Having got married in Belfast in January, we have been back in Northern Ireland this week for our first break since returning from honeymoon.
Saturday 21 July, Belfast
The love-in between Northern Ireland’s First and Deputy First Minister shows no signs of abating, but it’s all a bit too much for Belfast Telegraph columnist Kevin Myers:
“Viewing the pictures of Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley avidly viewing one another at the North-South meeting like a pair of Linda Lovelaces, I felt a panic-inspiring vertigo. It was like Pope John Paul snapping awake at a Papal Banquet in the Vatican and finding a nude Mother Teresa cavorting with an equally naked Ayatollah Khomeini, while the Mormon Tabernacle choir sang Seven Drunken Nights and the Dalai Lama harpooned koala bears.”
However incongruous and even nauseating Mr Myers finds such displays of affection, I’m thankful that the Province’s two most powerful men are getting along. Unless they continue to, the new settlement may not endure.
Tuesday 24 July, Belturbet, Co.Cavan
We’re visiting friends in a sleepy town situated just inside the Republic, in what used to be the border badlands during the Troubles. Two of the town’s youngsters were murdered in a car bomb, so the peace dividend is particularly cherished here.
Whereas the impoverished Republic was once viewed with disdain by those in the North, the tables have been decisively turned over the last fifteen years. Indeed the Celtic Tiger is now dispensing considerable largesse to improve the Province’s infrastructure.
The Irish Times has further details of Eire’s 400 million Euro investment in the North, which will include a new Dublin-Londonderry motorway. Some Unionists consider this part of strategy to achieve a united Ireland by stealth, but none of the main parties are prepared to look such a generous gift horse in the mouth.
Wednesday 25 July, Ballycastle, Co. Antrim
I fell in love with the north Antrim coast when I first visited last summer. We’re back in the same cottage, perched on the coast a mile from the seaside town of Ballycastle. As the sun sets I look out over the tranquil waters of the North Channel to the small island of Rathlin. Sweeping, hypnotic beams of light are cast over the sea from two of the island’s lighthouses. Silhouetted above them are the towering peaks of Jura. BBC Scotland’s Radio Nan Gaidheal is on in the background, playing its usual mix of haunting Gaelic melodies and accordion and fiddle music. This is a glorious place to be.
There is far more to this dramatic stretch of coastline than the Giant’s Causeway. Antrim’s multitude of excellent links courses make it a golfers’ paradise – Royal Portrush is the only club outside Britain to have hosted the Open Championship, in 1951.
Tourism obviously has a major role to play in revitalising the Province’s ailing economy. Northern Ireland consumes more than £5 billion in public spending than it pays in taxes. Expenditure is over 60% of GDP, yet per capita GDP is still 20% below the national average. In the race to attract inward investors, Northern Ireland is struggling to stay in touch with the Republic where corporation tax is a mere 12.5%, less than half the 30% levied in the North.
Jump-starting Northern Ireland’s economy is the most pressing priority for the new all-party Executive, yet they have few tools at their disposal to achieve this. However there are signs of hope. This week the Bank of Ireland announced the creation of 150 graduate-level jobs in Belfast administering hedge funds. Ryanair also announced it was establishing many new routes from Belfast City Airport to Britain and Europe.
When you’re next planning a vacation or weekend break, why not consider Northern Ireland? For too many Brits it’s the undiscovered gem on their doorstep.
Lovely article - thank you. I am glad that things are working out there between the parties. I hear that the Downs is a good place to holiday?
Posted by: Justin Hinchcliffe | July 28, 2007 at 09:13 AM
"For too many Brits it’s the undiscovered gem on their doorstep."
Not for me thankfully!
Even though I don't live there anymore I still consider it the best place in the world, even though it represents pre-Thatcher Britain in terms of welfarism and work attitudes.
In many ways the troubles left NI stuck in 1969, which isn't all bad. Community cohesion is strong and in general people are friendlier and less ignorant. If a burgler alarm goes off, people will actually go and see what's going on.
I feel the local Conservatives are in the curious position of being more Unionist than the rest, yet they don't seem to advertise that fact. If it was pointed out that they were a truely British party, with members all over the UK, they might perform a bit better and attract a lot more votes (from both sides of the community).
They seem content to act like a holier-than-thou Alliance party clone and old boys network for English businessmen living in North Down at the moment. I'm all for moving things onto a different political plane but they have to realise that some things will never change, namely the centralism of Unionism to any party that hopes to win in Northern Ireland.
Posted by: Neil Wilson | July 28, 2007 at 11:17 AM
Excellent piece Cameron. I hope the NI Tourist Board are paying you!
Posted by: Umbrella man | July 28, 2007 at 06:33 PM
I think all NI parties should be campaigning to lower the corporation tax rate; if the Scots were smart they'd do the same.
Posted by: Simon Newman | July 29, 2007 at 10:56 AM
Quite so Neil. They were shouting about huge defections from the UUP last year, they still didn't manage to attract more than 4000 votes across NI. If I lived on GB, I'd be a Conservative (not withstanding Cameron), but in NI, the local Tories are a joke, with nothing to offer unionism. They even bost that they wont designate as Unionist in the parallel universe where they get MLA's elected.
Posted by: Michael Shilliday | July 30, 2007 at 09:58 AM
Quite so Neil. They were shouting about huge defections from the UUP last year, they still didn't manage to attract more than 4000 votes across NI. If I lived on GB, I'd be a Conservative (not withstanding Cameron), but in NI, the local Tories are a joke, with nothing to offer unionism. They even bost that they wont designate as Unionist in the parallel universe where they get MLA's elected.
Posted by: Michael Shilliday | July 30, 2007 at 09:58 AM
Michael Shilliday lies through his teeth in his comments as usual. Northern Ireland Conservatives would designate unionist, as we made clear at the latest election. The question about whether we have anything to offer unionism is a laughable concept; Conservative politics are about a hell of a lot more. Shill by name, shill by nature.
Good to see NI is in the popular consciousness again, though, and any like minded Conservatives planning to visit Northern Ireland should drop good solid tories like me a line. Beer here is getting better.
Posted by: Northern Ireland | August 02, 2007 at 11:27 AM
So not you're boasting about a massive policy u-turn for the local Tories. Well done Julian.
Posted by: Michael Shilliday | September 01, 2007 at 12:11 AM