What are the opening hours?

Monday 10am - 5pm Tuesday 10am - 5pm Wednesday 10am - 5pm Thursday 10am - 5pm Friday 10am - 5pm Saturday 10am - 5pm Sunday 10am - 5pm

Experience Belfast

Home
United Kingdom
Belfast
Experience Belfast

Immerse yourself in Belfast's history, politics, heritage and humour on our acclaimed tours . Life is a journey, make Experience Belfast part of yours.
(24)

Whether it's 'Troubles Tour: Walls & Bridges' or 'Hidden Belfast' we provide unique experiences.

17/08/2024

On Lombard Street in Belfast City Centre scurrying towards the Church to deliver Raymond his bacon bap, I feet hits something and hear the clackity clack of plastic on concrete. Initially I think I’ve dropped something but look down to see this syringe, blood still in the chamber. I lift it to bring it to Extern around the corner on Rosemary Street. They’re good people who dispose of needles safely but they’re closed so I put it out of harm’s way on top of a bin. There are a lot of hurt and damaged people in Belfast. You look at most addicts or alcoholics,there’s usually trauma and they need helped but leaving syringes were kid’s could lift them isn’t on:

16/08/2024

New day:

13/08/2024

Saturday selfie and the sun has hit so need for a woolly hat. Whatever way the sun is shining on my bald head, it’s highlighting solitary hairs that stand isolated, like lone trees that have somehow survived an atomic blast, in a post apocalyptic world. They’re reminders of what could have been, what was once a dense forest is now waste land. It amazes me that they grow, why can’t the others? Still I save on hair cuts. It doesn’t matter how talented the artist is, if they’ve no material to work with, they’re wasting their time.

11/08/2024

Saturday, the sun, a body we’ve heard vague rumours about but were never really sure existed, has returned to Belfast and with it the exodus of teenagers to the beach at Helen’s Bay. I’d forgotten about this but the busy platform and delayed train reminded me. I’m tired and desperate for a seat, preferably one that keeps me a safe distance from the teenagers. God knows where they’ve been.

I spy a fold down seat outside the toilet and grab it. I sit down to check my emails and follow up with people who were on the tour. When I look up, I see that the carriage is bunged and I’m surrounded by a cackle of teenage girls. They’ve fake tan and fake eyelashes, swigging from cans of mixer vodka; giddy with life and alcohol and on the lookout for drama and intrigue. A woman to my left announces to me that the train is full. She is in her 40s or 50s with a strawberry dye in her bleached blonde hair and speaks with a pronounced accent. Every part of her is screaming ‘ character’. On either side, I’m trapped. If I’d an ejector seat I’d have left through the roof.

The girls decide to go to the toilet but do what girls of that age have always done, they go collectively, all 8 of them squeeze in, commandeering it like a military manoeuvre. From outside murmured conversation can be heard interjected with loud, “Oh my God, No!” and shrieks of delight and or disgust. It’s hard to tell.

Shortly a young teenage boy appears but sees that the door is locked and stands there bewildered and confused, like Paul the Labrador when the bird he’s chasing flies off. It might be a fact of life that birds can fly and toilet doors can be closed but it somehow leaves Paul and this boy in a state of stupefied shock. My neighbour takes command of the situation, and raps loudly on the door. There is no response but this woman is not to be denied or messed with. I’d bet she has experience of teenagers most likely girls. Her accent is a wonderful mix of broad Belfast and East European,

“Open up, boy vants to do piss.”

The boy looks straight ahead hoping the door or ground will open and swallow him up.

“Stap acting ze bollix, open ze door, boy needs bathroom.’

She was loud before, she’s louder now and her knocks are short and sharp, carrying authority and menace. It’s impressive and it works.

The door opens with a sssh, it’s the same type of door you see on Star Trek and I, like Paul the Labrador or the teenage boy am left with my own sense of bewilderment and shock, “Isn’t the modern world wonderful? Even the railways have Star Trek type doors on their toilets!” Inside the girls are standing in two circles and uncoil without a word, vacating the room, free for the mortified boy.

