There is a good amount of confusion about this song. A 5:59 'instrumental' demo featuring samples from what appears to be Montgomery Clift reading Tennessee Williams' play "The Glass Menagerie" leaked on the internet in 2008. Its source was a record company in-house cd-r. The song has been mentioned as a studio outtake from the "Southpaw Grammar" recording sessions since 1995. It is even assumed by certain people to have been a blueprint for "The Teachers Are Afraid Of The Pupils" (guitarist Boz Boorer did experiment musically at the time) although there is no concrete evidence to that effect.

In the liner notes inside the 2009 redesigned edition of the "Maladjusted" album, Morrissey hints that "Belfast" was the working title to the 1997 song "This Is Not Your Country", which is an Alain Whyte composition. However, there are no similarities between the latter number and what is circulated under the title "Belfast".

So, assuming that there is no musical revisionism on Morrissey's part and that his memory is flawless, one of two things can be speculated. The record label in-house cd-r from which the leaked song was lifted may have been mislabeled (this would not be the first time), or perhaps the title "Belfast" was recycled for a second song after the first one was shelved (this has happened many times for lyrics).

This song was never released in a studio form.

This song has never been performed specifically for radio or television.

This song has never been done live, either by the Smiths or Morrissey.

This 5:59 'instrumental' demo with vocal samples leaked on the internet in 2008 and is now widely circulated on bootlegs.