- By Robbie Meredith
- BBC News NI education reporter
Image source, Westend61/ Getty Images
Does Northern Ireland’s capital advise you of a friendly golden retriever?
If the city of Belfast was a dog it might be a rottweiler, a spaniel, a pitbull or a collie.
That is according to actions to a public assessment on a brand-new £100m tourist task in the city.
Belfast City Council (BCC) has actually performed a public assessment on what Belfast stories must be consisted of and likewise individuals’s understandings of the city.
A variety of files summing up actions to the assessment have actually simply been released and will be talked about by councillors on the City Growth and Regeneration Committee on Wednesday.
The assessment consisted of interviews with over 680 individuals performed in September, October and November 2022.
“If Belfast was a dog, what would it be and why?” was among the concerns asked to test how individuals in Belfast viewed the city.
Image source, Getty Images
“Belfast resembles a spaniel – enjoyable with great deals of energy”
Some of the actions are consisted of in the 77-page report on the general public assessment into Belfast Stories.
“Regardless of the dog types participants picked, the responses to the 2nd half of the concern offered important insight into which qualities they related to a Belfast identity,” the assessment report said.
One of those talked to said Belfast resembled “a spaniel since they’re enjoyable and have a great deal of energy”.
“A pitbull since it’s hectic and quickly,” another said.
“A collie since it’s energetic and does not stop,” was another reaction.
Image source, Getty Images
Is it “an adorable pooch” of a city?
Other interviewees felt Belfast was an inviting, friendly and warm city and said it looked like dog types like a golden retriever or border collie.
“It would be a loveable pooch since there are numerous various backgrounds and neighborhoods within Belfast, to explain it as one breed would be extremely incorrect,” one interviewee said.
“When individuals aren’t thinking of their distinctions, they come together, it’s a charming location to be,” they continued.
However, while a bulk of interviewees explained the city as friendly, others discussed its hostility and compared that to dogs like “a rottweiler since individuals here can be a bit aggressive”.
Image source, Getty Images
There likewise were concerns about individuals’s very first memories of Belfast and what their preferred locations in the city are
Only a little number of individuals “were downright negative about the city and utilized words such as awful, unloved and dead to illustrate Belfast”, the assessment report said.
“Walking about the city centre and seeing all the falling apart empty structures, I believe it may be a chihuahua or jack russell in requirement of medical treatment from an owner that hasn’t provided it adequate attention over the last couple of years,” one interviewee said.
“A scabby dead dog left on the side of the roadway since there’s absolutely nothing here and it’s a dead city,” was another response.
Others took a more surreal method to the concern.
“A hotdog since they are bit oily however they definitely serve a function and everybody privately does like it. If you truly wanna be premium about a hotdog I think you can be however I believe it’s type of more a food of individuals,” was one reaction.
Other concerns were inquired about individuals’s very first memories of Belfast, the “most Belfast thing you have actually ever heard or seen” and what individuals’s preferred locations in the city are.
In the larger assessment, most of individuals said they were delighted about Belfast Stories.
But some individuals revealed issues consisting of the capacity cost of checking out the destination, or that it may be “politically partisan”.
Further public assessment will be performed by Belfast City Council as the task establishes.
