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Displaying items by tag: Belfast Barge

The iconic Belfast barge which spent years as a restaurant has been relaunched as Northern Ireland’s only floating arts centre and events space.

The vessel (Confiance) is moored at Lanyon Quay (River Lagan), has been converted into an arts hub with a maritime museum, gallery and bookable events space.

The news was announced today by charity Lagan legacy.

The upstairs river room was once home to a restaurant but has now been converted into a family and dog friendly café, which will open to customers next Tuesday (November 2).

The barge was a popular restaurant but has gone largely under the radar for the past 18 months during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Attending the launch of the new project, Belfast’s Lord Mayor, Kate Nicholl said it was fantastic to see the much-loved barge back in action.

“The barge is over-flowing with history and is a fantastic space for artists, musicians and creators to come together,” she said.

Belfast Telegraph has more.

Published in Belfast Lough

William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland and internationally for many years, with his work appearing in leading sailing publications on both sides of the Atlantic. He has been a regular sailing columnist for four decades with national newspapers in Dublin, and has had several sailing books published in Ireland, the UK, and the US. An active sailor, he has owned a number of boats ranging from a Mirror dinghy to a Contessa 35 cruiser-racer, and has been directly involved in building and campaigning two offshore racers. His cruising experience ranges from Iceland to Spain as well as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, and he has raced three times in both the Fastnet and Round Ireland Races, in addition to sailing on two round Ireland records. A member for ten years of the Council of the Irish Yachting Association (now the Irish Sailing Association), he has been writing for, and at times editing, Ireland's national sailing magazine since its earliest version more than forty years ago