Is Belfast safe?

Nadnerb111

Hey

Ive just been offered a place in Queens Univeristy. Im a 35 year old guy from Dublin. Ive never been to Belfast and know very little about your city. As an Southerner would I be safe? Are there areas I should aviod? Is the city centre safe at night?

I would be very grateful for any info or comments.

Nadnerb

Nadnerb111

Hey All

Just want to say thanks for the many helpful posts and the good advice. Much appreciated.

Just a word for John368 and one or two others who seemed to think that this post was an opportunity for them to dump their arrogance onto an internet forum. If you took offence at the title of my post then that is entirely your responsibility. I certainly didnt intend offence, and its seems quite strange to me that you would do so. Then again drama is itself often a compulsive behaviour for the bored. I grew up, and spent my life, in Dublin. I absolutely adore my city. I have trevelled quite a bit, my wife is German, and I know many non-Irish. When asked by these people about Dublin I obviously try to give them the best imprssion of my city. However I always throw in some common sense advice: such as dont go to such and such an area alone at night, mind your valuables, be careful in certain parts of the city centre, etc etc. If a protestant/loyalist/unionist from NI asked me I would give them the same advice, but obviously I would tailor it to suit their identity, and the extent that I would tailor it would depend on their age, gender, reason for visiting Dublin, etc. So, for example, if a group of young men where coming here and if they were used to wearing, for example, Rangers sports gear, then I would tell them to avoid places in the city centre as Summerhill at night, or the Sherrif Street area. I would advise them to tone down the identity markers if they were visiting places such as Finglas, Ballyfermot, Crumlin, etc etc. Why? Because within these areas there exista two very small, but quite dangerous, goroups of mostly male youth. Group one are dissident republicans, group two are bored/stoned/drunk aggressive young people looking for any reason to kick the **** out of a passer by. Simple as that. As a guy who has never been to Belfast I was looking for a similar peice of advice. It is ridicilous to ignore the social and political nature of an area that you plan to visit, safety is a priority. When in Barcelona I saw some of the roughest streets you could imagine at night, as I was a guest of a local I was fine. So John368 your post was unintelligent.

To all other posters I thank you very much indeed.

Nadnerb