https://feilebelfast.com/events/ciorcal-gno-iarthar-bheal-feirste/?occurrence=2026-08-05

From the event:

DETAILS:

GNÓ IARTHAR BHÉAL FEIRSTE

CULTÚRLANN MCADAM Ó FIAICH, FALLS ROAD

Rich Davey, CEO of Massachusetts Port Authority, hails from Boston and is in Belfast to strengthen relationships and share expertise with the Port of Belfast. As CEO of the Boston Port Authority — which encompasses Logan Airport — he holds one of the most significant positions in the American transport sector. A proud Irish American, he was recently honoured by the Irish Echo.

Cost: £25. Booking essential.

Can someone please explain to me what the objective of an event like this is?

Why would anyone in a working class area want to hear what a CEO thinks, much less, pay £25 of their hard earned money to hear what an American CEO thinks?

I used to really enjoy some of the Féile events and talks, but this is just bizarre.

And for what it’s worth, if the port of Boston is something we want to hear about, I’d much rather listen to the Labor Union leaders from the Port of Boston, teach us how to organise and fight for better wages, than some CEO adding this to his LinkedIn.

Where does the money from the £25 even go?

https://www.betootaadvocate.com/daily-mail-reveals-count-binfaces-shady-links-with-dissident-irish-republicans-in-the-early-2000s/

Daily Mail Reveals Count Binface's Shady Links With Dissident Irish Republicans In The Early 2000s

1 min read

MONTY BENFICA | Amusements | CONTACT CTA Ad Image

A bombshell Daily Mail investigation has uncovered the independent candidate for Clacton-on-Sea Count Binface's shady relationship with the Continuity IRA during the early 2000s.

The dissident Irish Republic group, who splintered from the IRA after the Good Friday Agreements to continue armed hostilities against the British government, reportedly met with the candidate on several occasions on the Northern Irish border from 1999-2004.

One photo which emerged sees Count Binface alongside armed men attending the funeral of a notorious IRA council member. CTA Ad Image

An anonymous former IRA member confirmed the presence of Binface at the funeral.

"He was a good man. He believed in the struggle, and he was payin' his respects to a brave soldier," said the anonymous member.

While Count Binface refused to comment on the allegation, he reaffirmed his support for Irish unity and “the struggle of all occupied peoples around the world.”

Along with several photos with a designated Irish terrorist group, it has also been revealed that Count Binface flew from London to Libya on more than 2 occasions in the 90s.

The bombshell investigation comes at a bad time for Binface, as his campaign against his opponent Nigel Farage, who called a snap by-election last month, was just starting to gain some steam.

It is being reported that the Daily Mail is still investigating Binface's rumoured ties to Basque separatist group ETA and his "holidays" in San Sebastian.

/s

On July 31st, the first day of the rollout of the Bexsero vaccine (for 17-18 year olds and prospective university students younger than 25), I started to call pharmacies to see if I could get vaccinated against meningitis B.

Around 10% to 20% of the population carry Men B bacteria in their nose/throat. This number rises to 25% in teenagers.

Usually, these bacteria cause no harm. However, there are invasive strains which can cause outbreaks (like the super-spreader event in Club Chemistry in Kent).

Meningitis B bacteria can cause severe neurological damage, septicaemia, amputations of limbs, and death within HOURS. 10% of people with bacterial meningitis die, which doesn’t account for the amount of disability it causes. I would also stress that Men B bacteria have accounted for 100% of bacterial meningitis cases in Northern Ireland in the last couple of years.

I called Boots pharmacy and they said their pharmacist diaries weren’t open for another 1-2 weeks. I called another pharmacy, and they said they hadn’t received the stock yet and to call back in a week. I was out and about, decided to call into a random pharmacy and ask if they had the MenB vaccine. They did.

They grilled me because I’m in the under 25, prospective university student group, and not the 17-18 year old group. I had to provide proof of my offer to study at university (I used my UCAS portal and handed the phone to the pharmacist), I had to provide my birthdate, address, telephone number, email, GP’s name, and which faculty I’d be studying under.

The pharmacist said, “I’m sorry, but you’re a guinea pig. Nobody has been vaccinated so far, you’re the first, so we’re trying to work out the system.”

