Seeking the reality behind the headlines, Malcolm
Rogers visited Belfast and found a place of charms, great food and hospitality.
A handsome metropolis, Belfast sits on the edge of Belfast Lough, with
the huge volcanic outcrop of Cave Hill behind.
This huge rocky edifice — some 10 million years old — dominates the city
to the west, while the giant gantries of the shipyard dominate the skyline
to the east.
The Industrial Revolution turned Belfast into a mighty manufacturing
base. Although the Troubles have dominated the city, the recent relative
peace has resulted in a huge upsurge of restaurants, cafés and pubs. The
new Laganside centre boasts an array of concert venues, coffee shops, restaurants
and art galleries, with excellent views across the Lagan Weir and on to
‘Big Ian’, the main gantry of the famous shipyards.
Meanwhile ‘The Golden Mile’, stretching from the Crown Liquor Saloon
on Great Victoria Street to just beyond Donegall Square (whose name is the
result of a centuries-old spelling mistake) boasts every type of eatery
from Indian vegetarian delicatessans to up-market Tuscan brasseries.
There is lots to do in Belfast. Try visiting Odyssey’s W5 “interactive
and discovery centre”. W5 is the new £45 million science bit of the Odyssey
complex.
Experience the force of lift and drag in a wind tunnel, see how racing
cars are made or witness a fire tornado, plus loads of other technical,
virtual and electronic wizardry.
Being family-orientated, W5 has five different zones called Wow, Start,
Go, See and Do. The motto “Team W5 will bring you on their adventures to
the future!” should tell you what to expect.
Take a trip to the Ulster Museum, Botanic Gardens, Belfast BT9. This
superb museum has an entire gallery dedicated to Early Ireland, but also
boasts artefacts nicked from many other countries — an Egyptian mummy complete
with teeth, skin and hair, plus a ghostly grin is still one of the main
attractions.
Princess Takabuti she’s called, aka ‘Belfast’s Oldest Bleached Blonde’
because of her chemically-discoloured hair. Treasures from the Spanish Armada
fleet which foundered off the Antrim coast, plus Viking artefacts, as well
as exhibits from the North’s less than boring contemporary history are crammed
into this fine old building.
You’ll also get the lowdown on linen, rope and glass-manufacturing, industrial
machines and Irish painting. Open every day of the week, telephone 02890
383000 or 383001 or just log on to
www.ulstermuseum.org.uk.
While you’re in the area, you might as well schlep along to the Botanic
Gardens next door. Opened in 1827, this is something of a miniature Kew
Gardens.
The Tropical Ravine is home to a jungle of tropical plants and tiny terrapins,
while the 25 acres that surround it boast water lily ponds, rose walks,
gigantic fern trees and bananas in the hothouses.
While on the museum theme, try your very best to visit the Ulster Folk
and Transport museum, just south of the City Airport.
The road from Belfast to Bangor is just about the ugliest road in Ireland.
But here in a roll of hills in Cultra just above Belfast Lough is an evocative
slice of Old Ireland. Farmland is tilled and livestock reared using the
methods of a bygone age. Crofters’ cottages and small rural industries are
a feature of the landscape, all meticulously re-created from authentic Ulster
buildings.
The transport galleries probably hold the best keys to nostalgia. Trolley
buses from Belfast, commuter trains from the old York Street Station — in
the days before travellers were called commuters — compete for space with
penny farthing bicycles, bone-jarring 1950s motor-cycles, trams, buses,
fire-engines, aircraft and vintage cars.
The exhibition tells the whole story of the Titanic from her construction
and loss, to the discovery of her rusted hull on the Atlantic seabed in
1985.
Belfast has its own unmistakable collection of odours. Take the Linen
Hall Library, for instance, hard by the City Hall. The smell is a mixture
of leather, books, newsprint and wooden floors. Truly heady. Established
in 1788 “to improve the mind and excite a spirit of general inquiry”, it
is one of the most interesting libraries in these islands. Apart from housing
a valuable resource on the 1798 Rebellion, the Irish and local-studies collection
includes a copy of everything written about Northern Ireland politics since
1966 — 250,000 items in all, the definitive archive of the recent Troubles.
The Entries are a cluster of narrow alleyways or closes running off High
Street and Ann Street, and are about all that remain of Belfast’s oldest
quarter. Once home to thriving commercial and residential centres, now only
the pubs remain.
The Cathedral Quarter, surrounding the impressive St. Anne’s, has been
given a serious makeover and is now an impressive enclave of restaurants
and bars. You may prefer to admire the masonry which can boast natural stone
from each of Ireland’s 32 counties. There’s much more to admire in the cathedral,
tel 0 28 9032 8332.
