31.1.05
Irelandclick.com
Tourist mania hits Northern
Sightseers flock to scene of £26.5m bank heist
They say that every cloud has a silver lining and that may be true of the Northern Bank raid as the scene of the robbery is fast becoming the number one tourist attraction in the city.
Fascinated tourists are now cashing in on the notoriety of the Northern Bank Cash Centre in Donegall Square West, scene of the £26.5 million robbery on December 20.
The bank is set to become the most photographed place in the city as visitors stop to have a snap taken to show their friends and family back home.
Eoghan Ó Néill, a reporter with the Irish language daily Lá, has seen the evidence for himself. He says he saw tourists gather there on Saturday night around 7pm.
“About a dozen tourists were hanging about the front of it on Saturday night. They were all smiling and all these flashes were going off.
“They all had their thumbs up as well,” said Eoghan.
“They had to be posing for cameras outside the building because of the bank raid, there’s no way they were there to capture the bank’s architectural beauty.
“It’s one of the ugliest buildings in Belfast!”
It now seems that the Belfast bank is becoming one of Belfast’s sightseeing spots, although whether it will ever match top notch tourist sites such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and the Vatican in Rome remains to be seen.
No one was available for comment from the NI Tourist Board or the Northern Bank.
Journalist:: Áine McEntee
Tourist mania hits Northern
Sightseers flock to scene of £26.5m bank heist
They say that every cloud has a silver lining and that may be true of the Northern Bank raid as the scene of the robbery is fast becoming the number one tourist attraction in the city.
Fascinated tourists are now cashing in on the notoriety of the Northern Bank Cash Centre in Donegall Square West, scene of the £26.5 million robbery on December 20.
The bank is set to become the most photographed place in the city as visitors stop to have a snap taken to show their friends and family back home.
Eoghan Ó Néill, a reporter with the Irish language daily Lá, has seen the evidence for himself. He says he saw tourists gather there on Saturday night around 7pm.
“About a dozen tourists were hanging about the front of it on Saturday night. They were all smiling and all these flashes were going off.
“They all had their thumbs up as well,” said Eoghan.
“They had to be posing for cameras outside the building because of the bank raid, there’s no way they were there to capture the bank’s architectural beauty.
“It’s one of the ugliest buildings in Belfast!”
It now seems that the Belfast bank is becoming one of Belfast’s sightseeing spots, although whether it will ever match top notch tourist sites such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and the Vatican in Rome remains to be seen.
No one was available for comment from the NI Tourist Board or the Northern Bank.
Journalist:: Áine McEntee