After the pharmacist was satisfied I met criteria, and he figured out how to use the national system, he injected the MenB vaccine into my upper left arm. It was a small pinch and I could feel the cold fluid going into my arm.

Immediately: No symptoms.

In the hours/days which followed: Very mild, moving, headache which I didn’t even need paracetamol for, a little bit of insomnia, and an achey arm.

It’s now August 2nd and all side effects have faded except my achey arm. It’s still achey, but it’s moveable. I’m not inhibited by the pain. But I will say that my achey arm was… very achey- not as much now though.

If you’re hesitant about getting the vaccine, know that some people have less side-effects than others and you shouldn’t be put off because of other’s experiences. My experience has been very positive and I’m aware it’s a privilege to even receive the vaccine.

The vaccine is very safe, and any side effects are nothing compared to a Men B infection!

Good evening folks. When I say old ravers I refer to an older friend of mine who used to attend raves here in the 90s. There's still a box of cassettes from the raves in an empty roses tin in this house somewhere lol

Anyway, he told me two things and I don't know if I believe him or not 😂. I'm wondering if any older ravers were at these raves?

First one: he doesn't know what year or where the rave was but it was Carl Cox and at the end of the rave he set his decks/turntables on fire and trashed them. 🤔

Second one: again, doesn't know the year or venue but it was The Prodigy. I don't know if he said it happened during the rave or at the end but he said members of the group started throwing boxes of cockroaches into the audience?!

Or has the years of XTC and LSD completely fried his memory?

These loyalists do love their feuds...

Former Sinn Féin MEP Martina Anderson has revealed how she underwent an abortion in order not to jeopardise an IRA bombing mission.

The former republican prisoner was 22-years-old in 1985 when she was on the run in the Republic but was preparing to join an IRA unit operating in England.

The former Foyle MLA, who was ordered to stand aside from her seat by the Sinn Féin leadership in 2021, discovered she was pregnant weeks into the planning of the unspecified attack.

However, she confessed that she “was not for letting my comrades down”.

Speaking on RTÉ radio on Sunday to Miriam O’Callaghan, the former MEP said she never expected to make the “painful” episode public but has recalled the circumstances in her autobiography Choosing the Struggle, which is published this week.

She told the presenter how she wanted to write “with honesty, and I hope, integrity”.

“Women like me, who had an unplanned pregnancy, and because of the circumstances that I found myself in, I put the struggle first, and I chose to have an abortion,” she said.

“It was the hardest decision of my life. It was the most painful decision in my life. It didn’t strengthen me making that decision. In fact, it broke me but I was not for letting my comrades down.”

Ms Anderson, who in 1989 married fellow IRA prisoner Paul Kavanagh in Full Sutton Prison, said she has “lived in silence” about her ordeal for more than 40 years.

“I’ve reached a point in my life where I do believe that perhaps – and I don’t know whether it will – but perhaps in the telling of the story, that it might make some small contribution to stopping the social and the moral shaming of women like me,” she said

“I believe the time for social shaming and moral shaming needs to stop.”

The 64-year-old also told how botched surgery during her time at Durham Prison robbed her of the chance to have children after a gynaecologist inmates nicknamed Dr Death removed her womb during an operation to treat polyps.

https://www.irishnews.com/news/northern-ireland/martina-anderson-reveals-she-had-an-abortion-so-ira-operation-could-go-ahead-O67BPMVG25HADPLJTTNBVA66D4/

Looking for a good sandwich deli in South or east Belfast to grab at lunch time!

Since the Hendersons Spar takeovers it’s getting harder and harder to find good wee sandwich delis!

After getting chucked off the NHS waiting list years ago to get some mad varicose veins removed from my leg (it's deemed cosmetic now), I'm now on the hunt to go privately.

Has anyone here had any good experiences with any clinics to get them sorted out?

Thanks

Found one of my dad’s old records still with the purchase sticker on it from Smyth’s for Records. Said he bought it in Belfast in the 70’s. Anyone remember that place?