The train pulls into a station which is packed and one girl shrieks,

“Oh my God, there’s Zane.”

I can’t believe this that someone in Belfast named their child Zane, what’s the matter with Frank? As a group, eyes turn to one girl who clearly had some sort of romantic entanglement with ‘Zane’. She shouts

“Oh No!” in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear. “”He’s getting on, what’ll I do.”

Sanctuary is found miraculously with the toilet door opening, the boy emerges and the space is filled by the girl and 4 or 5 others. The others remain in the carriage. Clearly within the group there is an inner cabinet. The train pulls off.

Zane walks past . You can tell Zane is Zane from the accusatory looks the other girls give him. Zane doesn’t clock this, he’s with his mates, has a football and seems more interested in organising a kick about than matters of the heart.

I bury my head in the phone but a blast from a v**e causes me to look up. Opposite me stands a girl, v**e in hand with the longest eyelashes I’ve ever seen. They’re enormous, the last time I seen anything like them a Cormorant was drying its wings. One good breeze and she’d be carried off to Scotland.

She seems mortified, catches my eye and mouths sorry. I don’t like v**es for lots of reasons but mostly because I suspect they’re lethal. At this moment the body count isn’t high enough for substantial evidence or legislation. It’ll be years before there is any proof or action and even then it’ll have to run the gauntlet of a cost benefit analysis; sustainability of profits against compensation for deaths. Add in the ‘no hard evidence’ factor and ‘Professor Easily Bought’ with counter evidence and I’m pretty sure I’ll see nothing happen about this in my lifetime.

Sometimes I will engage young people who v**e in conversations. I know it’s often futile but I can’t walk past or ignore the situation where I might make a difference. It’s my code, I can’t change the world but I try to positively affect that part of the world I come into contact with. This time I don’t bother, I’m tired but she reminds me of me, a lifetime ago on the Greystone Estate, getting out of my head. We all need a crutch sometime. I mouth that it’s ok.

The lady with the tan speaks to her instead.

“Zeez v**es are no good. You should stop.”

This is actually a command, the girl looks down. The lady continues,

“You going to beach at Helen’s Bay?”

“Yes, your hair is lovely.”

The lady takes the compliment and they engage in a conversation about hair styles. As a baldie, conversations about hair styles are phonetic quick sand so I largely turn off but the lady takes an interest in the girl complimenting her on her own style and making suggestions for improvement. The girl is thrilled and suddenly I see her tragedy; no one had ever taken an interest in this kid. She’s missing a parent figure and craving one. She is tentative but eager to strike up more conversation and more engagement with someone who says nice things about her.

“Would you like to come to the beach with us?”

“No, Helen’s Bay no good, nothink happening.”

I’m wondering what could ‘happen’ at Helen’s Bay, what are the lady’s expectations? San Tropez in the 1950s with Brigette Bardot seductively posing on golden sand, maybe Paris in the early 60s with Jean Luc Goddard or the Berlin Cabaret scene of Liza Minnelli. The girl is disappointed and looks at her v**e. The train pulls in, she scuttles off and is submerged by her friends.

05/08/2024

Also on yesterday’s tour was Robert DiLutis, graduate of Juilliard, clarinet virtuoso and professor of music at the University of Maryland. I’ve included a link to some of his extraordinary playing and beautiful music. Educated and cultured as he undoubtedly is, Robert had never heard of the Underones, a horrific omission that I soon corrected. To be fair to Robert, he pogoed along to Teenage Kicks.

I remember seeing Picasso’s ‘Woman Weeping’ and getting it; a light went on. The broad, vicious, angular lines conveying not just her grief but the viciousness of her pain, as though she was being constantly stabbed. That is what great art does, it illuminates our shared experience as we journey in humanity. We always see something of ourselves reflected back, an essential truth. It exists in classical music, Shakespeare, O’Casey, the writers and poets and artists who cast light and turn switches. It exists wherever you find it because it’s always been there, it’s always been in you, you just needed a little light to see it. It’s always existed in five urchins from Derry.

