Boundary Post near Shaws Bridge, Belfast

A cast iron boundary marker dated 1918, standing in its original location on the west bank of the River Lagan about 50 metres north of Shaw's Bridge in Belfast. The post marks the outer extent of the administrative jurisdiction of Belfast Corporation (as Belfast City Council was then known) and of a District Electoral Division and Ward within it, likely both formerly Cromac.

The post is of slightly tapered cylindrical profile, measuring 3 feet high by 1 foot in diameter. It features a banded octagonal base with an oversailing octagonal collar supported on a splayed dentil casting and a slightly smaller spoked cap. The front bears the shield of Belfast Corporation's coat of arms and the lettering "LIAMENTA BOUNDARY OF BOROUGH", with evidence of further lettering below that has been removed, presumably when the usual affixed plaque detailing the Parliamentary Division and Ward was taken off.

The post was probably placed here in 1918 following the passing of the Representation of the People Act in that year, though it first appears on Ordnance Survey maps of 1920. The loss of the bolted-on constituency plaque has revealed an original legend, part of which was deliberately ground away, suggesting this may be a pre-1918 post relocated from elsewhere. The 1894 and 1901 Ordnance Survey maps both mark a boundary post on the nearby original Shaw's Bridge. The design of all Belfast's existing posts is very similar to a post dated 1858 which survives on the west side of High Street, Holywood, County Down, indicating continuity in local design and the reuse of earlier posts.

The post is of historic importance as a remnant from the 1918 General Election of 14 December—held just over a month after the end of the First World War—when, for the first time, all men over 21 years of age and all women over 30 could vote. It marks the short-lived period in the province's political development up to the formation of Northern Ireland and the Stormont administration in 1922. It is relatively rare, as many such posts have succumbed to road widening and removal. It has group value with three other similar boundary posts along the Lagan.