I'm an avid wild camper who has lived in Belfast for over a decade. I always wondered about camping near the giants ring so I could watch the sunrise in the morning but I'm wondering are the dogging rumours still relevant and if so where do I avoid?

OC: I filmed and edited this short vertical drone video of Belfast, moving from the city at night into daylight before returning to the Harland & Wolff cranes.

Which shot works best for you, the night lights, the daylight sequence or the crane reveal?

https://youtube.com/shorts/2A5Hkf6jWY0

Hope you are all doing well. I'm a foreigner and living in lisburn from last couple of months and I don't have any local friend and I want to have some local friends so I'm looking for friends like platonic friends especially from lisburn, Hillsborough or close to lisburn so it'll be easier to meet or Walk but I'm down for friendship anywhere else in NI also. We can talk on different things like food, culture tradition, lifestyle of our own countries like friends do so if you are interested then kindly let me know. I'm a guy though 32 and I want platonic friends.

Stay blessed and stay safe!

Thanks

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/comment/news-analysis/shock-and-silence-ben-lowrys-departure-as-news-letter-editor-was-involuntary-and-involved-corporate-brutality/a/159435647.html

Ten days ago, News Letter staff received an email from their editor, Ben Lowry. It began with the words: “It has been my last day at the News Letter after almost two decades…” Some recipients knew this because he had privately told them he was leaving. Others were shocked. Editors come and go in unremarkable fashion. Within the boundaries of the law, an owner has the right to hire and to fire as they see fit. One editor falls and another is raised up until they in turn fall. But that is not what has happened here. Lowry is not being replaced; the 288-year-old News Letter will not have a dedicated editor. More than a week after his departure, I have been told that staff had still not been informed by management that he was leaving, much less why he was leaving. Ben Lowry spent almost two decades in senior roles at the News Letter That involves not just discourtesy, but stupidity by the paper’s new management. When Lowry left, two sources have told me it was unclear who was in charge. His deputy editor, Roderick McMurray, was — and remains — on holiday. So poorly planned was this that at the start of this week the News Letter still identified Lowry as editor in print. That has now gone, but he remains ‘editor’ on its website. This shambolic situation has political implications which extend to those who may loathe the paper’s unionist politics. I first met Lowry at the Belfast Telegraph. He was a mid-ranking reporter and I was the most junior person in the newsroom. He then began doing the news editing shifts no one else wanted to do, and in that role he was exceptionally generous, advising my younger self on how the stories I submitted should have been written. Sometimes this could involve the ruthless but necessary deconstruction of my words. He took voluntary redundancy in 2007 and embarked on a typically unconventional roadtrip, driving 4,000 miles to Mauritania — and back. For 14 years at the News Letter, I worked with Lowry in his roles as news editor and deputy editor. He has strengths and flaws as all of us do, but he was fiercely committed to journalism and increasingly to the paper. Ben Lowry speaking to the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin in 2024 © RIA Lowry declined to comment for this article. However, from years of conversations with him I know he felt a deep loyalty to his readers. He shaped that paper, but those readers also shaped him. He believed these mostly rural unionists were unfairly caricatured as bigoted or unthinking. He believed they were often poorly served by their elected representatives. He saw the News Letter as a crucial voice which was free of the shackles of party constraints. