Inside Belfast – a city brimming with history, fantastic food, and spectacular sights

WHEREVER you look in Belfast, history looms large. The Troubles, its shipbuilding industry, pubs and folk music.

But it’s also a place that’s unmistakably modern – there’s the TV and film industry where Game of Thrones was produced, exotic new restaurants and even a Pride parade the weekend I visited.

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The contrast between the old and new is evident wherever you go, including the Titanic Hotel, where I was lucky enough to stay during my trip.

The building once housed Harland and Wolff’s office, where plans for the Titanic and other famous ships of their day were drawn up.

It’s now been transformed into a modern luxury hotel, which pays tribute to the iconic vessel with its decor. Every wall is adorned with paintings, blueprints and posters advertising Titanic’s shipping company, White Star Line.

Even names of the public spaces pay homage to the shipbuilding heritage, including the Wolff Grill where I enjoyed a delicious three-course dinner on my first night, and freshly-cooked breakfast throughout my stay.

My room was comfort personified, and mirrored the layout of a swanky ship cabin, with a view of the striking Titanic Museum right outside my window.

And, if the museum is impressive from the outside, it’s equally enthralling on the inside where visitors are given an immersive history of the city, its people and the tragedy that unfolded in April 1912.

For a more unique way to experience Belfast to complement the traditional museum trip, I opted to take the Black Taxi Tour the following day.

As we zipped around every corner of the city, my guide Billy held court with a seemingly endless knowledge of the dates, names and important events that have shaped Belfast.

The main selling point of the tour is the trip to the murals on the Republican and Loyalist sides of the city, divided by the Peace Wall which is now covered with messages from tourists.

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It’s a powerful experience, especially when you notice how recent some of the dates on the memorials are and realise friends and relatives of the dead are still walking the nearby streets.
Converted prison

As a companion of this history of the Troubles I also paid a visit to Crumlin Gaol. The prison was opened in the 1800s but continued to hold prisoners until 1996, many of whom had been involved in the conflict on both sides,

After what was at times a dark afternoon I decided to lighten the mood a touch by dropping into McConnell’s Distillery in a converted prison building next door.

Belfast has long been celebrated for its pubs – and rightly so – and you’ll struggle to find a better pint of Guinness anywhere in the world.

But now as well as sinking back a pint of the Black Stuff in pubs like the Crown and Fibber Magees, or even a Dark and Stormy in the Spaniard, there’s also an incredible range of restaurants to choose from.

As well as the hotel grill, I enjoyed some spectacular grub at James Street and Bert’s Jazz Bar.

Keeping with the food theme, I also joined the award-winning Belfast Food Tour where we sampled everything from the traditional Champ in The Garrick, to a gut-busting breakfast roll at the Belfast Baps stall in the St George’s Market.

Of course as well as the food and drink, music is also part of the fabric of Belfast – everyone from Stiff Little Fingers to Van Morrison can trace their roots here.

But I decided to go a little further back and learned about the traditional music and dance of the city and country on the Traditional Music Tour, where Cormac, Buzz and Aoife performed a variety of folk tunes and dances peppered throughout with insights about the culture and history of Ireland.

The tour definitely hit the right note for me and was the perfect way to end my stay – a trip back to Belfast would certainly be music to my ears.

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