Never been to Belfast? Now’s the time to go

A thriving city has emerged after years marked by tragedy — and a short drive away is the breathtaking Antrim coast, writes Isabel Conway.

Belfast city center form a drone

“I must look like the grim reaper,” declares the man in black, donning his mask and gloves at the front gates of Belfast City Hall.

“But I’ll be dealing with death and destruction so maybe it’s appropriate.” He gives us a wry smile.

Now a distant chapter in Belfast’s turbulent history, terror tourism adds much to the city’s unique brand of edginess and fierce determination to move on, justly proud of award-winning, world-class visitor status.

The two-hour ‘History of Terror’ brought us into streets, once surrounded by a ring of steel, with roof-high steel wire entrances to shops, bars and cafes. 

I remember them myself — impenetrable cages with security searches at each end.

My companions include a Wexford farmer visiting Northern Ireland for the first time, two teachers from Meath, and a New Zealand couple living in England.

“We’d have 30 or 40 on one of our tours, broken into groups last year, now due to Covid-19 we’re down to single figures,” says our guide, Paul Donnelly, pointing towards quiet streets of little traffic, pedestrians and visitors. 

He knows this small city of around 300,000 like the back of his hand, remembers atrocities, pivotal political events, the leading and bit players from both sides of the divide.

A stooped man, seated at the foot of the ‘Spirit of Belfast’ a public art sculpture, nicknamed ‘The Onion Rings’ who recognises Paul, jokingly asks why he’s hiding behind a mask: “He was one of the Republicans who was on the hunger strike and Blanket protest for years in the Maze prison.”

Paul struggles to be heard above the noise of buskers.

Deadpan humour is a Belfast speciality and harmless mock insults are hurled back and forth. 

A passer-by gloats how Paul, a history teacher, looked like an old statue to a passing bird the other day who crowned him with s***.

A reconciliation mediator between bereaved families on both sides, he tries to offer an impartial perspective on the troubles. 

Before Belfast was emptied again, now in peaceful times, due to virus lockdown, he complained to the City Council about too many buskers crowding laneways. 

“Their answer: ‘at least they’re not blowing us up’.”

Our tour, showing how the Troubles impacted every aspect of life, ends with hope on the gentrified Lagan waterfront whose eerie bomb sites are now cool cafes, bars, and top- drawer restaurants.

A few days later, Billy Scott, black-taxi tour guide driver and interesting showman takes us out to the former tinderbox districts. 

We take in the Falls and Shankill roads, Sandy Row, now hip East Belfast whose remaining working class streets spawned talent like the acclaimed footballer George Best and living legend musician Van ‘the man’ Morrison, about whom everyone seems to have a story. 

Picture: Thomas Samson/AFP/GettyImages

Then we skirt Hollywood’s upper-middle-class leafy avenues near Stormont Castle.

Like most visitors, we stopped to scribble a personal message on the Peace Wall which stretches between the communities, extending to more than 5km. 

On the loyalist side of the wall a big ugly plaster King Kong hung with Union jacks and red hand of Ulster bunting hugged most of a front garden. 

On the Catholic side of the wall, steps away, he’s replaced with Our Lady of Lourdes who is hung with rosaries and almost the size of her famous moving statue in Ballinspittle, Co Cork.

Away from flags and often terrifying murals of masked rifle-wielding paramilitaries, our black taxi speeds across town to the impressive Titanic Quarter whose towering yellow H&W (Harland and Wolff) yellow gantry cranes stand sentinel at the dry dock where the tragic Titanic was built.

A couple of coronavirus furloughed cruise ships undergoing maintenance was as busy as it gets here now. Shuttered for months because of the virus “Titanic Belfast” (£19) the blockbuster museum was due to re-open within days. 

Adjacent were the now silent studios where many of the Game of Thrones scenes were filmed.

Belfast’s nightlife Cathedral Quarter, far better and classier than Dublin’s Temple Bar, is on most visitor lists. 

“Come in soberly, drink moderately, depart quietly and call again” is the motto of the Duke of York, a great watering hole whose stable companions are the popular Dark Horse and the Harp bar.

View of the main entrance and sign to Titanic, Belfast. 

The Crown Bar, a fabulously endowed Victorian gin palace on Great Victoria street, whose beautiful snugs are perfect for social distancing, was a favourite hangout when, as a young Cork Examiner staff reporter I stayed at the Europa Hotel which was bombed multiple times but shut down briefly twice. 

Instead, on this visit a sister hotel of the Hastings Group, stylish Grand Central Ireland’s highest hotel building, offered the best city skyline views from the 22nd floor and even higher at the cocktail bar.

Northern Ireland’s Causeway Coast is surprisingly close to Belfast, whether you whizz up on the motorway or take your time getting there, lost in a warren of small country roads. 

We took the road less travelled, passing sober traditional farmhouses with spick and span yards and neatly clipped hedgerows. 

On our return, we drove through clouds and moors, dipping into the Antrim Glens.

The 50-mile stretch of enchanting Causeway coastline encompassing the spectacular UNESCO Giant’s causeway, wonderful Ballintoy Harbour, Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge (closed due to difficulties with social-distancing here) and cliff-top Dunluce Castle, boasts scenery that takes your breath away. 

And it’s not just the 40,000 interlocking basalt columns of the famous site that are jaw-dropping.

Perched on the tip of the famous Causeway Coastal route our splendid base, Ballygally Castle has views across the Irish Sea to Mull of Kintyre in Scotland. 

Legend tells us a ghost, named Isabella, leapt from the 17th century tower after her newly born baby (a girl) was killed because Isabella should have produced a male heir.

The Dark Hedges is a popular stop off for Game of Thrones fans

‘Recorded’ over the years by teams of ghostbusters, she and a more recent ghost are said to haunt visitors occasionally. 

My scariest middle-of-the-night moment was unsuspectingly walking on a couple of creaky floorboards.

The hotel has a door carved from fallen trees at The Dark Hedges, and is a popular stop off for Thrones fans tempted by Dothraki trifle, Lannister egg rolls, Ayra’s madeleines and more for a Thrones-themed afternoon tea.

My own top culinary moment comes after a fulfilling first-ever sea-fishing experience called “Catch and Sea”, organised by Causeway Coast Foodie Tours from Portstewart. (causewaycoastfoodietours.com)

We jumped aboard a little fishing vessel ‘Boy Matthew’ with our skipper instructor, Peter Boston, to fish for lunch. 

Apparently tuna are found off the bay as a result of global warming. 

But we landed a few large mackerel and a pollock, combined with local artisanal produce, from Abernethy butter to Smokehouse sea salt and dulse — fortifying us for a hike of the Giant’s Causeway, yet to come on my stellar first taste of Antrim’s.

People visiting Giant s Causeway at the sunset in North Antrim, Northern Ireland

For information on places to stay and things to see and do in Northern Ireland see discovernorthernireland.com. 

Isabel stayed in Belfast courtesy of the Grand Central hotel grandcentralhotelbelfast.com also 5-star Fitzwilliam Hotel fitzwilliamhotelbelfast.com and Ballygally Castle Hotel, Causeway Coast hastingshotels.com.

A history of Terror during the Troubles Belfast city centre walk deadcentretours.com 

Black taxi tours touringaroundbelfast.com