Word: belfasts
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...realm, and to be seen by it, Queen Elizabeth II last week paid her first queenly social call on Northern Ireland. In a green dress and tight-fitting hat, she drove into loyal Belfast (pop. 450,000) to show herself to the 1,370,000 Northern Irish...
That night, as Elizabeth slept, a band of Irish Republicans planted a gelignite bomb on the Dublin-Belfast railroad tracks, 40 miles south of Belfast. The explosion blew a five-foot hole in a small trestle bridge, but since the royal route lay northwards to the port of Londonderry, no direct harm was done. Some sufferers: 600 southern Irish who had served in the British forces in World War II and who were journeying to Belfast to salute the Queen. Their excursion train was delayed...
Next day 5,000 troops guarded the streets of Belfast as Her Majesty rode to the Hall of Parliament to hear an ancient and loyal address. As she walked in the sunny gardens of Queen's University, a second explosion came-this time in broad daylight at the city power station, about a mile away...
Deprived by the power blackout of the BBC's regular 1 o'clock news bulletin, Belfasters worried that the Irish republican army might be back on the warpath. Police shrugged off the explosion as an "accident," but privately they were not so sure. Hundreds of armed men mounted guard along the 90-mile railroad line from Belfast to Londonderry. Their vigilance did not relax until Queen Elizabeth and consort stepped safely aboard their Viking and winged back to London...
Brian Faginess, Home Minister for Northern Ireland, has come down hard on St. Paddy's men by signing an order banning all demonstrations in Belfast today. Remembering some slight disturbances last March, when a few of the boys worked over some shops and a police station, the Ulster government is wary of a new gathering. And perhaps they're right. It is a glorious sight when the lads of the Sinn Fein go swinging down the road, keeping time to the tap of their shillelaghs on the cobblestones; but feelings do run high...