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. [...]
Two names on the Titanic Memorial at Belfast City Hall have asterisks against them - John Horgan and Thomas Hart. But what are the asterisks for? I did a bit of digging and here's what I found out.
If you have any interest in Belfast architecture you will have heard of Sir Charles Brett (1928-2005), whether as the author C.E.B. Brett, or Charlie Brett. He was a fascinating figure, a solicitor who was variously a politician, historian, artist, journalist, writer and conservationist.
We have a new statue in Belfast! It stands in Lombard Street and commemorates Frederick Douglass, the American author, anti-slavery campaigner and early champion of women’s rights.
The only public memorial to victims of the troubles in Belfast was defaced by graffiti last year. After six months nothing had been done to restore it, so we cleaned it up ourselves.
We have updated our free self guided tour of the Titanic Quarter just in time for the summer holidays.
Very simply being a civilian bus driver or conductor here was an incredibly dangerous job. And just being a passenger on a bus could be a very dangerous ‘activity’.
The DC Tours phone rang on Monday, and I answered professionally and courteously as usual. Nadia, a pleasant woman with a posh London accent, quickly explained that BBC Breakfast wanted to interview me as a Belfast tour guide and historian about the Kenneth Branagh film ‘Belfast’.
The spectre of assassination was probably not envisaged as being in the form of a mentally ill, 50-year-old Dublin woman clothed in a black shawl and armed with a rock and a revolver. This however was how Violet Gibson appeared as she shot and wounded Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
Sir Walter Devereux 1st Earl of Essex may not be as (in)famous as Sir Arthur Chichester, the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell or King William of Orange amongst those to visit Ireland and leave an indelible historical mark on the land, but he certainly deserves a mention.
Paul Donnelly, DC Tours' lead guide (and old punk), looks back at the life of the most successful singer (from a very different era) to be born in Belfast.
Tour guide James Ellson takes a deep dive (not literally thankfully) into the Belfast Sludge Boats and their role in keeping the city clean.