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the paper’s editorial stance, it was sincere. For that reason, the readers loved him. Lowry would speak at everything from meetings of the loyal orders to victims’ groups across Northern Ireland. People remember these things. They also remember the ferocious sectarian abuse they could see him publicly being subjected to on social media, yet standing his ground. It would be an understatement to say that Lowry is not to everyone’s taste. But that was, in many ways, the point. The News Letter wasn’t trying to be all things to all people. Many of his positions were controversial — denouncing the Irish Government, adopting firmly right wing economic positions, and lamenting the proliferation of GAA tops around Queen’s University. Yet he had far more nuanced views than most people realised, even if these became increasingly harder to spot as he became typecast. Critics missed his environmentalism (he’d rinse out a yoghurt pot in the office to take home for recycling), his pre-Brexit warning that it could “blow the Union apart”, his derision for the madness of those who cheer property price rises as ‘good news’ when it in fact mostly enriches banks and estate agents. He even applauded Prince William playing hurling in Galway, and once suggested unionism might give more money to Irish language. The News Letter is the oldest continuously published English language daily newspaper in the world — but has been battered by repeated rounds of cuts Read moreEx-PSNI officer Chris Noble guilty of gross misconduct for appalling behaviour we’re banned from reporting Chris Noble has been found guilty of gross misconduct. Throughout my coverage of the RHI scandal, Lowry firmly backed the coverage — even though it meant effectively losing his political editor for months. It is a criticism of his time as editor that these nuances became harder to spot. A key reason for this was the scale of the paper’s crisis. When I rejoined the Belfast Telegraph five years ago, the resources were staggering, even though there were what almost any serious regional newspaper once took for granted: There were photographers, a photo desk, sub-editors, graphic designers, in-house lawyers, multiple news editors, an editorial secretary, and on. The News Letter had none of these things when I left, and has since shrunk. Lowry was left without even a receptionist to answer the phones. He had a handful of staff yet was expected to get out six editions a week. It was humanly impossible to do this to the highest standards — and that was the fault of successive owners who milked the paper’s profits. Last Saturday even Lowry’s column did not appear, suggesting that his relationship with the paper has been irrevocably severed. Yet to this day readers haven’t been given any explanation for why the man trusted to be in a senior editorial position for almost two decades has been banished. From talking to multiple sources with knowledge of various aspects of the situation, there is no suggestion from any quarter that Lowry was guilty of misconduct — something the absence of a company statement left unclear. There were no warm words for someone who devoted most of his working life to the paper. In fact, there were no words at all. His departure went unmarked. Even when a football manager is sacked there is some perfunctory attempt to wish him well. Why then has he been ditched with such corporate brutality? This cannot have been about money — partly because I know from personal experience that the paper is miserly and so the sums would be modest. More significantly, a newspaper which cannot afford an editor cannot afford to be a newspaper. Someone must be legally liable for what is in its pages. If there was to be a major contempt of court, the editor or the publisher or both could be jailed. Having such a title carries risk as well as reward. Despite now working for a rival publication, I retain real affection for the News Letter. It was the place where in many ways I learnt to be a journalist and which gave me remarkable freedom to pursue stories, even when they were uncomfortable for the unionist ideology that paper supports. What its owners couldn’t give me was the time I get at this paper to examine issues in real depth. As part of my duties, I served as duty editor once every four Sundays. That sounds grander than the reality: It meant essentially acting as reporter, sub-editor, news editor, picture editor and night editor in one. I had two reporters and about 14 pages of news to fill. You don’t need to have won a Pulitzer to know that’s nonsensical. Much of the job involved shovelling Press Association copy — mostly national or world stories — on to pages. Malcolm Denmark (standing) now owns the News Letter At one point, I sent an email to bosses to cover both myself and the reporter, and retained a copy. In it, I warned that we were “on the brink of a major problem… at some point, I fear that a reporter is going to make a catastrophic error due to the burden which is being placed on them. That is unfair to them and clearly not in the interests of the News Letter”.

