A mere decade ago, Belfast’s Europa Hotel was known for its shatterproof windows and concrete barricades, designed to discourage those who had already bombed the building 32 times. Today, the grande dame of Belfast hotels has transformed from lockdown to luxury, with a glass-walled, almost whimsical-looking lobby and a guest list that includes Bill Clinton and Lionel Richie.

While Northern Ireland’s “troubles” may not be over, hopes for peace — fueled by 1998’s Good Friday accords — have turned this former war zone into an economic powerhouse. Belfast’s young, well-educated residents have embraced technology and foreign investment — and they’re hoping jobs will follow.

This is a city accustomed to dramatic changes of fortune. Belfast was settled by English and Scottish Protestants during the reign of Britain’s James I (1603-1625). Those Protestant settlers acquired a great deal of Northern Ireland’s land and wealth and had no desire to secede from the United Kingdom when Ireland gained its independence in 1922. Decades of bitter and bloody fighting between the Catholic Irish Republican Army and the Protestant Ulster Defense Association left Belfast scarred and divided, with chain-link “peace lines” separating Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods and with British troops patrolling the streets. Although those wounds began to heal in 1999 when leaders from both sides agreed to form a coalition government, outbursts of violence continue. Still, the people of Belfast believe the worst is behind them.

Concerns about safety have been replaced by concerns about economic security. Once known for its shipbuilding, printing, rope-making and spinning industries, Belfast lost much of its private-sector economy during the years of conflict. By 1989, 45 percent of its employees worked in public administration and defense. Peace has brought Belfast a workforce that is young (54 percent are under 30), optimistic — and in need of jobs. Overall unemployment has dropped from 5.9 percent to 4.7 percent in the last three years, but for the 18- to 24-year-old set, it’s a whopping 11.3 percent. In an attempt to remedy that situation, the government and private industry have joined together to promote Belfast as a city with a highly skilled workforce, as an affordable place to do business and as a tourist destination.

Thanks to foreign and domestic investment, the Laganside Project (www.laganside.com) has transformed the city’s riverside mud flats into the beautiful Lanyon Place, a sprawling complex of arenas, theaters, cafes, residential, retail and office space. Waterfront Hall, nominated Best Conference Venue in Europe in 2002 by the Association of International Congress Centres, and the five-star Hilton Belfast are located here. Belfast’s famed shipyards (the Titanic was built here) have lost business to China and Korea, but the Port of Belfast has become Britain’s largest ferry port, with 2 million passengers and 340,000 freight vehicles arriving each year. Its central city warehouses, once filled with Irish linen, are now sought-after commercial office space. And the city has become so well known as a location for service centers that even India is outsourcing its business here: HCL Technologies, one of India’s leading ICT service and product engineering companies, recently brought 75 new jobs to a Belfast call center.

Tourists are discovering what residents of Belfast have known for years: Irish hospitality is just as warm — and a pint of stout tastes just as good — here as it does in Dublin, but a night on the town costs a bit less. Belfast is a great walking city. Wander among the trees of the Botanic Gardens and the Black Hills, through Catholic Falls Road and Protestant Shankill neighborhoods, or along Laganside and through the Cathedral Quarter.

It’s at night, though, that the city really comes to life. You can find an Irish pub in any major city in the world, but only on Belfast’s Golden Mile can you find one playing retro disco, ska or ’60s soul, with cutting-edge DJs or blues bands or conversations so wild — and yet so relaxed — that you wish you could stop laughing long enough to write them down. Whether they’re the students partying in Queen’s Quarter or the hipsters shuffling down the cobblestone streets of the Cathedral Quarter, people in Belfast know how to have a good time.

Getting around Belfast is easy. In addition to an efficient road system, Belfast’s Translink network connects its inner-city Citybus with the wide-ranging Ulsterbus and Northern Ireland Railways. The city is served by two major airports — Belfast City (BHD) and Belfast International (BFS). Most major airlines connect to Belfast through London. In May, Continental Airlines will become the first U.S. carrier to offer daily nonstop service between Newark (EWR) and Belfast.

The United States is the largest single investor in Northern Ireland, with 160 U.S.-owned firms employing about 22,000 people. North Americans purchase 22 percent of Northern Irish manufactured goods, and 78,000 Americans visited Northern Ireland last year. Belfast has done everything possible to enhance this relationship. The city signed a three-way trade agreement with Boston and Nova Scotia in 1997, and included Boston in a four-way agreement with Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Portland, Maine, in 2000. In addition, private groups like Investment Belfast and Friends of Belfast are offering connections and financial incentives to lure software developers, biotechnology firms and shared service centers to a city with relatively low wages, flexible labor laws and a pace of business life that’s a little more relaxed than in other Irish cities.

That calm may not last long. Housing prices, though still lower than in many parts of Britain and Ireland, are rising faster than in any other city in the United Kingdom. Technology, too, is accelerating the speed of life: The home of the world’s oldest continually published newspaper, the Belfast News Letter, will soon become the first region in the United Kingdom or Europe to provide high-speed Internet access to every home, urban or rural. And with tourism steadily increasing, it may soon be as difficult to book a room at the Europa Hotel as it once was to convince people to visit this city. That’s a problem the people of Belfast can live with.

BUSINESS RESOURCES

BELFAST CITY COUNCIL

Development Department
Belfast City Hall
Belfast BT1 5GS
Northern Ireland
tel 44 028 9032 0202
www.belfastcity.gov.uk

BELFAST TELEGRAPH BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT UNIT

Aine Lavery (Manager)
124-144 Royal Ave.
Belfast BT1 1EB
Northern Ireland
tel 44 028 9055 4615
www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

DEPARTMENT OF ENTERPRISE, TRADE AND INVESTMENT

Netherleigh Massey Avenue
Belfast BT4 2JP
Northern Ireland
tel 44 028 9052 9900
www.detini.gov.uk

INVESTMENT BELFAST

Fifth Floor
40 Linenhall St.
Belfast BT2 8BA
Northern Ireland
tel 44 028 9033 1136, fax 44 028 9033 1137
www.investmentbelfast.com

INVEST NORTHERN IRELAND

Franklin Street
Belfast BT 1
Northern Ireland
tel 44 028 9024 2582
fax 44 028 9024 9730
www.investni.com