COPELAND ISLANDS, a cluster of three islands, situated at the south entrance of Belfast Lough, and in that part of the parish of BANGOR which is in the barony of ARDES, county of DOWN, and province of ULSTER, called respectively Copeland, Lighthouse, and Mew islands. BANGOR, a sea-port, incorporated market and post-town, and a parish, partly in the barony of LOWER CASTLEREAGH, but chiefly in that of ARDES, county of DOWN, and province of ULSTER, 11½ miles (N. E. by E.) from Belfast, 21 miles (N.) from Downpatrick, and 91½ miles (N. by E.) from Dublin.

The origin and early history of this ancient town BANGOR are involved in some obscurity, and have been variously described by different writers. The most authentic records concur in stating that, about the yeare 555, St. Comgall founded here an abbey of Regular Canons, which may have led to the formation of a town, if one did not exist previously, and over which he presided fifty years, and died and was enshrined in it. Some time subsequently to the foundation of the abbey, a school was established here under the personal direction of St. Carthagus, which in progress of time became one of the most eminent seminaries in Europe, and was resorted to by numbers of young persons of distinction from various parts; and, according to some writers, when Alfred founded or restored the university of Oxford, he sent to the great school at Bangor for professors. The actual rule of Comgall as practiced in Bangor is thought to be reflected in the Regula coenobialis of St. Columban written at Luxueil. In 575 Columba revisted Ireland of the Hy-Niall with King Aidan of Dalriada to hold a national convention at Drumceatt (Mullagh) near Londonderry attributed separately from the Tara kings.

In 613 the town was destroyed by fire, and in 674 the abbey was burnt. In the beginning of the ninth century they suffered severely from the predatory incursions of the Danes, in one of which, about the yeare 818, these merciless marauders massacred the abbot and about 900 monks. In 1125 it was rebuilt by Malachy O'Morgaur, then abbot, with the addition of an oratory of stone, said by St. Bernard to have been the first building of stone and lime in Ireland; and from which this place, anciently called the "Vale of Angels,” derived the name of ‘Beanchoir,’ now Bangor, signifying the ‘White Church’ or “Fair Choir." Malachy was soon afterwards appointed to the see of Connor, and held with it the abbacy of Bangor till his preferment to the Archbishoprick of Armagh. The abbey continued to flourish and was endowed with extensive possessions, which after the conquest were considerably augmented by the kings of England : amongst its lands was a townland in the Isle of Man, called Clenanoy, which the abbot held on the singular condition of attending the king of that island at certain times.

They derived their common name from the family of the Copelands, who settled here in the time of John de Courcey, in the 12th century, and of whose descendants, some are still to be found in the tract called Ballycopeland, on the mainland. Copeland island, the largest of the three, called also Big island and Neddrum, is 2 miles (N.N.E) from Donaghadee, and about one mile from the mainland; it comprises about 200 acres, and contains 15 houses; near a small inlet, called Chapel bay, are the ruins of a church, with a burial ground. About halfway between this island and the mainland is a rock, called the Deputy, on which a buoy is placed; and at the west end of the island is the Katikern rock, always above water, from which run two ledges about a cable's length, and on which a stone beacon has been erected. There is good anchorage on the west side of the island, and in Chapel bay on the south of Katikern, in from two to three fathoms of water, in all winds but those from the south-east.

Lighthouse, or, as it is also called, Cross island, is about 1 mile (N. E) from Copeland island, and is one furlong in length and about half a furlong in breadth, comprising about 24 acres. The Lighthouse from which it takes its name is a square tower, 70 feet high to the lantern, which displays a light to the south-east, to guide vessels from the north and south rocks, which are 34 leagues distant, and to the north-west, to guard them from the Hulin or Maiden rocks lying between the mouths of Larne and Glenarm. BANGOR is advantageously situated on the south side of Belfast Lough or Carrickfergus bay, and on the direct sea coast road from Belfast to Donaghadee; in 1831 it contained 563 houses, most of which are indifferently built, and is much frequented for sea-bathing during the summer.

In 1469. the buildings of BANGOR having fallen into decay through the abbot's neglect, Pope Paul II. transferred the possession of the abbey from the Regular Canons to the Franciscans, who continued to hold it till the dissolution. After that period, a great part of its lands was either granted to or seized by the O'Nials, who kept possession till the rebellion of Con O'Nial in the reign of Elizabeth, when it was forfeited to the Crown. Jas. I., on his accession to the throne, found the northern part of Ireland in a deplorable condition, and almost depopulated; and in the third yeare of his reign, resolving to plant English and Scottish colonies in Ulster, granted the site of the abbey, with all its former possessions in this county, to Sir James Hamilton, afterwards created Viscount Claneboye, who brought over a large number of Scots from Dunlop in Ayrshire, accompanied by their own minister, Robert Blair, who, although a Presbyterian, was presented to the church living of Bangor, and ordained in 1623 according to the Presbyterian form, the Bishop of Down officiating as a presbyter : he was afterwards appointed Scottish chaplain to Chas. I. From him were descended Robert Blair, of Athelstoneford, author of a poem called "The Grave.” and the celebrated Hugh Blair, D.D., of Edinburgh the former his grandson and the latter his great-grand-son. From Sir J. Hamilton are descended, either lineally or collaterally, the families of Bangor, Dufferin, Killileigh: and some others of principal note in Ulster. 1689, the advanced army of Wm. III. arrived here in seventy sail of transports under the command of Duke Schomberg, and disembarked at Groomsport, a fishing village about a mile from the town, where they encamped for the night; being well received and finding plenty of provisions, the transports, which had been furnished with supplies, sailed back to Chester for a reinforcement of troops.

Mew island is a quarter of a furlong (E) from Lighthouse island and comprises about 10 acres of rocky pasture; it lies very low, and is extremely dangerous to mariners; in the sound between it and Copeland island is a flat rock with only three feet of water on it, called the Pladdens and a rapid tide sets through the sound. Off this island the Enterprise, of Liverpool, a homeward-bound vessel from the coast of Guinea, was totally wrecked in 1801.