Northern Ireland indoor reopening LIVE: Lockdown rules ease for pubs, restaurants, cafes and travel
Pubs, restaurants and cafes across Belfast can host customers inside, while passengers can fly to green list countries from Northern Ireland
Michael Atcheson pulls a pint at The Maverick Bar, Belfast (Image: Declan Roughan / Press Eye)
Cafes, bars, restaurants and hotels across Northern Ireland can finally welcome customers back indoors after months of lockdown.
The Executive gave the green light to indoor hospitality last week and for many, Monday will be the first time they have had paying guests since before Christmas.
Hospitality Ulster took to social media to wish the best to businesses and staff as they open their doors today .
Pandemic has created environment which is either terrifying or absolutely fantastic WIRED FOR SUCCESS: Fibrus executive chairman Conal Henry (at left, with the firm s chief executive Dominic Kearns and UK broadband minister Matt Warman) told the Saffron Business Forum that the Covid pandemic has created an environment where all certainties are now uncertainty . . . which is either terrifying or absolutely fantastic
Paul McErlean
I HEARD a phrase on Friday last which I hadn t heard before - ‘pandemic native .
It was mentioned in a webinar, another pandemic phenomenon which has helped to change how we communicate and meet in lockdown.
A pandemic native company is one that was born during the pandemic and it was Conal Henry, executive chairman of Fibrus, who said it. While Fibrus came into existence in advance of the first lockdown, it has hired over 150 people over the past year and Conal hasn t physically met any of them. That clearly hasn t been a dis
A letter penned to the Executive by 407 business owners here requesting a proper, timetabled plan for reopening has failed to get the response hoped for.
The open letter was written earlier this week in a bid to highlight concerns over the future of the economy and to prompt opening dates which will provide hope and some certainty to the business community.
Hospitality bosses such as Belfast hotelier Bill Wolsey and restaurateur Michael Deane are among those who wanted to convey a sense of their fears for the future.
While not critical of the decisions the Executive has made during the pandemic, the letter warned that support so far will fail to insulate all businesses as mounting debts already consumed what reserves they have .
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BBC News
By Gareth Gordon
Published
image copyrightKelvin Boyes/Press Eye/pa wire
image captionThe DUP and Sinn Féin re-entered devolved government in NI in January after three years of deadlock
From a deal that ended political deadlock at Stormont to dealing with a global pandemic, 2020 has been a busy year for NI politics.
Here is my alphabetic run-down of the last 12 months in politics.
A is for Amazon
Is there anything the company cannot deliver?
In November it seemed intent on delivering a United Ireland - to the great amusement of many.
Amazon apologised after stumbling into a political debate on Twitter on the status of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom.