to the ship's reputation as "unsinkable". (Full article...) Read more ...
Selected article 2
Portal:Northern Ireland/Selected article/2
Sir George Ivan Morrison OBE (born 31 August 1945) is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician whose recording career started in the 1960s.
Morrison's albums have performed well in the UK and Ireland, with more than 40 reaching the UK top 40, as well as internationally, including in Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. He has scored top ten albums in the UK in four consecutive decades, following the success of 2021's Latest Record Project, Volume 1. Eighteen of his albums have reached the top 40 in the United States, twelve of them between 1997 and 2017. Since turning 70 in 2015, he has released – on average – more than an album a year. His accolades, include two Grammy Awards, the 1994 Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, the 2017 Americana Music Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting and he has been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2016 he was knighted for services to the music industry and to tourism in Northern Ireland.
Morrison began performing as a teenager in the late 1950s, playing a variety of instruments including guitar, harmonica, keyboards and saxophone for various Irish showbands, covering the popular hits of that time. Known as "Van the Man" to his fans, Morrison rose to prominence in the mid-1960s as the lead singer of the Belfast R&B band Them, with whom he wrote and recorded "Gloria", which became a garage band staple. His solo career started under the pop-hit-oriented guidance of Bert Berns with the release of the hit single "Brown Eyed Girl" in 1967. (Full article...) Read more ...
Selected article 3
Portal:Northern Ireland/Selected article/3
The Giant's Causeway (Irish: Clochán an Aifir) is an area of approximately 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption. It is located in County Antrim on the north coast of Northern Ireland, about three miles (4.8 km) northeast of the town of Bushmills.
It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986 and a national nature reserve by the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland in 1987. In a 2005 poll of Radio Times readers, the Giant's Causeway was named the fourth-greatest natural wonder in the United Kingdom.
The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. Most of the columns are hexagonal, although some have four, five, seven, or eight sides. The tallest are approximately 12 metres (39 ft) high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 28 metres (92 ft) thick in places. (Full article...) Read more ...
Selected article 4
Portal:Northern Ireland/Selected article/4
HM Prison Maze is better known as The H Blocks, Long Kesh or The Maze. It is a disused prison sited at the former RAF station at Long Kesh near Lisburn, nine miles outside Belfast, in Northern Ireland. The name "Maze" is taken from the village of the same name near the prison. The prison was closed in 2000.