Irish Independent - We had no high hopes of seeing the partial solar eclipse.
Met Eireann had been confidently pessimistic - predicting a blanket of cloud wrapped over Ireland like a goose down duvet.
Claudia Winkleman's Antigua adventure
Tatler - If you're anything like me, you're fed up with making decisions. What are we going to call the baby? What soup are we going to eat? Where should this lamp thing I bought go? Who's coming for supper? Should I give up sugar or gluten? I'm DONE with deciding stuff. It's all I do, all day long...
Titanic Belfast wins top international themed entertainment award
ArtDaily - Titanic Belfast has won an Outstanding Achievement Award from the world’s top themed entertainment association, based in the United States. Themed Entertainment Association (TEA), recognises excellence in the visitor attraction...
Doherty’s Harcourt agree €77.6 deal for London hotel
Donegal News - The International property company owned by Buncrana born developer Pat Doherty has just agreed a deal to sell its five-star hotel overlooking Chelsea Harbour in London for €77.6 million.
Harcourt Developments closed the deal to sell the Wyndham Grand Hotel to Millennium and Copthorne Hotels, a British based hotel operator.
The luxury hotel which comprises 158 suites, a spa and a restaurant overlooking Chelsea marina was put on the market as the capital’s only five-star luxury all-suite hotel.
Ireland's second biggest bondholder has Rolling Stones play private show
Billionaire Edouard Carmignac is one of France's richest men, and his €50bn company, Carmignac Gestion, is now the second-largest holder of Irish bonds after Michael Hasenstab at Franklin Templeton.
The Rolling Stones played a private gig for his top clients recently and he plays polo where he hangs out with Prince Harry and Harcourt Developments' Pat Doherty...
Titanic Belfast had 800,000 visitors in year
BBC News - The number of visitors to Titanic Belfast has exceeded all expectations, according to Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness. The first and deputy first ministers were at the attraction to mark its first anniversary.
According to figures compiled by Stormont, more than 800,000 people from 128 countries visited Titanic Belfast in its first year. It had been predicted it would need 290,000 visitors a year to break even.
Still One Of The Caribbean's Best Resorts: Antigua's Carlisle Bay
Titanic endeavour of Freud's 'Donegal Man'
Titanic Belfast : Will it rival Disneyland, Tate Modern and the Guggenheim?
BBC News - It is the biggest launch Belfast's waterfront has seen in a 100 years. The last one was the Titanic itself.
Now a century later the slipways are dominated by the imposing Titanic Belfast centre designed to commemorate the most famous vessel ever built.
Titanic endeavour: Simon Calder previews Belfast’s newest attraction
Independent - A century after Titanic set sail from Belfast prior to her tragic maiden journey, a £97m tribute to the ship and her makers is almost ready.
"That's where she was built. That's where she was designed. That's where the workers lived." Noel Molloy is a man with a mission to explain – and entertain. He is project manager for Titanic Belfast, a structure as monumental as the ship it commemorates.
Like a magnificent liner in the final stages of construction, the shell of Northern Ireland's new landmark is complete. Sprouting from a quay overlooking Belfast Lough is an angular, aluminium-clad eruption. Imagine if Ikea made a flatpack ship, and someone had made a right old muddle of the instructions: that's roughly how Titanic Belfast looks.
Titanic project will be a success, says Peter Robinson
Belfast Telegraph - The multi-million pound Titanic Signature Building in Belfast will become an international attraction, First Minister Peter Robinson says.
He and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness sprung to the defence of the project after a recent Audit Office report cast doubt over its long-term prospects.
The biggest single tourism project launched in Northern Ireland, the building will require an estimated 290,000 visitors a year to break even.
The luck of the Irish... Pat Doherty
BBeyond Magazine - Pat Doherty, the man who built Harcourt Developments, is not a high profile tycoon. The unprepossessing Irishman is all about substance rather than style - his younger peers in the property developments business have much to learn from him.
He rarely, if ever, gives interviews because he doesn’t need to...
Belfast's £5bn Titanic Quarter development ‘where the city’s future lies’
Belfast Telegraph - There could be no stronger endorsement of the £5bn Titanic Quarter development in Belfast than that delivered yesterday by University of Ulster chief economist Mike Smyth when he said “it is the future of Belfast”.
Yesterday banking giant Citibank unveiled its new offices at the development which has transformed the city’s waterfront area. Titanic Quarter can already claim Belfast Metropolitan College, Audi and the Northern Ireland Science Park, and many more businesses are expected to follow despite the tough economic times.
Jersey's Liberty Wharf shopping centre opens
BBC News - After a six month delay Jersey's new shopping centre has opened its doors.
Liberty Wharf is based at the former abattoir site in St Helier and features Marks and Spencer, Pasty Presto and Costa Coffee.
Gerry Comaskey, of the builders Harcourt Developments, said work on the historical site had been a detailed and meticulous process.
Harcourt signs up Foxtons founder Hunt
Red line investment 'a winner'
Irish Independent - TAOISEACH Brian Cowen has described the decision of developers to pay more than half the cost of a new Luas line as a "win-win" situation.
The 4.6km line will extend the current Red line service by a further five stops to areas including Saggart, Cheeverstown and the Citywest business campus in Dublin.
New York mayor gives his seal of approval
Belfast Newsletter - Belfast is waking up to a new economic horizon, the man who leads the "city that never sleeps" declared yesterday.
Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York, one of the major figures attending this week’s US-NI investment conference, revealed how impressed he was with Belfast’s rejuvenation as he helped launch the new Financial Services Centre in the city’s Titanic Quarter.
Companies’ contribution to the arts ‘truly enriches our society’
Irish Examiner - HARCOURT Developments and Heritage Properties were among the winners of the Allianz Business to Arts awards, which were presented in Dublin last night by President Mary McAleese.
The awards, now in their 16th year, honour the contribution of businesses in Ireland to the arts.
President McAleese said last night: “The arts flourish where patronage is strong… At this event we get a clear view of what corporate social responsibility can accomplish when it allies itself to the arts.”
Peace fuels prosperity in NI
Irish Independent - The timing of the latest political breakthrough in Northern Ireland could scarcely have been more opportune for the ambitious £5bn Titanic Quarter project in Belfast - Europe's biggest waterfront regeneration project.
Final curtain on Smith Square - sold for £30m
Daily Telegraph - The new owner of the former Conservative Central Office has spoken of the “buzz” of buying the site of 50 years of Tory election victories, and back stabbings and plots.
The Daily Telegraph revealed today how Conservative Party has sold its famous former head office in Smith Square, Westminster, for £30.5 million.
The buyer is Irish property company Harcourt Developments, which counts Andrew Parker Bowles, former husband of Camilla, as one of its non-executive directors.