Famous People Born In Belfast

Northern Irish actor, director, and producer, Kenneth Branagh, is a respected figure in Hollywood. Beginning his career as a theater artist in Northern Ireland, he eventually moved to films. He is famous for starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays. He has been nominated for the Academy Awards five times.

Alex Higgins was a Northern Irish snooker player. Renowned for his fast play, which earned him the nickname Hurricane Higgins, Alex was one of the most iconic snooker players of his generation. Thanks to his popularity, he was also called the People's Champion and is credited with popularizing the game of snooker.

Best known for his long stints as a presenter of shows such as GMTV, This Morning, and Sky News Sunrise, Irish journalist Eamonn Holmes has also campaigned for animal welfare and Alzheimer’s awareness. He has also appeared on Celebrity Big Brother and hosted game shows such as The Rich List.

Military surgeon James Miranda Steuart Barry is most noted for making medical reforms and performing one of the first known successful Caesarean sections in Africa. Although during adulthood Barry lived as a man, at birth Barry was named Margaret Ann Bulkley and was known as a girl-child. Barry's birth sex became public after a post-mortem examination.     

Carl Frampton is a British former professional boxer who won the silver medal at the Men's 2007 European Union Amateur Boxing Championships where he represented Ireland. He held the IBF super-bantamweight and WBA (Unified) titles between 2014 and 2016. From 2016 to 2017, he held the WBA (Super) featherweight title.

Known as one of the greatest musicians from the British Isles, Irish singer Gary Moore rocked the music scene since the 1960s. Known as part of rock bands such as Skid Row and Thin Lizzy, he gained fame as a fine guitarist who experimented with blues, rock, heavy metal, and jazz.

Martin Donnelly is a motor racing driver best known for competing in popular races, including the Formula 3000 International Championship and Formula Three. He also competed in Formula One before a serious crash ended his F1 career. Since then, Martin Donnelly has been an important driving coach and works with Lotus Cars.

Ciarán Hinds is an Irish actor who is popular for playing villainous roles, Ciarán Hinds has contributed immensely across all three major acting mediums: films, television and theatre. In 2020, Ciarán Hinds was ranked 31st on The Irish Times newspaper's Ireland's greatest film actors list.

The brutal atrocities of the British forces in Northern Ireland made revolutionary Mairéad Farrell join the IRA. She was later imprisoned for attempting to bomb a Belfast hotel and then spearheaded a prisoners’ movement. She was later shot dead by the British Army for planning a bomb attack in Gibraltar.

Mairead Maguire is a peace activist from Northern Ireland. Along with Betty Williams and Ciaran McKeown, she co-founded the Women for Peace (now known as Community for Peace People). Maguire and Williams received the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize. More recently, she was involved in discussions around the Rohingya crisis. She has also called for the abolition of all armies.

Augustus Andrew Spence was a British militant who led the famous paramilitary group, Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). A senior figure in the paramilitary group for over a decade, Spence was one of its first members to be convicted of homicide. Augustus Andrew Spence renounced violence while in prison and helped convince numerous inmates to take up a more political approach.