Belfast (Irish: Béal Feirste, meaning "the mouth of the river Feirste") is the second city of Ireland after Dublin, the capital. Situated at the mouth of the River Lagan on Belfast Lough, Belfast is surrounded by low hills and has a population of 267,500, however this figure refers only to the Belfast City Council area whose borders date back to the 1950s, since then the city has expanded and the population of the Belfast Metropolitan Urban Area which incorporates the surrounding suburbs and towns is 483,418[3].