Belfast Prosperous Ten Years On Since Peace Agreement

Today is the tenth anniversary of Northern Ireland's Good Friday peace deal. And it's capital is booming and buzzing. The terror and bombings seem a thing of the past.



While centuries old Irish traditions remain strong in Belfast, it is in fact fast-becoming a very modern European city.

Ten years on since the Good Friday peace deal there are obvious signs that things have changed in the capital.

It's hard to find a hotel room in this city now, even at what was once dubbed the most bombed hotel in Europe and the historic Crown bar now sees tourists from all over the world who're no longer scared to visit, much to the delight of barman Stephen Webb.

[Stephen Webb, Bar Supervisor]:
"The changes are immense in the last ten years, you know, with the amount of people coming to Belfast now and they aren't just visiting, they are staying here."

These regulars, young and old alike, are convinced the decades-old political violence is a thing the past.

[Colm Moss, Belfast Resident]:
"We're progressing every day and it's got so much better than it was if you go back ten years ago. Now the city is brilliant."

[Chris Hadley, Belfast Resident]:
"Things have changed like, you know, I think a lot of people have relaxed, you know."

The most visible sign of Belfast's robust economy is the newly opened Victoria Square shopping centre, with its impressive glass-domed roof.

Something that would have been unthinkable during the years the IRA regularly bombed the city centre.

[Hugh Black, Shopping Centre Manager]:
"As the song goes, "Things can only get better". I think we are on an up. There's huge investment in the city, this is obviously a landmark now and this is going to bring, I think, a lot more people to Northern Ireland to see this alone and see what is going on in Belfast."

The once insular economy now attracts global brands. Foreign investment in Northern Ireland rose 300 per cent in the last year. Attracting nearly one billion dollars, according to research by economist Mark O'Connel.

[Mark O'connell, Investment Consultant Executive]:
"Belfast per se has really caught up a lot in terms of other European cities, by any standard in terms of employment, growth, foreign investment, even the retail evening economy. All those indicators would be fairly positive I would suggest."

By Belfast's standards the economy is booming and unemployment is at an all time low. But given the decades of stagnant growth during the Troubles, the city still has many hurdles to jump in the coming years.

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[jumpingjack7877]

nice to see a positive video on here about the north

[eyleseo]

It's disgusting to see some of the pro-terrorist comments left on this video in the last 4 or 5 messeges, this is precisley what Northern Ireland has moved on from and the people who leave these are a small minority,small enough to equal they're small minds..Belfast is as normal a city as any other in Europe now and visitors should not be disuaded from visiting this lovely area of the United Kingdom.

[eyleseo]

@conr16 I know that in some areas things have not progressed,but looking at the bigger scale of things, they have.Maybe the solution for these certain areas is going to take longer to discover,but paramilitarism isn't the answer to anything long term.

Hopefully things will improve for you.

[conr16]

@eyleseo People do speak out against punishment beatings and shootings because i will admit that at times certain OC's of different areas would let power get to their heads and then have a "who does this 16, 18, 21 or 24 year old kid think they are? i'll show him not to mess with me again". A wee man named Barney Cairns belted a RA-man in the face after he slabbered to him for standing in the street drinking a tin of beer, they then came and blew off his legs, subsequently he hung himself...

[conr16]

The PSNI use criminals as informants that is one of the main reasons why crime is so high in the areas i named. Heres how it goes - say i live in West Belfast and i burgle a house wherever, in the process i stroke a car, later on i get scooped and get taken to Woodbourne, after a while a Anti-Terror/Special Branch man comes in and i agree to give info on local Republicans, im then free'd and paid money up front. If i live in a non-paramilitary area or if i refuse to tout i'd go to hydebank.

[eyleseo]

@conr16 Its not just as simple as saying that the police are scum, I know for certain that if something terrible happens to you, you may well rely on the police,and be genuinely lost without them when it comes to the crunch.If you really have an issue with the psni then take it out on the policing board, because they pull the chief constables strings, ask the likes of martina anderson and alex maskey why areas such as st james and poleglass etc have higher crime rates.

[eyleseo]

@conr16 Im not asking your community to be on the side of anything bud, I dont live within your community to be able to know enough about it,but how do you know yourself that your community supports the action of kneecapping and worse? Has there been a door to door census taken on the matter,or are the community just too scared to speak out and say that they deplore things like kneecappings and punishment beatings?

[conr16]

@eyleseo And then you wonder why the RA or cough cough ONH have my community crying out for something to be done and so many young fellas get tapped in the legs, then how many of the gunmen and women are jailed? Think how many have ever been charged yet alone jailed for a kneecapping? My community supports that action because of the police inaction against criminals and using them as ten pound touts. How can you ask my community to "be on the side" of scum that allow drug dealers to run rampant?

[conr16]

@eyleseo The police are scum, sorry, not ALL officers of the PSNI are.. the upper echelons are definately.. or whoever pulls the strings so to speak. And before you write something to the contrary, how can you explain to me that areas like Divis, Saint James, Poleglass, Twinbrook, Turf Lodge and the Murph all have high crime rates which is commited time and time again by the same fellas? And when they do get lifted they are out on bail or do a short whack in Jokebank due to 50% remmision. Touts.

[eyleseo]

@conr16 Only people like us can change that tho, yes we can complain about it, but unless parents stop allowing their kids to go out and not know what they are at (rioting) and take control of them, send them to integrated schools and make them see that religion should not matter, then things will move at a very slow pace in some respects here. Ok maybe I was wrong when I said Belfast is a normal city, maybe I meant it is getting more normal, and had potential...like I say its up to us

[eyleseo]

@conr16 when i wrote that comment 2 years ago, things were not as bad as they are now thanks to so called dissident republicans,but in general I still think Belfast and Northern Ireland in general is on the up, terrorists and hoods wont be allowed to rule society and when police are fully allowed to do their jobs by the policing board then things such as what you mention in some areas may improve, that and the fact that the community in these areas need to be on the side of the police also.

[phantomsuccour]

@freshfacehooker actually america provided the bombs that killed many people in NI