Small but perfectly formed
It might be small but Northern Ireland continues to punch above its weight, it's only 13,600 sq km in size, accounting for six per cent of the total UK land area, but that means everything is within easy reach. The Hollywood studio heads have worked that out and now NI has a booming film industry with Game of Thrones and other productions using NI for the scenic backdrops of forests, mountains and moorlands, did you recognise Dorne and the Iron Islands when you saw it? Dorne was filmed in Portstewart and the Iron Islands are in Ballintoy - how cool is that?
Two hours to Dublin by rail and road, three airports with frequent, low-cost flights throughout the UK and beyond, excellent fast ferry links to England and Scotland, plus good roads, buses and trains take you where you want to go with minimum fuss and less traffic. Plus you can easily make it to the beach for a quick surf or the forest for some mountain biking after work.
The Taste of Home
The Ulster Fry is one of the best known dishes in Northern Ireland, and while it is loaded with things that will make the health conscious run in terror, it is utterly delicious: bacon, egg, soda bread, sausage, potato bread, mushrooms, fried tomato, baked beans and pudding.
2016 is the year of food and drink, the foodie scene has really developed in Northern Ireland with new brands appearing almost every week to sit along the long established, Tayto, Bushmills Whiskey & Coleraine Cheddar.
Morelli’s & Mullen’s ice creams, Ditty’s Bakery, Buttermilk, Wheaten Bread, Real Butter, Champ, Yellow man, Fifteen’s, Belfast Bap, Crisp sandwiches, Fadge and Tea as a necessity for every time someone comes in the door… We will have to stop here, we are getting hungry!
The Craics Mighty
Anyone who has ever visited Northern Ireland, will have experienced how welcoming and friendly everyone is. Remember the conversation started with “how’s it goin?”and before you knew you are having a full scale conversation with a complete stranger and you parted as friends.
Every town has a social hub and Belfast being the capital has the most. Belfast is in many ways a brand-new city with new pubs and grubs opening every week, new venues keep popping up and new hotels in development too.
They all add to a list of attractions of beautifully restored Victorian architecture, glittering waterfronts lined with modern art, fantastic foodie scenes and music-filled pubs. Check our link to find out more.
We asked our Recruitment Specialist, Luke Simpson what he thinks of the Northern Ireland scene......
"Having worked in Recruitment in Northern Ireland for over three years now, I have seen first hand the amount of career and job opportunities that are on offer here. Northern Ireland is definitely on a par with any other place in the U.K. And that goes for the nightlife as well. If you go to Belfast or Derry on a Saturday night, areas like the Cathedral Quarter and the Waterside are hives of activity, and you will find scores of different accents from all over the U.K and Europe in the pubs and clubs, as Northern Ireland's reputation as one of Europe's up and coming must see destinations grows.
We're not doing too badly on the sport front neither, The Green and White armies' amazing showing at The Euro's this year put us firmly on the footballing map, and the Irish Rugby team have just beat arguably the best sporting team of all time in the form of the All Blacks, meaning we're finally starting to get something to cheer about."
