Wednesday 29 March 2023

False impressions

When Jenny and I first moved to Belfast in 2000, a lot of people were puzzled by our decision. Why Belfast, they asked? What was wrong with London? So do you think you'll be staying there for good or might you be moving back to England?

Well, we couldn't understand all the fuss. We'd had holidays in Northern Ireland several times and really liked the country and the people. There were beauty spots everywhere, property was much much cheaper than London, and there wasn't the ubiquitous congestion - on the roads, on the trains, on the buses.

Londoners constantly fed news headlines about terrorism, bombs and paramilitaries assumed we would be dicing with death every time we popped out to the shops. The reality of course is that there are small pockets of violence but 95 per cent of the country is as safe as anywhere in England. Actually crime levels where we live in East Belfast are almost zero compared with crime levels in Islington, North London, where we used to live. In Islington car thefts, muggings and burglaries were routine occurrences.

I mention all this because the new TV drama Blue Lights, which focuses on the police force in Belfast, suggests that Belfast is nothing but a hotbed of violence and disorder that the police struggle to cope with.

In fact the drama is set mainly in a specific area of West Belfast where violence and disorder are indeed a constant feature. But other parts of Belfast, like our own East Belfast neighbourhood, are almost embarrassingly sedate and sleepy. The only sign of violence is a grand old house being noisily demolished.

We would say that our quality of life here is a lot better than in London. The Big Smoke is vastly overrated - and totally unaffordable.

Pic: The lovely Belmont Park, five minutes' walk from our house.

12 comments:

  1. I enjoyed seeing this photo and would love to see more of the area where you live. That’s good to hear that it’s safe because we do tend to hear only negative news about Belfast.

    My son’s best friend moved to Portland and during Covid, we kept hearing about the riots, etc. happening there. However, his friend said it was completely blown out of proportion on the news and was actually very isolated. That’s when I began to understand the term, ‘fake news.’

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    1. Bijoux: Yes, I heard that the Portland disturbances were wildly exaggerated. A kind of fake news, as you say.

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  2. Most news is blown out of proportion, isn't it? I think they have to have over the top headlines to woo buyers/readers - and the more of these they have the more interested advertisers are. It's a vicious cycle, and truth, and facts get completely lost with this business model.
    I always fancied visiting Ireland - I think Line of Duty was filmed there as well; many dramas are because it's cheaper?
    Sx

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    1. Ms Scarlet: I agree, most news is blown out of proportion. To attract readers and advertisers for sure. Yes, Line of Duty was filmed in Belfast. Also The Fall and Belfast. Game of Thrones, Derry Girls, Dungeons and Dragons, Woman in White were all filmed in NI. There's a huge new film studio at Belfast Harbour.

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  3. When we moved to Costa Rica all we heard was - how would we cope in a third world country populated by smiling brown people in straw hats? Why on earth would people think we would move if that country had been as they described...we are not back to nature types, like our comforts and Leo needs good healthcare.
    What did strike me as primitive was rural France in the 80s.....

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    1. Fly: People do have very odd stereotypes about other countries (me included of course), largely I think derived from slanted media reports. My stereotype of France is miserable people in the banlieues, munching baguettes and wearing berets. Why did you find rural France primitive?

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  4. The sanitation, or lack of it, for a start! The lack of choice in the supermarkets, some of which resembled a souk....the gloomy bars where conversation stopped and the eyes followed you if you ventured in...the strong class divisions...

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    1. Fly: That all sounds pretty dire. I can see why you left.

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  5. Yes, false impressions! For awhile Minneapolis was known as Murderopolis yet in all the 70+ years we've lived here we've never known anyone murdered. Even when we lived in three different "bad" neighborhoods we were never the victim of any crimes.
    Linda Sand

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    1. Linda: That's quite a record - 70+ years and you've never known anyone murdered. For that matter we've lived in Belfast for 23 years and haven't known anyone murdered either (or blown up).

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  6. That's good to know. I'm sure there are pockets of bad neighborhoods everywhere. I know I live in one of those pockets but the whole of Vegas isn't like this.

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    1. Mary: I'm sure Las Vegas has its good areas and bad areas, like cities everywhere. The media constantly distorts reality.

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