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Banana Block: Inside the new living museum, bar and events space in Belfast
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BBC News
By Mark Simpson
image captionKate Nicholl s 72-year-old mother will be at City Hall for her installation ceremony
The mother of Belfast s next lord mayor, Kate Nicholl, says her daughter s upbringing in Africa will give her a broader outlook on the role.
Ms Nicholl, 33, is the first person in recent times who was not born in the UK or Ireland to become lord mayor.
Mr Haire is a prominent member of the Orange Order.
image copyrightNicholl Family
image captionHelen and Kate Nicholl left Zimbabwe in 2000
Ms Nicholl was born in Zimbabwe but left with her mother when violence broke out in the country in 2000 and arrived in Belfast at the age of 12.
The Portview banana project is already ripe for development
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Hopes of growing bananas in Belfast might sound… well… bananas.
But scoff all you like, because an ambitious group of local history buffs say it has been done before and hopefully will be will a fixture of the city again soon.
Portview Trade Centre in East Belfast and National Museums NI have developed plans to create ‘Banana Block’ – a banana plantation and living museum in East Belfast. They will work alongside pioneering agri-food business Mash Direct to cultivate the crop.
Belfast bananas
Portview, formerly the home of Strand Spinning Mill, once the largest flax tow spinning mill in the world, will be transformed into a special greenhouse for the crop. It might seem like a strange choice of venue but the site has historical ties to Belfast bananas.
Zimbabwean Kate Nicholl who fled civil strife now lord mayor of Belfast
First citizen: Alliance’s Kate Nicholl, who will be the next Lord Mayor of Belfast, outside City Hall. Credit: Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph
The next lord mayor of Belfast is to be the Alliance Party councillor Kate Nicholl, who was born in Zimbabwe.
She is the first person in recent times to hold the position who was not born in the UK or Ireland.
Ms Nicholl, 33, grew up in Marondera, in Zimbabwe, but when violence broke out in 2000, her family left the country and moved to Belfast.
She said her rise to the position of lord mayor in the city was a “positive message to all other newcomers”.
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