‘Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty
That is all you know on earth and all you need to know.’

Keats (who never wrote MyPerfect Cousin)

https://youtu.be/0JUZTz-GVbE?si=pTRs8lm4yo2khuFC

04/08/2024

After today’s tour with Azadeh, a girl who I assumed was in her early twenties but she is actually in her late 30s. I don’t know if she was pleased or affronted at my error, I suspect the former but she was hard to read. It’s a horrible fact that to these eyes everyone looks young. Doctors seem mere children to me but it’s always been this way; memories of my parents having similar conversations. Life is speeding up, five years now is the blink of an eye.

Azadeh is working at Trinity College in Dublin. She is researching mental health and the young. She holds a PhD in Psychology. She is the third person from today’s group with that level of academic qualification. I joke with her that to make a viable living, I need less PhDs and more morons and we both laugh.

She is from Iran and is dressed in casual western attire but has not returned home in decades. She is a refugee, not from western bombs, but from a fundamentalist religious authority whose morality police, enforce strict dress codes on young women and where some young women end up dead in police custody. Our conversation wanders to Ireland’s morality police and the vicious punitive sanctions, meted out to children born out of wedlock. The abuse and barbarism of a supposedly religious country where hundreds were buried in cess tanks in unmarked graves.

The fundamentalists in Belfast who oppose gay rights are often so clearly repressed that they are warped. There are very few of them I’d have ever trusted my kids with. From the Morality Police in Iran, to the Magdalene Laundries and Bible Thumping Bigots, it’s about control and power and universally it is applied first and foremost against women.

Neither Azadeh nor I are fans of organised religion. When people believe they’re on a mission from God, they can often do unspeakable things.

03/08/2024

Beautiful morning and at the beach I meet my cousin Colette who swims every Saturday morning with her friends. We’re good looking people or at least she is; age and male pattern baldness have liberated me from vanity. Back home, I noticed I’d a spot. It’ll not make much difference to my ‘looks’ either way, it’s hardly spoiling a masterpiece. With women it’s different, people invariably see the spot. Talk about not seeing the bigger picture.

As I age, I’ve become suspicious of perfect people. I wonder what they’re hiding, particularly men because no man is perfect, a fact that women will invariably point out. I prefer flawed men. Men who smoke and drink and curse because I can relate to them and because they are invariably more humane and more empathetic. We are tempered over time. Hammered into resilience by life and the blows it deals. To come through, battered and bruised but humane and empathetic is to be human.

27/07/2024

Today’s view which is pretty much yesterday’s view, except it’s not; everything changes and everything stays the same. Underneath are clumps of seaweed, some in strings, other’s like garden plants, rockeries in acqua. Yesterday, I swam over a scarf of seaweed, its sides undulating, billowing in the mild current. I was reminded of the dragons used in Chinese celebrations with people using sticks to create movement on the body.

I don’t like swimming over seaweed. As a boy, I was scared of the dangers lurking beneath the surface. I didn’t want to be the unsuspecting youth of Safety Films dragged to his doom by hidden serpents. Our memories sleep like rip tides until triggered into life. They rise like my exhaled breath under the waves bubbling to the surface seeking sunlight and liberty; the subconscious breaking free.

Other memories float too. I remembered going to the swimming pool as a child and afterwards we begged my ma for chips. Normally she said no but this time she said yes and we went to a chippie resplendent in chrome and black with adverts for Coca Cola and the smell of new chips and salt and vinegar. I can still taste it, the food and the excitement and the joy. Not all memories are dragons,some are echoes of love and life.

23/07/2024

Here comes the Sun! Oh joy unconfined:

22/07/2024

I never have high expectations for our summers. The odd blue sky and the fleeting appearance of the sun is enough for me. Besides which as a pale, white, Belfast boy, I’m not exactly made for the heat. Stand too long under a 60w bulb and I’d get sunburnt. I function best, in dank, gray days; in meteorological terms, I was made for the mundane. That said, given that Ireland is green for a reason and our weather can be dismal, this summer has been shocking. I have been drenched numerous times on the tour as have the people on it. So it was again this morning, Belfast Lough a symphony of gray, visibility down to a few hundred feet and the clouds so low, if I’d hair, it would have been soaking. I was dressed for February not July.

