béal feirste
the third city…béal feirste…
for a look at what wiki has to say about béal feirste “click here”
The following is a diary entry for a day of a returning visitor, no more than myself will remember, it was not that important…
What do I eat?
I arrived via train to béal feirste on Thursday 03/01/2008… I had a packets of crisps and a bar of chocolate, and past the time by reading the Irish times newspaper purchased for €1.70 prior to the train departing Clarke’s Station, Dundalk…
On arrival at the train station I purchased a large bottle of water and promptly headed toward the switch room gallery the point of rendez vous with friends…
Having seen the exhibition in the switch room gallery titled …10 artists plus 10 architects a RSUA project focusing on the collaboration between artists and yes you’ve guessed it architects… it proved hungry work and we decided to head for lunch at around 1pm in a local Irish pub “Whites Tavern” it was very agreeable food, large portions and I choose a combination of chips, salad [mostly lettuce] and some beef. While my friends had some homemade vegetable soup and tuna main courses. I also had a pint of Magners and a Pint of water to help wash the food down…
On leaving the pub I left one friend to meet another two friends and past colleagues from my study at degree in Belfast, we proceeded to an old haunt of ours, a tea shop around from our uni and just close to the city centre, inside once we had lay temporary claim to a bench and table we ordered, Andrew asking for a hot chocolate, Myself asking for a Tea an Earl Grey, while Lesley asked for a Breakfast [meaning breakfast tea] however he misunderstood and said that they did not sell breakfasts [this was 3pm in the afternoon] but we quickly resolved the confusion and laughed at the idea of Lesley having such an appetizing splurge…
On leaving the tea shop, we went to say goodbye and talked about meeting up again and planning a visit by them to Sheffield, then exchanged hugs and….oh yeah checked the time I was due to meet back up with my other friend Eoin who I had lunched with earlier at 6pm however it was only 4.30pm so ensue a little embarrassing moment where I said actually I don’t have to leave yet…and said great I get another hug later…I went over to the local shop and bought some more water and a can of Diet Coke…consuming the coke as I walk and talked…and stored the water in my bag…
At 5.46pm we left the University where we had visited due to Lesley needing to collect some work…and headed around to the new cultural quarter of Belfast, something has gone horribly wrong a cultural quarter???? A financial money-spinner…me thinks and the last time I checked a quarter is missing another/or/ relies on three areas or three quarters to make up the whole. [City] Belfast along with many Cities has let this simple idea go…
I met back up with Eoin who had been indulging in a couple of hours of shopping, and seemed to have found a number of interesting purchases in the “rusty zip” clothes shop…we [myself and Eoin] headed off to a restaurant when having said goodbye to the others [for real this time.] the restaurant am:pm just a stones throw to the east of city hall where we shared in having some tap as, garlic bread, chili chicken strips, mini pizza bread, and some sour cream potatoes all of which proved to be an enjoyable mouthful… and once more enjoyed with a number of glasses of water…once finished we parted ways an I left to catch a returning train to Dundalk while Eoin navigated his was back to castle court market behind which his car was parked…
The visit was a great success and had limited waste, there was waste in terms of the work produced at the switch room exhibition, I wouldn’t way wasteful to myself as its worth seeing how “collaborations” can go so wrong…and produce work showing this with fantastic clarity…the other waste the I was conscious of was the superfluous waste of my money on a train ticket costing €20 for a relatively short journey and average service…the other waste that I could of seem but didn’t was the often littered commercial street of royal avenue but with the frost, snow and post Christmas fatigue the regular Thursday late night shoppers were not out in their almost unwavering force and therefore the streets remained unspoiled.
what’s the weather like?
béal feirste weather “click here”
Severe weather conditions caused widespread disruption across Northern Ireland with roads being flooded in the aftermath of the snow…this was the title of a weather bulletin I heard while waiting to catch my 8.10pm train…I was almost home on the train when I received a message through on my mobile phone it was from Eoin asking to see if I needed a lift fearing I had not been able to travel due to the weather… I replied saying I had returned safely and for him to take it easy on the drive back to Newcastle, as the road had not been gritted to help aid car to road friction…
how does the land lie?
The land of Belfast lay in up to 16cm of snow in places others higher depending on how tall the snowmen stood, adding a fantastic whiteness to the city, and due to the continuing falling snow the feeling of heightened senses and the conscious need to take awareness of each foot step…basically it forced a rethinking of surroundings…well that was until I was comfortably and more warmly inside a train carriage heading slowly Southwards to Dundalk…crossing field after field of whiteness but achieving views only in the double figures out of the train window compared with the views of rolling hills of the countryside as was experienced earlier that morning on the same route to Belfast…
who owns this?
The following is an article I read about the current state of co-ownership in Northern Ireland compared with that of Great Britain
The issue of affordable housing has occupied a good deal of the Assembly’s time, just as it occupies a good many column inches in newspapers and is a frequent news item on broadcast media. It is a matter of deep and immediate concern to every family in Northern Ireland, and it is a fitting subject to occupy the Assembly’s time. In a sense, all housing problems are related; the general level of house prices has an impact on the number of homes available for purchase, which, in turn, has an impact on the affordable housing stock.
