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 1890s Clear ×
C. S. Lewis
1898 - 1963
Moyna Macgill
1895 - 1975
Warren Lewis
1895 - 1973
Austin Trevor
1897 - 1978
Elisha Scott
1894 - 1959
Gerald Bartley
1898 - 1974
Séamus Robinson (Irish republican)
1890 - 1961
Ernie Crawford
1891 - 1959
Maude Clarke
1892 - 1935
Harold Goldblatt
1899 - 1982
Bert Manderson
1893 - 1946
E.M.O'R. Dickey
1894 - 1977
Harry Rosenthal
1893 - 1953
Eva McKee
1890 - 1955
Alan McKibbin
1892 - 1958
Sam Irving
1893 - 1968
Andy Kennedy (footballer, born 1897)
1897 - 1963
Victor Huston
1890 - 1941
Wilfrid Patterson
1893 - 1954
Walter Tyrrell
1898 - 1918
Billy McCandless
1894 - 1955
David Rollo (footballer)
1891 - 1963
James Robinson (footballer, born 1899)
Born 1898
Edmund Thompson
1898 - 1961
Jack Doran
1896 - 1940
Maynard Sinclair
1896 - 1953
Jimmy Ferris
1894 - 1932
David Lyner
1893 - 1973
Bob Crawford (athlete)
1899 - 1970
Patrick Farrell (fencer)
1892 - 1969
Henry Chambers (Indian Army officer)
1897 - 1967
Alfred Mills
Born 1899
Allan Mathieson
Born 1897
Daniel McKinney
1898 - 1956
Thomas Shaw (World War I veteran)
1899 - 2002
John Lyle Robinson
1890 - 1953
George Reid (footballer)
1896 - 1967
Harold Kinahan
1893 - 1980
W. H. Conn
1895 - 1973
Robert McLaughlin (RAF officer)
Born 1896
Jack Curran (footballer)
1898 - 1932
Oliver George Hutchinson
1891 - 1944
William Johnston
1894 - 1946