Belfast: A city reborn
Because the new narrative about Belfast is future-facing and outward-focused, we wish Dr Richard Haass well in his endeavours to find compromise among the political parties on the key issues which continue to bedevil progress in the building of peace and reconciliation between our people.
For actions on the streets of Belfast will either complement or negate the positive messages coming from a city now recognised as the fastest-growing knowledge economy in Europe and a beacon of peacemaking.
At a formal meeting yesterday with Dr Haass, I didn’t get to explore his delicious use of the word ‘pivot’ which has caused so much excitement among the media, but I did tell him the people of Belfast travelled forward with confidence and hope in his ability to find the common ground between our political and civic leaders.
And I believe that wish to move forward is shared by the vast majority of our people, and most especially by our young people who continue to impress me by their drive and ambition.
Certainly, the young people I met in Queen’s University later yesterday at the launch of the Young City Leaders group and the City Scholarship Programme — backed by entrepreneurs Sean Hunt and Michael George and providing placements in financial companies in Dublin, London and New York — renewed my faith in the ability of our young people to write a new chapter in the story of Belfast.
I saw in them the same determination to succeed and give back to the future Belfast that I saw in my engagments this week with Tomaí O Connghaile and Máire Bhreatnach at the BBC studios for a recording of a new BBC programme I Lár an Aonaigh and at Cultúrlann MacAdaim-Ó Fiaich where I launched a new bilingual property sales service by young businessman Andy McCallin. I saw that vision of a resurgent Belfast also when I was asked this week to launch the magnificent CS Lewis Fest in the heart of East Belfast. Blessed with this new generation of talented and gifted young people, Belfast will surely rise to new heights.
That’s the message I will bring to North America this week when I address a gathering of tourism agents in Washington DC to unveil our plans for a new convention centre — due to open in 2016 — and a breakfast the following morning, courtesy of Norman Houston of the NI Bureau, for the Belfast Diaspora.
From there it will be on to New Brunswick, NJ, (home of Rutgers University and pharma giant J&J) for a reception with Mayor James Cahill and the Irish-American community — led by Francis Schott — as well as a breakfast in New York to discuss plans to bring the first-ever American Ireland Fund investment mission to Belfast. I know I will also receive the red carpet treatment in Toronto where Tourism Ireland and the Canadian Ireland Fund are hosting a brunch to weclome (from next April) the re-opening of a direct link from Toronto to the island of Ireland. I will also take some private time to meet the peacemakers of Friends of Sinn Féin and urge them to continue their efforts to build the peace here.
In truth, the people of Belfast have given me a great story to tell about a city reborn; a city braced for the most exciting seven years in its history between now and 2020. Telling that story to our friends in North America is the easy part.
P.S. I am growing a Mo, Australian slang for moustache, as part of the Movember craze born Down Under and now worldwide, to raise funds for the men’s mental health services of Belfast suicide prevention charity PIPS. You can contribute to my efforts at my JustGiving site.
