In April we participated in a week-long international arts and cultural programme hosted by the British Council Northern Ireland called Peace and Beyond 2023: The Role of Arts in Divided and Polarised Societies to mark the 25th Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
It's the start of the tourist season, Belfast is busier than ever and here at DC Tours we are girding up our loins, lacing up our walking shoes and preparing for another summer of fun and hard work. So what better time to get a new DC Tours mascot?
Belfast artist Colin Davidson's exhibition 'Silent Testimony' is on show at the Long Gallery in Stormont until the 30th of April, so we took the opportunity to revisit this powerful series of paintings.
This week sees the 50th anniversary of Bloody Friday. The most violent day of the most violent month of the most violent year of the Troubles.
People often ask me “what makes a good tour?”, but this is inevitably from the perspective of the participant. Recently I was asked the question “what makes a good tour for a guide?” And that is a bloody good question.
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.
During the Second World war a derelict farm in Millisle, County Down, would become home to hundreds of Jewish refugee children fleeing the war in Europe.
Dr. William Drennan, a United Irishman centuries ahead of his time in many ways, comes under the microscope of our lead guide Paul Donnelly.
Donzo interviews his Ma about Belfast's nightlife before the Troubles really got started...