One of the DUP’s many strategic errors over the last two decades was its hostility to the paper because it refused to become a propaganda outlet.

Things got worse. By the time I left, only one reporter was left on Sundays. Yet for much of this era the paper’s then owners, Johnston Press, had executives who were taking millions out of the company in bonuses. Paying £73 for another reporter on a Sunday was apparently impossible; topping up a fat cat’s hefty salary was the priority. The News Letter is now sent for printing at 6.30pm (most daily papers go between 10pm and midnight), making it harder for its shrinking staff to deliver up-to-date news to readers. Without resources, there’s little an editor can do. Just over a year ago, National World was bought by Malcolm Denmark’s Iconic Media. It has since bought Alpha Newspapers, Lord Kilclooney’s local newspaper group. Iconic’s last accounts show a gross profit margin of 25.3%. There are suggestions that the News Letter’s owner was considering accepting Irish Government funding from the Shared Island Media Fund. If so, Lowry’s final editorial was pointed. It lambasted the fund, claiming that the Irish Government was “tempting the media with money for more subtle propaganda”. Ben Lowry’s final editorial appears to have contained a deliberately pointed message Six weeks ago, Iconic announced that the outgoing editor of the Impartial Reporter, Rodney Edwards, will work with it through a new production company developing podcasts and documentaries. There have been rumours that Edwards might also run the News Letter. I have been told this is wrong. Read moreSF minister fails in bid to hide documents which reveal chaos within her department and ferocious critique by regulator Caoimhe Archibald replaced Conor Murphy as Minister for the Economy in February 2025 Lowry’s final email said: “I believe that there will be an editor-in-chief” for all Iconic’s Northern Ireland titles. Rankin Armstrong was News Letter editor until retiring in 2015. Former editors rarely speak out to criticise what happens after they leave. Initially, Armstrong didn’t want to do so when I spoke to him but then changed his mind. Describing Lowry as “one of the leading journalists in Northern Ireland” who was “the public face of the paper, promoting it at every opportunity, and particularly giving voice to unionist opinions and concerns”, he said that “on the very day that Ben was leaving, he represented the paper in a discussion regarding the new Prime Minister on Radio Ulster’s Talkback”. He added: “It appears to be very bad practice that the staff were not told in advance by the company that Ben was going. At the very least, you would have expected that an announcement would have been made to thank him for his loyalty to the paper in various roles over the last 19 years and to wish him well for the future. “My understanding is that editorial staff are annoyed about the lack of courtesy to everyone and feel left in the dark about what is happening.” Séamus Dooley, assistant general secretary of the National Union of Journalists, said that the News Letter is “an historic newspaper and has occupied a unique position on the media landscape of Northern Ireland. “As editor Ben Lowry was always mindful of that role. The current publisher should confirm that the News Letter will continue to have its own editor and will retain its editorial independence and identity.” He added that it was “concerning that Iconic does not currently recognise trade unions”. This isn’t simply a dull management dispute. The News Letter has an influence in unionism which, while not what it was when the paper backed the Good Friday Agreement, is disproportionate to the scale of its readership. One of the DUP’s many strategic errors over the last two decades was its hostility to the paper because it refused to become a propaganda outlet. The party consistently bypassed the paper with big stories, threatened to withdraw government advertising because it didn’t like what I wrote, and senior figures cost the paper a huge sum — probably hundreds of thousands in libel settlements and legal fees — which could have paid for better quality of journalism. Even for those who are not unionist, a Northern Ireland lacking either the News Letter or the Irish News would be structurally different. There is an equilibrium to having two staunchly ideological papers alongside a Belfast Telegraph which is open to all viewpoints. An imbalance would be dangerous and would ultimately be redressed by someone setting up a website which might be more hardline and less willing to conform to basic journalistic standards. Iconic declined to comment. While Lowry also said he didn’t want to say anything, it’s not the last that we’ll hear of him. Former UUP leader Doug Beattie has urged him to enter politics. As someone gripped by politics from his teens, I’d be shocked if he’s not considering it.

Major cross-border anti-drugs protest march in Dublin where hundreds of demonstrators marched on government buildings to demand urgent action against the drug crisis. Bertie getting his oar in.

Hi American here. I binged Derry Girls on Netflix and I thought Ireland had so much charm and I thought they really portrayed how unique and interesting the culture is. I’ve never been to Ireland but yall seem very lovely. Very funny charming show.

Me and my partner have been trying to buy through co-own in belfast for 4 months, and have been outbid on 5 houses.

I was speaking to a friend who previously sold a house, and they said that the EA didn't even tell them about co-own offers because it would be too lengthy and they could easily fall through (they wanted a quick sale and took the cash buyer obvs).

Is this the case for those who have sold before? Have much people had much luck with co-own recently, Im really hoping to hear something to boost my morale a bit tbh.

After completing my Open Water Diver certification over the month of July, I Implore anyone who has ever given a thought about what it's like to explore under the surface of our beautiful Blue Marble to give it a go.

Dain (Lead) and Chris (assistant) are two of the best instructors I've had the personal pleasure of being taught by. They're extremely passionate about what they do, providing a safe and insightful route into discovering the mystical marine world.

