Word: belfasters
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...grasp the extent of Belfast's tourism appeal during the three decades of the "Troubles," one only had to visit the Europa. Its status as the world's most bombed hotel underlined the fact that, for over 30 years, Northern Ireland's capital was a tourism desert. Today, Belfast's hostelries are packed with visitors as the city reaps the rewards of political stability. But as Northern Ireland's politics change for the better, Belfast is going through an image crisis. No longer defined by bomb blasts and sectarian strife, the city is reaching for new, peaceful symbols...
...uninformed, history's most famous maritime disaster may seem an odd choice for a city looking to put its tragic past behind it, but Belfast stakes a strong claim to the Titanic. After all, it was in the Harland and Wolff shipyard on the city's Queen's Island that the iconic liner was designed, built and launched. And the now rusting shipyard is the proposed site of the "Titanic Quarter," a shiny new residential and business district on the edge of Belfast Lough. The 185-acre development is the biggest regeneration project in Northern Ireland's history and would...
...memory of the ill-fated ship is being asked to do more than bring in tourists, however. "It's all to do with breaking down barriers", says Brian Ambrose, Chairman of the Titanic Foundation, the company overseeing the TSP. "We want to change Belfast's image abroad with a landmark building, but also restore local pride." The Titanic Quarter's promotional literature describes the ship as the pinnacle moment of Belfast's industrial heyday - when it was launched in 1911, it was the largest moveable man-made object on the planet. The fact that this achievement was soon eclipsed...
...decades, the Titanic was a taboo topic", says Una Reilly, chairman of the Belfast Titanic Society, during a tour of the TSP site. "There was almost a sense of shame that it had been built here." But Reilly, whose great-grandfather worked as a cabinetmaker on the Titanic, is convinced that this ghost from Belfast's past is the perfect vehicle for the city's future. "The Titanic was at the cutting edge of technology when she was built. That's the kind of innovation Belfast should be striving for today...
...Paisley preached as normal later on the Sunday morning of the church coup, and had put his First Minister's hat back on by Monday afternoon. He talked about making sure their political apparatus represents "all sections of society": practically that means his office funds things like Belfast's growing gay pride festival, even as Paisley the preacher continues to condemn "sodomites." It's a contradiction much of Northern Ireland can live with. In a society plagued by religious division, Ian Paisley may have become the unlikely example of the separation between church and state...