Nearby is the former Belfast Bank building dating back to 1769, making
it the city’s oldest public building.
Once you’ve seen all these great sights, you’ll need a drink and a meal.
You’ll find traditional old backstreet pubs, cosy, dark places each with
a honeycomb of tiny rooms, as well as up-market continental-type bars, and
music houses catering for all tastes.
Ignore your cardiologist’s advice and dine at the Kitchen Bar in Belfast.
This splendid eatery run by Pat Catney and other members of the Catney clan
is one of the finest dining places. Part American diner, part Spanish tapas
bar, part Irish pub, the presence of the Ulster fry anchors it unmistakably
in Norn Iron. Specialities include Paddy’s pizza — a slab of soda bread
with a slice of boiled gammon, Coleraine cheddar and tomatoes topped with
eggs. And don’t miss the Irish stew with beef.
Have a Guinness and a meal in one of Ireland’s oldest pubs — Kelly’s
Cellars, Bank Street, just off Royal Avenue. With cellars dating from 1720
Kelly’s was a meeting place for the United Irishmen in the run-up to the
1798 rebellion. Henry Joy McCracken even hid under the counter here from
the British Army. The Guinness is great, the food good and there are traditional
sessions throughout the week. Tel 028 90 324835.
Crown your visit to Belfast with a night in the The Crown Liquor Saloon
in Great Victoria Street, Belfast, one of the great bars of the world. Originally
owned by Felix O’Hanlon, he sold it to Michael Flanagan whose son Patrick
brightened up the family bar and turned it into a gem of Victorian splendour.
Today it is still a vital part of Belfast’s everyday life. Sit back and
enjoy a pint of Guinness in one of the snugs, which bear a passing resemblance
to confessional boxes.
The McCausland Hotel consists of two old Victorian warehouses which have
been converted into a luxury hotel (£120-£170 a night) on the banks of the
Lagan. However don’t let the price of these luxury digs put you off. You
can buy breakfast here for £12 — and it’ll set you up for the day. The bistro
also offers set dinner — again in the ‘contemporary Irish’ cooking style
for around £20.
For a post-prandial stroll Laganside offers a rejuvenated, and generally
unexpected view of Belfast with its boutiques and bars.
Deane’s is a pricey restaurant upstairs, with a set menu beginning at
£55 — although the meals are suitably elaborate. Of course, you’re partly
paying for the style — ornate Hollywood staircase, balloon glasses and generally
brassy surroundings.
Downstairs in the Brasserie things are much simpler — and cheaper. The
style of the food would be described as ‘modern, contemporary’ — in other
words, if you like your vegetables cooked to a pulp and your pastie served
with chips, you won’t find much to your liking here.
A taxi ride with a difference
Terrible deeds have occurred in Belfast in recent decades.
But is it acceptable to visit these places as a tourist before memories,
and indeed bloodstains, have begun to fade? Well, an enterprise in Belfast
certainly thinks it is. Black Taxi Tours will guide you round the sites
of some of the worst atrocities in the North’s long, terrible history.
However, Michael, the founder of the company, is anxious to point out
these are “Living History Tours”, and his expeditions include the grandeur
of the City Hall and Belfast’s own leaning tower, the Albert Clock. Michael
from Black Taxi Tours will guide you round one of Belfast’s most famous
artistic manifestations of the Troubles — the huge murals painted on gable
ends. On the Falls you’ll see portraits of Bobby Sands among the 26+6=1
slogans, while on the Shankill Princess Diana is still in black evening
wear, not far from assasinated Loyalist heroes. King Billy is an old favourite
here “where people have Irish accents and British souls,” to quote the taxi
driver.
Black Taxi Tours will, as well as pointing out the world’s most bombed
hotel (the Belfast Europa), escort you to the Peace Line — a corrugated
iron and concrete fence which in “interface areas” keep the two warring
communities apart.
But these “Terrorism Tours”, as they have been dubbed, also escort you
to some of the more historical sites of the city — High Street where 1798
rebel leader Henry Joy McCracken was hanged, and the grave in Clifton Street
Cemetery where the poet William Drennan is buried, the man who first coined
the phrase “the Emerald Isle”.
You’ll also see Napoleon’s Face clearly marked on the mountainside behind
Belfast, as well as the outrageous extravagance of Stormont parliament buildings.
And remember, the North is still one of the safest places in these islands
to walk day or night. Crime against tourism is so rare that if it does happen
it makes front-page news.