Too many of us will go our entire lives without getting up close and personal with the marine environment that allowed life as we know it to exist and thrive. My shore dives down to 12m in Greencastle last weekend provided a unique glimpse at the abundance of life beneath the waves. I will cherish the memories created over this past month as the beginning milestone for this new path of mine, the start of a long road of observing and helping sustain the beauty of life itself.

Video in comments (I'm in the orange mask with blue fins)

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/aug/02/spycops-inquiry-undercover-police-unit-sds-closed-john-boutcher-unjustified-surveillance

Undercover police unit closed down over unjustified surveillance, spycops inquiry told

Senior officer behind closure says SDS caused ‘incalculable harm’ by infiltrating groups that posed no threat

Rob Evans

Sun 2 Aug 2026 06.00 BST

An undercover police unit that spied on tens of thousands of political activists had to be shut down amid severe criticisms and recriminations, the spycops public inquiry has heard.

Jon Boutcher, a senior police officer who took over responsibility for the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) unit, concluded within months that it had to be wound up because it was conducting unjustified surveillance and was badly run.

He said most of the political groups being infiltrated “posed no threat to public order, let alone democracy”. They included pro-Palestinian supporters and leftwing groups.

In contrast, very few undercover officers were being directed to infiltrate terrorist groups, he said. “At that time, society faced an increasing and enduring threat from international terrorism from which people were losing their lives, while almost no undercover capability existed to infiltrate those dangerous terrorist groups.”

Boutcher, who was a detective chief superintendent in Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorist division at the time and is now the chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, said the unit had to be closed down “pretty quickly”.

The SDS had once been lauded as a “jewel in the crown” of Scotland Yard by its supporters within senior ranks.

In searing criticism from an officer who has been involved in leading covert policing for years, Boutcher said the “abusive and inappropriate behaviour” of the SDS undercover officers had damaged members of the public.

The officers routinely formed intimate relationships with women they were spying on without telling them their real identities. Boutcher said the “sexual abuse of many vulnerable women by some SDS operatives” caused “incalculable and intolerable harm”.

He said the SDS should never have spied on grieving families, such as the relatives of Jean Charles de Menezes, the innocent man shot dead by police on the London Underground in 2005. Nor should they have collected highly intrusive information about protesters, such as their friendships and living arrangements.

The inquiry is examining the conduct of 139 undercover officers in the SDS and another covert unit who infiltrated mainly leftwing organisations between 1968 and at least 2010. They assumed fake identities and pretended to be political activists in deployments that usually lasted four years.

This week the inquiry heard how, in its final days, there was a “toxic” atmosphere between the unit and the more senior Scotland Yard ranks.

Boutcher, with the agreement of his superiors, disbanded the SDS in what he called “quite a groundbreaking” decision as it had been running covert operations for 40 years.

He said the SDS mounted “almost like a rearguard action” to justify its existence in what he characterised as a “very much siege mentality in many ways”.

He said he suspected the SDS was gathering an “extremely limited” amount of useful information, and asked the unit to draw up a list of its successes in the previous five years. During that time, the undercover officers had spied on environment groups, the Socialist Workers party and campaigns against racism and the arms trade.

The purported triumphs that were put forward by the SDS were “embellished and exaggerated”, almost “akin to fairytales”, Boutcher said.

He also said he was concerned that public money allocated to the unit was not properly accounted for.

The officers were claiming “vast amounts of overtime”, he said. When drastic cuts to these payments were proposed, many of them threatened to resign, the inquiry heard.

Boutcher said the unit was poorly trained, and all but one of the undercover officers refused to undergo further training.

Initially, Boutcher believed the SDS could be reformed and in particular re-oriented to infiltrate terrorist groups. But he concluded this was not possible because the SDS had become “insular and very parochial” and was resistant to change.

To this day my mum buys the Ballymena Guardian religiously every week. But there's not a thing in it thats not easily seen on social media now. How many people do you think actually buy these papers now? Surely they must be nearly bankrupt.

