Ireland Travel, Belfast - Make your Friends Green with Envy

Buoyant Belfast Beckons Visitors

“Keep your eye on the puck at all times,” I’m told. I’m skeptical, but that’s because I’ve never been to a hockey game before, let alone seen the Belfast Giants in action. Tonight, the reigning champions are winning against the Bracknell Bees from over the water in England. With its growing economy Ireland remains the ideal destination for budget travel

The crowd chants, the drums beat, and in between deafening blasts of American rock, the puck takes flight over the ice, ricocheting off the back wall and disappearing somewhere amid a scrum of spectators. The flying puck is all part of the fun - if you’re not fatally struck, you might get to keep it as a souvenir.

This is part of the new face of Belfast, and if your image of the city is still of sectarian divides and 70s tower blocks, it’s time you paid a visit. The shiny new Odyssey arena and entertainment complex, complete with transatlantic ice heroes, was built with Millennium Fund money. “Like your London Dome,” the Irish locals are fond of adding. Designer shops, cool bars and gourmet eating are taking hold in the city center and though there’s much more to go, the atmosphere in this most maritime of cities is buoyant.

Although a settlement in the 1500s, Belfast’s history really starts in 1603, when the castle and the lands of Belfast came into the possession of Sir Arthur Chicester, Governor of Carrick Fergus. Chicester planted the land with settlers from Devon and Scotland. Ten years later, Belfast was granted corporation status, with the right to send members to parliament at Westminster. In the 17thcentury there was an influx of Huguenot immigrants seeking refuge from religious persecution in France.

Industrialization began for Belfast in the 18thcentury with the linen trade, which gradually made a place for cotton in the next century. In the 20thcentury, Belfast rocketed from barely 9,000 to 300,000 inhabitants. Today, it is a city of half a million.

On our walking tour of Belfast, we come across McHugh’s, once the city’s bordello, although there’s nothing indecent about it these days. Opposite stands the Albert memorial clock tower. Queen Victoria would not have been amused to see it leaning at such a drunken angle, a casualty of land reclamation. “Belfast’s Tower of Pisa,” goes the joke. “See, it’s got the inclination and the time.”

Looking for something modern, I head for The Apartment, one of Belfast’s newest café-bars. Serving fusion cuisine in a relaxed atmosphere, it’s worth a visit just for the picture-book views of City Hall. Visitors may also enjoy the Red Bar at Ten Donegall Square, one of many new venues on Belfast’s vibrant night scene.

If you can’t have a good time in Belfast, goes the claim, you can’t have a good time.

Some attractions, such as the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum out at Cultra - a suburb of Belfast - are well established. The museum is an entire village of historic streets, pubs, schools and churches brought brick-by-brick from the countryside. Expect to spend the day, especially if you plan to visit the fascinating Titanic exhibition. (The Titanic was, of course, built in Belfast, at the Harland and Wolff shipyard.)

Back in the city, meanwhile, the vast former Harland and Wolff shipyard is gradually being transformed into a science park. Titanic enthusiasts will be happy to hear that its immense dry dock and pump house, custom-built for the world’s greatest ships, are to be preserved as a maritime museum. For those who can’t wait, the city holds a festival of Titanic-inspired walks, talks and performances in April each year.

And the barricades? A ten minute drive out of town and you’re on the Falls Road. On Beechmount Avenue (also known as ‘Rocket Propelled Grenade’ Avenue) fresh flowers flutter against a mural depicting a manacled hand holding a lily against a backdrop of a united Ireland.

Round the corner, on Bombay Street, a republican memorial garden is tucked between neat terraced houses with UPVC doors and hanging baskets. Home improvement at the rear is limited to cages, for the missiles that come over the “Peace Wall” on livelier nights. Yet, it’s a sign of the times that tourists are coming here in ever larger numbers, and the local community is prepared to welcome them.

Norman Gibb, one of the first to offer Black Taxi Tours of the Falls and Shankill, says he is optimistically biased about the future of the Peace Wall. This is his livelihood, after all. But soon he’s contradicting himself, saying, “I’d like to see boys kicking footballs along here and little girls pushing prams.” He considers. “I can’t see it coming down, but I hope I’m wrong.”

Back at the Odyssey, another blast of glam rock trumpets a goal for the home team. Four guys in banana suits skate on to lob merchandise into rows of clamoring hands, while parents look on indulgently.

Whatever the old Belfast divisions, they’re far away from here. Keep your eye on the puck, I think; it’s moving fast.

Author: Amanda MacKenzie