I’m hoping against hope that August will be better. If it does turn and we get any prolonged sunshine, after 2 days, Belfast will be alive to the low hum of whinging and complaining, “It’s too hot”, “I wasn’t made for this”, “I can’t sleep” etc.

21/07/2024

This morning I sat and looked at this view for 10 minutes. I swam in it and let it wash over me. The beach was deserted and I found myself thinking that I had my own private beach. This idea that exclusivity could improve or enhance the experience, that it was reserved for me is a nonsense. That’s not to say I don’t appreciate solitude because I do but how can you own this? It’s a form of conditioning I guard against. The world isn’t mine to own. Who wouldn’t want to share this? After my swim, I met a few regulars. Pleasantries and laughter were exchanged. When I first started, a lovely lady guided me through. She timed my stay in the water as it was winter and advised me when to get out. It’s what sold me on it, the people you meet are lovely. Life for me is a social event.

20/07/2024

This morning and a man is sweeping for lost treasure. He hasn’t been successful, informing me that his finds have been bottle tops and a cheap bracelet. “Not to worry”, he says, “the real treasure is this” as we look at a risen sun breaking through the clouds for a new day.

13/07/2024

You get to know people who go regularly to the beach. This is Jane who has the most wonderful smile and exudes glamour and beauty. I first noticed her and the man she comes with a few weeks back and what struck me was how close they were. I thought it wonderful and asked how long they’d been together,

“We’re just friends”, they replied

It made sense, if they’d been together decades they probably wouldn’t be speaking.

12/07/2024

This is taken from a fan page. I got to know Henry well. He was going to play on the tune that is played as part of the tour until life got in the way: “Henry left Wings shortly before they were due to fly to Lagos, Nigeria, for the recording of ‘Band on The Run’. He and Paul came to a showdown over styles of playing and he was unhappy about taking directions from Paul. Henry told me: ‘I had a row with Paul over what to play and where to play it. And it was quite severe – “You’ll fu***ng do this, like I’m the boss”, Paul said. [I said] “We’ll see about that, you c***”, and I just packed my guitar, stuck my amp in the car and set sail. And that was my stint in Wings done.’

03/07/2024

Morning everyone, took this photo this morning, just looked at it and burst out laughing. I look magnificently gormless. I think my dream of running a George Clooney look-a-like business has finally been crushed on the cold, hard rocks of reality.

30/06/2024

In the city Centre, I spot Charlie Mcgeady who is a coach driver. We used to work together for Newmarket Holidays. I use the word work very loosely. He and I had a laugh and behind us were 53 English people who seemed to enjoy it.

He was sitting outside the Ramada with the door open and passengers/victims seated behind him. I stepped on and bellowed,

“Why won’t you admit, you’re my father?”

Heads started to turn and I was away. I know quite a few lunatics, I seem to collect them. It’s a high barre and McGeady is right up there. I got one over on him today, the only trouble is that he won’t forget it. It’s what’s called Craic.

28/06/2024

Today I say farewell to a lifelong friend, Joe Breen. It’s a very sad day but spotted with happy memories none more so than the he tried to teach me to scuba dive. It’s my favourite picture of us together. I’m on the right.

23/06/2024

From the sea to Belfast City Hospital by way of the City Hall and the ‘Peace Walls’. The dark black stones on the old building are the old workhouse walls. As the workhouses had infirmaries, they were incorporated into the NHS in 1948. That’s 13 years before I was born. It’s shocking because when you think of the Workhouse it tends to be Dickensian.

Outside the City Hall, a man with a large Rainbow Flag, stands directly opposite a group of born again ‘Christian’s’ blasting out gospel music. The ‘Christian’s’ condemn homosexuality, it is in their eyes an abomination. I’ve never understood their issue. Why not live and let live? Besides which, they protest too much. You can only really hate that which you once loved.

