Kit Harington on Belfast: “It’s wonderful for two or three days…”

As I said of similar comments by HBO’s Michael Lombardo last year, With so much of some Northern Ireland Executive ministers‘ time and effort [and other people’s money! – Ed] focused on exploiting the international success of HBO’s Game of Thrones to promote Northern Ireland overseas, it’s perhaps unfortunate, but refreshing, that HBO’s director of programming, Michael Lombardo, has given an honest answer to a straight question… This time, it’s one of the leading actors from HBO’s Game of Thrones, Kit Harington, telling …

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Fisk reminisces.

From the Independent: You can check in any time you want – but you can never leave.: On the Europa Hotel’s message pads, my handwriting records “2 sold VSI RVH” (two soldiers very seriously ill Royal Victoria Hospital), “bomb in SR and VS St” (Sandy Row and Great Victoria Street railway station), “son of judge shot dead”, “policeman ser ill”, “2 Provos arrest, staff officers in 1st Batt, F co”, Europa office bill for 22 May/10 June ’73, £145, day …

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Hotels in conflict …

Europa Hotel, Belfast via Rory Storey Photography on Flickr

In this morning’s Independent, Jonathan Brown takes a look at infamous conflict hotels. The Rex Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, Hotel des Mille Collines in Kigali, King David Hotel in Jerusalem … and closer to home, the Europa Hotel in Belfast! When work began on the site of the former Great Northern Railway station in the early 1970s, the Europa and its 12 glass-fronted stories were supposed to herald a sophisticated, cosmopolitan future for Belfast. But by the 1980s …

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In praise of the Europa Hotel

The Europa Hotel is 40 and the BBC are going to do a special programme to mark the official beginning of its middle age. It was famously the most bombed hotel in the world (according to Wikipedia it was bombed 28 times). Practically everyone in Northern Ireland must have been past the hotel and many must have been in it. I have been to a couple of UUP events there years ago; a few work meetings; have had my tea …

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