On The Turn

I was reading this story about the Belfast Metro placing poetry on posters and on bus tickets. It got me thinking about how this city has come on leaps and bounds since the 1994 ceasefire and the subsequent Good Friday Agreement.

New links are opening up and there are now regular flights to and from New York and various cities around Europe. £14 million is being invested in giving the city centre a facelift and over a billion pounds has been invested in regenerating the Cathedral Quarter. What I'm really looking forward to is the redevelopment in and around Victoria Square with £300 million being spent on creating one of the largest retail parks in Europe:

Belfast is fast becoming the epitome of a modern European city. There has been a continual increase in tourism over the last few years with 2004 experiencing an 11% increase on the previous year. 37,000 tourists are expected this summer and you can't fail to notice their presence in the city.

We've come a long way baby.