At some point most people in Belfast will visit the Hospice. I did this week. The last time I was there was when my mother passed away. It can be desperately sad but most times I’ve been, there has always been laughter and so it was again because the emphasis is on living and going around with a face like a slapped arse isn’t welcomed or appreciated. You see the best of people in a hospice. People are United by their suffering and fear and humanity because in Belfast Cancer is the great equaliser. It is wonderfully non sectarian.

It’s sad beyond measure that it takes a lethal illness to remind us of our common humanity. There’s a crack in everything that’s how the light gets in. Such a beautiful day but for some it’s one of their saddest ever. Thinking of a friend who loved the sea. We come and go like waves on a shore.

21/06/2024

There are reviews and there are reviews:

19/06/2024

Eye Candy for the Ladies!

18/06/2024

Portrait of my friend, Raymond O’Regan, historian and author. To his right is The Little Book of Belfast and further along, his first book, Hidden Belfast.

Raymond is a man of diverse talents and interests, one of which is the popular soap Emmerdale. In conversations recently he has detailed the problem of the scripts on Emmerdale. To say they’re poor is an understatement, they actually leave Raymond angry. The other evening, he rang up to tell me exactly this.

“Well stop watching.”

“I should but I’m hooked.”

“An Emmerdale junkie?”

“I suppose I am.”

Today Raymond was bemoaning the fact that the football had bumped Emmerdale from the ITV schedule.

“ I thought you hated the scripts.”

“I do.”

“So you’re annoyed because the football has stopped you getting the chance to get annoyed?”

“Probably….”

He doesn’t need Emmerdale to get annoyed the man could start an argument in an empty room and I’ve seen him do this which makes him likeable in my book. He also opens the church voluntarily, helps out at a food bank and delivers food to those who are isolated.

We have a lot of ostentatious Christianity in Belfast. The City Centre is awash with people who have been saved. They approach with leaflets and smug, smiles. They tell me they’re Christian’s. They shouldn’t have to tell me, I should be able to tell. I don’t like them because their belief is certain and those not on board are damned. If they’re going to heaven, I’d rather go to hell with Emmerdale on repeat andTerri Hooley providing the music.

17/06/2024

Blue Monday!

16/06/2024

I’d the beach to myself this morning!

13/06/2024

Good morning everyone!

12/06/2024

After today’s tour, at the church I encountered members of the Irish Labour History Society
(ILHS)

https://www.irishlabourhistorysociety.com

They’re Dublin based and have a museum and display. They were in Belfast to relaunch a couple of books, one of which, ‘The Irish Influence: Building the League of Nations and the International Labour Organisation’ is by Belfast man Gerry Finnegan (4th from right as you look).

During the Second World War, a man from the Ormeau Road in Belfast, Seán Lester was Secretary General to the League of Nations. Lester was a Protestant. A southern Catholic, Edward Phelan, became Director-General of the International Labour Organization. They held their positions during the Second World War.

The book is published by Beyond the Pale Books. I knew nothing of this until this afternoon. Every day is a school day; life is a continuous process of evolution or progression or it should be. It seems for every evolution there’s redaction to the lower elements of our human condition. Across the planet, the right seem to be on the rise. Disgruntled, disregarded and dispossessed people are looking for answers and their hurts are balmed by the soothing unctures of simplistic slogans and nationalist certainties. The only thing we learn from history is we never learn from history. The men in the photo are academics but nobody came to their event. I’m pretty certain that if they’d women involved that wouldn’t have happened.

I’d imagine that will change because I know they’ll keep going. They told me so. They’ll keep working towards the light and that in itself is its own victory.

11/06/2024

Pictured today with Terri Hooley whose record label and story were told in the film, Good Vibrations. I include this on my walking tour but do so to explain bigger truths. The film is brilliant and funny and joyous. It contains one of my favourite ever lines. One of his friends confronts Terri and tells him that he’s drinking too much. Terri responds,
“Drinking too much? This is Belfast, everybody we know drinks too f***ing much!” This is true but there are reasons for this and underneath the fun stereotype, the reasons often relate to trauma.

