A few steps from where we start our tours at the front of Belfast City Hall is the site of a shocking and audacious crime that took place twenty years ago. On the 20th December 2004, £26 million was stolen from the Headquarters of the Northern Bank (now Danske Bank) in one of the largest bank robberies in British or Irish history.
If you've been on our Best of Belfast tour, you'll know that you get a free downloadable map with 40 of our favourite places to eat, drink, shop and generally have fun. Well now you can also pick up a new map of Belfast art galleries, thanks to a Belfast Visual Arts Forum project funded by Belfast City Council.
This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Ulster Workers Strike, which I wrote about a few months ago. Now the Ulster Museum has launched a new oral history project about the strike on its website, as part of its ‘Troubles and Beyond’ programme.
Jamesy and I enjoyed our recent tour of McConnell's Distillery so much we decided to make a regular thing of it and try a few more Belfast tours! I've always wanted to try Alternative Ulstours, so we booked on to their Spirits of Belfast tour.
Growing up in Belfast in the Seventies, Halloween will be forever associated with memories of stabbing yourself in the hand while attempting to carve out a raw turnip into a lantern, the smell of candles burning into said turnips, and costumes based on bin bags and sweaty plastic false faces. Oh, and indoor fireworks. We weren't allowed the real ones, for obvious reasons.
Exploring Belfast on a tour with us is a fantastic way to dive into the city’s rich history and vibrant culture. But why not make the most of your day by adding a few more experiences before and after the tour? That’s where GetSociable comes in.
Thompsons Dock will be the stage for a sound and light show this weekend. But if you can't make the show, you should still take time to explore the dock - it's the largest original relic of the Titanic.
A few weeks ago I was talking to the team at the new McConnell’s Distillery and they very kindly offered me a tour! I am partial to an Irish whiskey or three, and so is Jamesy, so we decided that this would make an excellent busman’s holiday and headed up to the distillery’s new home in Crumlin Road Gaol!
The old Corporation Gas Showroom has been given a new lease of life and is now the home of the Golden Thread Gallery. I went down to the official opening to take a look...and I got a bonus view of the old Police Station!
A look at the history of the Belfast Workhouse and how the city was affected by the famine in 1845-46, followed by the typhus epidemic in 1847 and the cholera epidemic in 1849.
Our grannies’ grannies lived in interesting times. While the main political issue in Belfast leading up to World War I was definitely Home Rule, the campaign for equal votes led some women to launch attacks on Unionist homes and public properties.
There will undoubtedly be a lot written about the Ulster Workers’ strike this year, as we mark its fiftieth anniversary. I was interested in looking at it from a civilian perspective, because that’s what we do at DC Tours. [...]