54.5964° N, 5.9301° W
BELFAST
Most Famous People Born in Belfast, United Kingdom
- Notable people
- 1,393
- Peak decade
- 1950s
- Median birth year
- 1949
- Most distinctive
- Loyalist 272.1×
A divided city whose most distinctive profession in the entire dataset, at more than two hundred times the global rate, is loyalist — paired with republican at more than thirty, the statistical footprint of the Troubles. Belfast's other distinctive shelves are boxers, rugby players (grouped as 'player'), footballers, and cricketers at concentrations that outpace every other city on the island. Van Morrison, George Best, Kenneth Branagh, and C.S. Lewis all grew up within walking distance of the Lagan, and the 19th-century shipbuilding establishment that built the Titanic anchors the older half of the bench.
One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Belfast during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1950s with 179 notable births.
What Belfast Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Football is Belfast's biggest profession — 23% of all notables (321).
Belfast over-indexes on loyalist — 272.1× the global rate.
Belfast under-produces painter — only 0.5× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Belfast's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Sports
- Politics & Law
- Film & TV
- Writing
- Science
- Music
- Other
- Filtered to 1870s Clear ×
James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon
1871 - 1940
Paul Henry (painter)
1876 - 1958
Forrest Reid
1875 - 1947
Robert Wilson Lynd
1879 - 1949
Alfred Robb
1873 - 1936
John Stanley Gardiner
1872 - 1946
Frederick C. Alderdice
1872 - 1936
Joseph Devlin
1871 - 1934
Frederick Maze
1871 - 1959
Tommy Morrison (footballer, born 1874)
1874 - 1940
James Cousins
1873 - 1956
Joseph Campbell (poet)
1879 - 1944
J. B. Fagan
1873 - 1933
Tom McGown
1876 - 1956
Charles Macleod-Robertson
1870 - 1951
Pat Reilly
1873 - 1937
Thomas Moles
1871 - 1937
Dawson Bates
1876 - 1949
Elizabeth Shane
1877 - 1951
Thomas Loftus Cole
1877 - 1961
Thomas Joseph Campbell
1871 - 1946
John Hind (bishop in Fukien)
1879 - 1958
Henry Dunlop
1876 - 1931
Bob Crone
1870 - 1943
Samuel Smiles (Chemiker)
1877 - 1953
John Donovan (Irish politician)
1878 - 1922
John Crozier (bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry)
1879 - 1966
Gideon Baird
1877 - 1897
Henry MacCormac (dermatologist)
1879 - 1950
James Hanna McCormick
1875 - 1955
James Lytle
1875 - 1928
Charles Barry (écrivain)
1877 - 1963
Alec McCartney
1879 - 1968
Jack Morrow
1872 - 1926
Thomas Cahey
1870 - 1935
Jack Taggart
1872 - 1927
Ezekiel Johnston
1871 - 1942
Bill Purves
1870 - 1900
Charles Creighton (referee)
1876 - 1949