08/06/2024

The sun shines down on Belfast!

Address

Chichester Street
Belfast
BT1

Opening Hours

Monday	10am - 5pm
Tuesday	10am - 5pm
Wednesday	10am - 5pm
Thursday	10am - 5pm
Friday	10am - 5pm
Saturday	10am - 5pm
Sunday	10am - 5pm

Website

http://www.experiencebelfast.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Experience Belfast posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Videos

Police arriving in Belfast City Centre prior to the 12th July parades which will converge on the city. These parades celebrate the victory of Protestant King William III over his father in law Catholic King James II in 1690. The fact that 334,years later they’re still an issue tells a tale: #kingwilliam #belfast #parade

Acoustic version of Pessimistic Man, an uplifting song about being down. Originally recorded in Manchester a lifetime ago. #madchester #indierock #Fallover24 #belfast

Helen’s Bay is20 minutes by train from Belfast. If you fancy,wild swimming;this is your place:#wildswimming #seaswimming#belfast

#irishweather #summer

Helen’s Bay is 20 minutes by train from Belfast. #seaswimming #beach #belfast

It looks like it’s going to be a beautiful day. Greetings from Belfast Lough! #goodmorning #seaswimming #beach #belfast

January 2024 and I don’t think there’s anywhere else in this world I’d rather be. I am so grateful to be alive to be able to savour and enjoy this beautiful winter's beach scene at Helen's Bay near Belfast. The video was taken just before I went in for a swim. I came out exhilarated with the renewed sense that anything is possible. For a balloon like me, reckless in an understated way, it’s a big step. The world will turn, the seasons will change. #Gratitude #LifeIsBeautiful #Helen'sBay #Belfast #WinterBeach #AliveAndThankful #EnjoyingLife

On the Falls Road at the international Wall, I met mural artist Danny Devenny. The whole wall is being given over to mural artists from Palestine. This means that the Bobby Sands mural has disappeared. It is hoped that other cities will follow suit.#murals #belfast #stopthegenocide #palestine

The ‘Peace Walls’ between the communities in Belfast. There are 48 permanent Peace Walls in Belfast. More have been built in the 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement. #peacewalls #borders #peace

Peace Walls in Belfast, 25 years after the Good Friday Agreement. Since the Agreement more walls have been built in Belfast. For a better understanding of Why, choose the Troubles Walking Tour which looks at what’s hidden in plain sight: www.experiencebelfast.com. #belfast #borders #walls #politics #theotherside

A new Dawn for the New Year. Greetings from Belfast! #newyear #NewYearJoy #seaside #belfast

A New Year’s Greeting! #happynewyear #belfast #grumpyoldmen

The ‘Peace Walls’ in Belfast still standing 25 years after the Good Friday Agreement. Since the Agreement, more have been built. The physical manifestations of prejudice. It’s easy to build a wall or a border to close a road or a mind, harder to keep them open. www.experiencebelfast.com. #peacewall #walls #borders #troubles #belfast

Paul the Labrador going for a quick swim in Belfast Lough: #Labrador #woof #sealife #Belfast

Dawn- Christmas Day, Belfast Lough 2023 #Daybreak #dawn

Christmas Greetings from Belfast. #christmas #belfast

Hullo Everybody, have a fabulous day! #christmastime #seaswimming #belfast

Closing the gates between the communities in Belfast. Every night they’re closed as is the adjacent road, some 25 years after the Good Friday Agreement. #peacewalls #borders

Book now: https://experiencebelfast.com/hidden-belfast-walking-tour/ #HiddenBelfast #WalkingTour #LocalExperience #ExploreBelfast #FunTimes #DiscoverBelfast #ChristmasTour #LocalGuides #BelfastHiddenGems #CityTour #ChristmasInBelfast #WalkingAdventure #VisitBelfast #HiddenHistory #LocalCulture #ChristmasFun #BelfastTourism