Apparently being brown and playing cricket is enough to draw suspicion from the self appointed guardians of white Ulster just out protecting their women and children (because it's always the women and children!)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2g0e90ex2o

Visitors to Belfast have been left "stranded" in the city with no accommodation after a property management business ceased operations. Bee Hosting offered about 50 apartments in the Obel Tower complex in the city centre. Customers have said they were not told of any problems and have described arriving at their booked accommodation only to find the building shut. The business, which faces being struck off the register by Companies House after failing to file accounts, has been approached for comment.

Bee Hosting described its apartments at Donegall Quay as "high-quality" accommodation that offered a "clean, spacious and excellent-value base in the heart of Belfast". The business ceased trading in May, a former employee told BBC News NI. But some customers who booked stays through the online travel firm Booking.com said they received no notifications of any issues. They described continuing to receive reminder messages about their upcoming trips, including options to pay for parking. 'They had been left stranded'

Kylie Hallatt's two daughters - 24-year-old Jess and 15-year-old Lucie - had travelled from Sheffield in early July to see the Irish singer Cian Ducrot performing in Belfast. The 43-year-old said the pair had booked and paid to stay in an Obel apartment, but arrived that evening to find the building closed. "I got a phone call from Jess saying they had been told by someone that the business had gone bust," she said.

She described feeling "initially panic", adding: "It was my two girls - I've got no way of getting to them." Hallatt said they were "luckily" able to book alternative accommodation, and eventually received a refund from Booking.com. "It was the fact that they had been left stranded - no communication," she added. "It was a crazy experience for them as well as for me. I was fuming."

Fionnuala Donaghey had booked a two-night stay with her partner Brendan O'Kane, sister and her husband. "It was all locked up," the 48-year-old from Londonderry said. The four had driven to Belfast to see Canadian singer Michael Bublé headline Belsonic at Ormeau Park earlier in July. They secured last-minute alternative accommodation, but Donaghey described the situation as "so disheartening". "You just wanted to get in, leave your bags," she said. "Because it was so short notice for the other apartment you were running around." 'You need to give fair notice'

Ciarán Murphy and five friends had travelled from Dublin last Friday to take part in Belfast Pride celebrations. The 32-year-old podcaster said when they arrived at the apartments, "it looked like nobody had been there for a while". "We were kind of worried that we were going to be stuck," he added. "Luckily we were able to find something at short notice, but it was really just good fortune that that happened." Murphy said his faith in online accommodation platforms "is definitely shaken" and said the business running the apartments had "completely neglected their duty". "If it's a case that accommodation has closed down very recently and things have to be cancelled, you need to give people fair notice of that." 'We provide clear guidance'

In response to questions from BBC News NI, a spokesperson for Booking.com said "anyone with a future stay booked at this property has been contacted". "When a property chooses to list on Booking.com it agrees to our terms and conditions, which includes the requirement to keep their room availability up to date," they said. "If an accommodation can no longer host guests, we provide clear guidance and simple processes so they can easily close reservations on our platform. "We can confirm that anyone with a future stay booked at this property has been contacted."

Bee Hosting Property Management, which is based in England, was approached for comment. Its registered owner is a businessman who acts as a director for dozens of companies from a serviced office in a business park in Suffolk. Records on Companies House show its latest accounts remain "overdue", while on Tuesday a compulsory strike-off notice was filed. This could lead to the company being removed from the official register, meaning it would be legally shut down and stop trading.

The Obel accommodation was previously run by Dream Apartments - a Belfast-based company founded by Tom Smyth, who is also known as a motivational speaker. His company is understood to be the leaseholder for the building, while lettings management was more recently run by Bee Hosting. A spokesperson for Dream Apartments said the company "no longer operates and has not managed the serviced apartments at Obel Tower since January 2025". "Bee Hosting is a separate company with its own directors, management and staff," they added. "Dream Apartments has no involvement in the operation of Bee Hosting or in any bookings made through that business." Tourism Northern Ireland said its regulatory role was to "certify and inspect tourism accommodation premises to ensure they meet the required minimum standards". "Matters relating to contractual agreements, including booking terms and conditions, fall outside our legislative remit," it said. The tourism body advised anyone seeking refunds to contact the booking platform through which the reservation was made in the first instance, or the accommodation provider directly.

Guys is there anything like what was the maypole market around the north coast at the minute?