Stormont
This should be day 2 of our holiday in Belfast waking in our hotel room followed by a full Irish. However air traffic control said no to our flight yesterday and so we left home at 4 am. We are soon through security and depart on time.
At Belfast City Airport we are met by the local Newmarket representative and we are soon at the hotel and can check in, lose our cases and we are ready to head off for a City tour as part of a group of 48 most of whom did make it yesterday one way or another.
Belfast is a Victorian city and contains some impressive buildings. The City enjoyed huge prosperity during late Victoria times riding the benefits of the linen industry and then ship building with the construction of the White Star ocean liners among many others driving the rises in finances.
The subsequent history of the area was dominated by the religious alignments of the residents plus the steady decay of those two industries, even whilst we are in Belfast it is announced that once again that the Harland and Wolff holding company is going into administration, although the yard itself has orders for at least three warships so may well survive under new owners following a period of administration.
However the last 25 years have brought marked change. The Blair government’s greatest legacy is probably the Good Friday agreement which set forth a devolved coalition administration – both sides have to at least work together and the agreement allows the voters to eventually choose to join the rest of Ireland which since Brexit seems even more likely, particularly as the voter demographics have changed over recent years.
The tour opens with a visit to Stormont where, as part of the reforms and opening up, visitors now have access to the area immediately in front of the Parliament building as can be seen above. One matter which I find disappointing – as a child I was taken by my parents to see the front door of No 10. Now that is denied to the children of today and it is a shame that the openness in NI cannot be reflected in London.
Our journey around the City continues with the former shipyards which have seen the construction of a new Arena, the Titanic museum, conversion of the former paint shops into film studios responsible (amongst much else) for Game of Thrones and so on.
Alongside this new the old has been revitalised. We are staying the Cathedral Quarter and even on a Monday night there is music emanating from at least one bar close by – and other bars on other nights as if someone has planned a rota on different evenings. There are many magnificent Victorian buildings. Within City Hall there is a series of displays telling the history of the City, plus a café, although the quality of scones is not as good as the exhibits.
Titanic Museum
The afternoon is dedicated to the Titanic Museum telling her history through construction, sailing, destruction, discovery and how to have enough lifeboats for those on board. They try hard to convey the shipyard during construction using a “ride” which was no doubt the subject of much planning – but little can convey the reality and I am not sure it succeeds. Such environments no longer really exist and indeed that way working no longer exists.
Albert Memorial
Being a Victorian City also meant Albert and the Albert Clock is the local memorial to him. It does in fact lean slightly – it is not just my photography!
Dinner this evening is at Taylor and Clay – a steak restaurant along from where we are staying and we have an excellent steak each. The chateaubriand were all large cuts and would need three or four people to do justice to them but the steaks were all excellently cooked and it was a simple walk back via the Albert Clock to our hotel.