Two problems lie at the heart of the affordable housing issue: one is the price of the house in question; and the second is the prospective purchaser’s ability to pay for it. Many solutions have been suggested to adjust the price of houses downward. I do not intend to dwell on those issues today, other than to say that some of the solutions that have been proposed are self-defeating. It is always dangerous to interfere with the operation of a free market, which often has unintended consequences.
The price of property in the apartment and town-house market, which is the type of housing that first-time buyers find manageable, has been driven up relentlessly by the operation of buy-to-let mortgages. Such mortgages have created a level of demand that has led to inevitable rises in house prices. We must end buy-to-let mortgages that allow speculators to speculate on the cheap. People who invest in the buy-to-let market should borrow money at normal commercial bank rates. That would leave the apartment and town-house market open to first-time buyers without that disproportionate level of competition. We should also regard apartments as suitable first-time homes, much as is the case on the Continent. Every day, Northern Ireland becomes more and more like the rest of Europe.
It is unreasonable that self-interested pressure groups prevent first-time buyers from getting homes by restricting infill development in urban areas. Although some areas have settled characters that are worth preserving, many others are not worth preserving. Some of our housing stock is in a sorry state, and it must be upgraded with modern, high-standard buildings.
New developments will revitalise our towns and town centres with an influx of young first-time buyers into areas that are ageing and sometimes dying. I am not against some restrictions on infill development, but I totally oppose blanket bans on such development. The Assembly must protect the interests of first-time buyers against self-interested groups that want to stop all building. If we cannot build in the country or the town, where is left?
I want to turn to the core issue behind the motion. The second main problem behind the affordable housing issue is how the prospective purchaser will pay for the house he or she hopes to buy.
Shared ownership is the most obvious solution to that problem; however, it is one that has not been adequately or properly explored in Northern Ireland.
I want to see an increase in the range and diversity of options available. The issue of what is on offer must be tackled. Affordability, in the last resort, is determined by the mortgages available, and the best way to expand those is by widening the range of shared equity options. At present in Northern Ireland a shared equity homeowner will own between 40% and 75% of his or her home and pay rent for the remainder. In Great Britain, it ranges from 25% to 75%. That additional range at the lower end of the scale, from 40% down to 25%, makes an enormous difference to the number of people who qualify for the scheme and can use shared equity as a step on the ladder to home ownership. Those people could own 25% of the equity in their homes and pay rent on the rest. That could become a major weapon in our armoury in tackling the affordable housing crisis.
The average house in Northern Ireland costs between £180,000 in Londonderry and Strabane and £260,000 in Lisburn. In my Upper Bann constituency, the average price is £222,000. Across Northern Ireland, the average price for a terraced house is £177,000 and for an apartment, £183,000. Taking these as the entry points for first-time buyers, with an average price of £180,000, the difference between a 40% and 25% level of equity is £27,000 — the difference between a first-time buyer’s having to find £72,000 or £45,000. That great difference of 40% in the base amount would be of enormous assistance to those who aspire to home ownership. The affordable housing landscape would be transformed in one easy and achievable move.
There are good reasons why this is the right time to take action on shared equity. Shared ownership, together with an end to buy-to-let mortgages, is the mechanism to make that happen.
what does this stand for?
demographics, history, change, migration…
“Stormont discussed Paisley arrest Secret files from 1977 show senior Stormont officials believed Ian Paisley was associated with paramilitaries.”
This is yet another comical punch line in the stand up comedy that is the politics of northern Ireland…I imagine in the near future a headline will read “Stormont discussed Adams or McGuiness arrest over beliefs of former associations with paramilitaries” maybe that’s the punch line or maybe punch is to crude a word…since there is the “cloak of peace” and the over use of “process” and “SITUATION”… my own take on events are that the new assembly of the north of Ireland is a good move one that will take time to see the benefits through implementing the wishes and the desires for the people of the north,
béal feirste… TOPOGRAPHY…topagrafaíocht
béal feirste… OWNERSHIP…lunéireacht
béal feirste… POLITICS…pholaitíocht
The following is a mapping of a central area of Belfast City Centre [South East] located behind City Hall, the recent development in Belfast has come very fast and furious, there has been much demolition of the past, and with it the cultural identity that the North of Ireland has struggled with so often, in this new wave of having both a political assembly, and a new found wealth the area of this study represents this sporadic and fast pace move to build and to in some part replicate the success of that seen in the Republic through the strength of the once roaring Celtic tiger. This opportunity to do something new and highly beneficial seems to have been falling on deaf ears with a some what desperate need to build city centre apartments with a price tag similar to an entire terrace house, the developers have eyes only for money, they aren’t aware of the things that work so adversely to their notion of city centre living as achieved in other European capital cities, firstly there exists no city after the commercial centre closes at 5pm in the evenings making the needs of milk, bread or purchasing an electricity credit near impossible unless you benefit from a mode of transport to take you to the suburbs or alternatively to the South area of the city due University Semester time as it seems to exist in a separate world to that of the rest of Belfast…a world where money is the main driving force for change and can over come the diifficulties of other areas simply by naming your price…
THE INANIMATE WALL PRESENTS…Amélie
the understanding of my table reflecting and/or representing my declaration of interdependence…
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