Buses in Donegall Square North at night.Credit: Lonely Planet Images
Fine dining, vibrant night-life and a thriving arts scene - a renewed Belfast is making up for lost time, finds Conor Smyth.
Business in Belfast is booming and our taxi tour guide Billy is only too happy to talk about it. "We're the fastest-growing economic region in Europe," he enthuses, as he takes us through the Titanic Quarter ("the biggest dockside development in Europe").
Billy's ebullience is symptomatic of the city in general, which is beginning to find its feet after its troubled recent history. Once only talked about with a shake of the head, Belfast has a new-found confidence and is looking to the future, rather than hanging on to its sorry past.
In fact, it's the more distant past of the 18th and 19th centuries, when Belfast was a major industrial hub of the United Kingdom, that seems to be the inspiration driving the city's resurgence. Since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and resumption of a power-sharing government last May, things are improving and nobody seems too eager to return to sorrows of yesteryear.
The locals have always been a high-achieving bunch in this part of the world - the area was once one of the richest on the planet, thanks to its linen and shipbuilding industries - and it's this entrepreneurial heritage the city is seeking to tap.
Heavy industry may have declined but information technology and finance sectors are going strong, as is a flourishing film industry - a multimillion-dollar Hollywood production, City Of Ember, starring Bill Murray and Tim Robbins, was recently shot at studios in the Titanic Quarter and will be released later this year.
There is also a burgeoning arts scene, especially around the Cathedral Quarter and Lisburn Road, and there is no shortage of options for dining, with a recent influx of immigrants adding to the diversity of the once-staid cuisine scene.
But the first port of call for most travellers to the island of Ireland is invariably the pub, and in this regard Belfast is blessed. Joining one of the city's historical pub tours is a great way to get an insight into the pub scene.
After chatting with our guide Colin while sipping a beer in the salubrious surrounds of The Bar - home, the staff say, to the world's most expensive cocktail, the ?750 ($1578) mai tai rum mix - in the magnificent Merchant Hotel on Waring Street, we head off on a tour of the local haunts.
Colin says that, since the peace deal of 1998, the city "has breathed a sigh of relief" and new pubs and clubs are opening at an astonishing rate as locals try to make up for all that lost time.
Tonight, unfortunately, being a Sunday, it seems the city has treated itself to an early night, as the first two pubs we visit are closed - and it's only 9pm. Undeterred, we head for Kelly's Cellars on Bank Street. In our guide the blurb for this establishment says it's a "serious pub for serious drinkers". When we arrive the party's in full swing and guzzling of a serious kind is definitely under way as the band belts out ballads, to the delight of the well-oiled patrons.
The portraits of republican heroes Wolfe Tone and Henry Joy McCracken point to its political heritage but there's no denying its contagious spirit.
After downing a pint of Guinness and shuffling through the swaying throng, we head for McHugh's Bar on Queen's Square, where we enjoy a hearty late-night pub meal before hitting the road again and taking up residence in The Spaniard on Skipper Street. This narrow pub, set over three floors, is hopping and, once you find a seat, is a great place to settle in and enjoy the atmosphere.
A tour of Belfast's watering holes wouldn't be complete without a visit to the Crown Liquor Saloon on Great Victoria Street. Owned by the National Trust, the pub dates back to 1885 and is a fine example of Victorian architecture. It's a great place to grab a bit of lunch (try the delicious Irish stew) or to while a few hours away while having a chat in one of the cosy partitioned snugs.
For all its progress, however, Belfast is still best known for the sectarian struggle that blighted the city for 30-odd years and a visit to the north demands you make a trip to the areas that made the headlines during the Troubles, as the violence was known.
There are bus tours of the key flashpoints but for a more personalised approach a taxi tour is the way to go. Billy, our aforementioned driver, works for Blackcab City and Mural Tours and his gregarious character and local knowledge provide a witty backing track to this engrossing tour.
For him the city is a bottomless treasure trove of fascinating facts, none of which is too insignificant to ignore ("This is where the world conference of toilet makers was held", "that plaque commemorates the inventor of milk of magnesia", "the pneumatic tyre was invented here") - all of which adds to the experience.
His taxi tour takes in the infamous Shankill and Falls roads, with their elaborately decorated murals, the peace walls that physically divided the warring communities, Crumlin Road jail (now a museum that is booked out months in advance), as well as the impressive Stormont building, where the Northern Ireland Assembly sits.
It also takes in the student areas around Queens University and the swanky shopping district on the Lisburn Road and gives a great overview of the city's history and its direction for the future.
Another tour that might be of interest for history buffs is the Lagan Boat Company's Titanic Boat Tour around the shipyards of Harland & Wolff. The people of Belfast are very proud of having built the "unsinkable ship" Titanic ("It was fine when it left Belfast," our tour guide tells us) and the tour provides an interesting insight into the shipbuilding process and a great preview of the Titanic Quarter development that will soon grace the city.
The Lagan River is no Sydney Harbour, however, and a fair bit of imagination is needed to envisage what it would have been like in its heyday or what it will be like when the dockside development is completed, but the sheer scale of the shipyards, dry docks and giant gantry cranes - nicknamed Samson and Goliath - which overlook the city's skyline make it worth the effort.
After a day's rambling we felt we'd earned a good feed and the city is well supplied with quality restaurants.
For a first-rate dining experience, though, we had to look no further than the Paul and Jeanne Rankin-owned Cayenne on Shaftesbury Square. Rankin is Belfast's culinary king, having in 1999 become the first chef from the north to be awarded a Michelin star.
With dishes such as baked goat's cheese with a hazelnut crust, spiced red cabbage salad and fruit chutney for starters, and tuna au poivre with wasabi potato salad and crispy shallots as a main, it is a fine-dining experience to rival any in these isles.
In many ways Belfast, like its southern cousin Dublin, is the ideal destination for a weekend diversion on that big European trip. It's a small city with a population of about 500,000 and most of its main attractions are easily accessible on foot.
And don't be put off by its violent past. As cabbie Billy informed us, a recent UN study found Belfast the second safest city in the world for tourists, second only to Tokyo.
The writer was a guest of Tourism Ireland and Etihad Airways.
TRIP NOTES
- Getting there Etihad Airways flies daily to Dublin via Abu Dhabi. See www.etihadairways.com or phone 1800 998 995. From Dublin, Belfast is a two-hour train trip. See www.irishrail.ie. Etihad also flies to Heathrow, from where British Midland flies to Belfast.
- Staying there Rooms at the beautiful Merchant Hotel on Waring Street, start from €120 ($255). A deluxe room costs €220 and a suite costs €450 (both include breakfast). The hotel also has a policy of offering the best available rate at the time of booking. See www.themerchanthotel.com.
- Eating out Cayenne is at 7 Ascot House, Shaftesbury Square. See www.rankingroup.co.uk/cayenne.php
- More information Lagan Boat Company tours, see www.laganboatcompany.com; for Blackcab City and Mural Tours, email Billy Scott at billyscott12@hotmail.co.uk or phone 0779 860 2401; Historical Pub Tours of Belfast, see www.belfastpubtours.com. For other information on touring Ireland, see www.discoverireland.com.au, phone (02) 9299 6177, or email info@tourismireland.com.au
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