I visited Belfast recently with a group of friends. Everyone seemed to wonder why we were going there since we thought it would be industrial, boring and perhaps violent. Well, we were incredibly wrong! Belfast is now a fun city. The people are very friendly and helpful and the only signs of the past years of sectarian violence are the graffiti that is now a part of the tourist bus route along the renowned Shankhill and Falls Roads.
Heavy industry no longer exists in Belfast and the famous Harland and Wolff shipyards, now strangely silent, dominate the site along with Samson and Goliath, the two gigantic cranes that are alongside the world’s largest dry dock. It was here that the Titanic was built and rumour has it that a theme park based on the liner and including a life size skeleton version of it (see-through so that the landscape will not be spoilt) is in the pipeline. Some people might question the validity of building a theme park for a liner that had such a tragic maiden and last voyage from Southampton, but as the Northern Ireland people say in their delightful brogue, “When the Titanic left Belfast, it was okay!”
I was also surprised at the number of excellent restaurants in the city - one that caught my eye but I didn’t try was called the Thai Tanic. Pubs abound with names such as the grammatically incorrect ‘The Deers Head’ graphically referred to as an ‘Imbibing Emporium’ and the age-old, but magnificent Crown Liquor Saloon. Guinness flows freely … but not gratis.
The surrounding countryside is green and picturesque and little more than an hour or so further north on the coast one can visit sites such as the famous Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge where a nasty wobble could see you plunge down a 24-metre chasm into a cruel, wet sea. Further along the spectacular coastline there’s the extraordinary Giant’s Causeway, considered by many since the 1700s as the ‘Eighth Wonder of the World’ – from where you can see Scotland on a clear day – and Dunluce Castle, supposedly the most photographed castle in Ireland because it is perched on the cliff edge and its kitchen and staff fell into the sea one dark and stormy night.
The highlight of the trip for me however, was my adoption of Scruffy. Scruffy is a small chap that made signs to me as I was walking through Habitat, a home furnishing store. A wee fluffy fella with a wonderfully cute appearance, he visited the rest of the shop balanced on my shoulder much to the amusement of other shoppers and the embarrassment of my friends. He flew back to Geneva with me and now, alongside Toby, ferociously guards my apartment.
Whoever said that travel broadens the mind got it wrong ... I think it’s addled my brain!
For those of you who feel that I should be writing about something to do with our industry, Belfast is home to the 2000-tonne Albert Memorial Clock Tower. Built between 1865 and 1870 after the death of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband, it is 43 metres high, has a life-size statue of the Prince on the west side of the tower, a four-faced clock all of which indicate a slightly different time and … it leans. It developed a ‘lean’ – or as the architects say, ‘it settled’ – because it was built on marshy land. It cost only a few hundred pounds to build but the re-enforcement of the foundations and its extensive facelift in the late 1990s cost a few million.
The alternative story concerning the tower’s lean is that in the late 1800s, the local ‘ladies of the night’ used to congregate there because of its proximity to the docks and their potential clientele. It seems that whilst tempting their nautical ‘clients’ with that huskily whispered ‘Hello sailor’, they used to lean against the tower and thus gave it a four-foot off-vertical lean. I know which version I prefer. Nevertheless, when I asked for a brochure on the leaning clock tower, I was quickly put in my place by the lady at City Hall with a “It’s been repaired, it doesn’t lean.” Well, you be the judge.


Source: Europa Star December-January 2007 Magazine Issue