Belfast is fast becoming the social capital of Ireland as hotels, restaurants and pubs fill with a flood of weekend visitors from as far away as Cork and Kerry.
City centre hotels are reporting up to 80pc of their weekend trade is southerners who are flooding into the city to enjoy wining and dining with fewer restrictions. Iarnród Éireann announced yesterday that all trains to Belfast from Dublin Connolly were booked out.
Michelin star chef Michael Deane, who owns six restaurants in the city, has never known anything like it. “I’ve never seen so many cars from the south of Ireland, which is absolutely wonderful, and they are very welcome,” he said. “Down south, people are saying we are rubbing our hands together because we will have the business; that’s not the case. But how could I not be happy about it?
“Over the years, there has been too much division between north and south. “Our neighbours down south like a party, they like good food and they love to mix with people. And they are very welcome here. “I think the hospitality strategy in the south is a right mess. I saw that kids were going to be allowed to serve, but they weren’t going to be allowed to eat unless they were vaccinated. headtopics.com
“I know quite a lot of chefs and restaurant owners are pulling their hair out.”
The Drawing Office bar at Titanic Hotel Belfast
Adrian McNally, manager of the Titanic Hotel, said he has in recent weeks welcomed visitors from the farther reaches of Cork and Kerry. “For the first time over the bank holiday weekend, the majority of my residents were actually from the Republic,” he said.
“It’s great for me, but it’s not great for you guys. “Over half of our business over the recent holiday weekend came from the Republic. “And that trend is continuing because we can still offer indoor dining. “I live on the border, and if I had the choice of going to Dublin or Belfast for the weekend, I would go to Belfast.
“I would have the option of free-standing restaurants, bars and hotels. Whereas if I go to Dublin, I can only eat and drink in the establishment where I am a resident, or eat outside, which really limits you. We have always done well with non-domestic summer business, the GB and ROI market, because we have a great location next door to Titanic Belfast.”
“But it has started an awful lot earlier from the Republic this year, simply because they have no alternatives.” He said the emerging trend is “very interesting to watch”. “They generally come up for multiple night stays, particularly the weekend. Mother of God, the number of bags from Victoria Square shopping centre.”
“They are shopping us out of house and home.“ It’s interesting because the euro to sterling exchange rate is not all that great at the moment, but they are still coming up, and a lot of them are telling us it’s their first time north of the border.“ We heard Cork accents and Kerry accents, which is definitely a new thing.
“There is an imaginary line between Dublin and Galway, and anyone who lives north of that would be quite familiar with us. But people below that line don’t generally visit Belfast, but that’s changing.”
Paul O’Hare, manager of the Duke of York pub in Belfast’s Cathedral quarter, said most of their weekend trade is people from Dublin.
“It would be from the south – I’d say 80pc,” he said.“ It used to be the other way around with all of us going down there to Dublin We would have always had people coming, but now due to Covid and the pubs not being open, there has been a lot more. The May bank holiday weekend, all the hotels around us were full of people from the south.”
“There are some couples, but there is a lot of big groups. They are coming up on the train and there has been no issue. Nobody is getting stopped or checked.”