Up to fifteen million pounds - that's the figure the CBI in Northern Ireland says the businesses have lost as a result of the protests about the flying of the Union flag outside Belfast City Hall. And that figure was published prior to rioting at the weekend, and it doesn't take into account the possibility of further economic damage from discouraging potential tourists and investers.
Among businesses badly hit are restaurants and cafes in parts of the city center and the east of Belfast. Individuals have been understandably reluctant to take a public stand against the violence, but a fight back is gathering pace from perhaps an unlikely quarter; restaurant critics and food bloggers. Joris Minne reports on Eating Out for the Belfast Telegraph and Sarah Patterson writes the Little Pink Kitchen blog.
Thank you both for coming on the programme. / Thank you. / Joris, what impact have the protests / rioting had on restaurants and cafes / It has been pretty devastating really. Uh, the average, according to the Chamber of Commerce of Belfast, average downturn is in the region of 60 percent. I know / some restaurants are a lot worse than that. Coming up for Christmas time, for instance, uh, a lot of the restaurants in the city center / particularly in the east of Belfast / not just the posh ones but, you know, bistros and neighbourhood cafes and so on, lost, probably, the majority of the businesses that they were counting on. And we have to remember that, for these businesses, a third of their annual intake is within the month of December. / time of year / has been worse / in that sense / It has, yeah. And we thought, perhaps / January / things / get back to normal situation, but that's not the case. And, so, they are ... we found ourselves wondering what can we do to help.
/ Well, let me talk about that in a moment, but, Sarah, what is the scale of the problem as far as you are concerned? / Uh, well, / put into perspective to cristalize a little, / at half past three on Saturday afternoon / probably the busiest shopping time / New __ road which has been badly affected by protests and riots had all of its shutters down. And, a couple of corner shops and a couple of pubs that __ that were open, but, apart from that, all of the shops were closed. And, on Friday night, a restaurant that is very close to the Alliance Party offices had so many cancellations that they had to close for the night / talking about / small businesses / a few weeks / running / as low as that / could have __ __ them. / So, I mentioned ... I put it in the terms of "fight back" / maybe that's too strong / tell me what is happening. / I mean, food critics are pretty limited in what they can do in terms of 'positive action', I guess, you know. But we did feel that we have to take a stand, and such has been the progress in Belfast, among restaurants, and ... such has been the progress / for the reputation and image of Belfast / relying on pubs and restaurants, that I contacted a number of food bloggers, said, "Listen, a couple of restaurants here are really suffering badly. Let's go and have lunch / write about them, and let's do it fequently and just try and keep the momentum up so that / alternative, paralell reality, if you like, being reported, and to urge to people come back and spend their money in the restaurants /
And, is it possible to judge whether / an impact so far? / Well, the day that I first went to one particular restaurant in east Belfast, it was empty. And I suggested we do that / food bloggers, and, next day it was full / that's only a small ... a small anecdote, but, if if we are able to do it a little bit more / for instance / following up on the operation sit-in / like / an alternative to the loyalist Operation Standstill, where people were urged just to stay around the bars and pubs / Belfast / Friday evening, well, you know, it had ... it had some success. /
And, Sarah, via your blog, you are encouraging others to join in here, are you? / Yes. I've always, on my blog and in life, been absolutely passionate about local food production ... restaurants, cafes, shops. I genuinely believe that, in Northern Ireland, we have some world-class food producers, and, I would hate to see small businesses go under because of the political situation in Northern Ireland. I think good cafes, shops, resutaurants, especially around where I live in east Belfast, are what make us proud to call it our community, and, I will defend that for as long as I have to, and __ __ up as much as I can. /
And we should ... we should stress, at this point, we are not just saying to people, are we / expensive, posh restaurants. This / right across the board / Absolutely not. I am ... one of the cafes that had shutters down __ road, you can get a twelve-piece cooked breakfast, the traditional Ulster fry and a cup of coffee for two pounds ninty five, and, I used to work in a job / work shifts / open at seven o'clock in the morning / never seem to close / half past three on Saturday afternoon / their shutters were down, too. /
Most people would think what you are suggesting, as you acknowledged, it's not gonna change the world, and there's so much you can do, but even this much, in the current climate, are you taking a bit of a risk here? Joris? / Well, I think everybody just has to stand up. You know, we are fed up of being held hostage to circumstance.
Nobody's saying that nobody has / grudge / nobody / position / these things, but it's the innocent by-standers / economic victims of this action that we are talking about. We don't have any political crowd. We don't want any political crowd. I suppose that, if you take a stand, you might __ put your head / above the / quite literally, but, you know, / time / you have to do that. / wondering / you are making an interesting point about the lack of political c__ / I wonder if it's both in your interest / actually to have / no / politician of whatever hue / come forward / back this campaign", that might actually have exactly the opposite effect of what you want, __n't it? / That's absolutely true. In fact, one of the restaurants __ severly hit / Alliance Party head office there ... office / road / Alliance Party had been trying to help them out, but they couldn't be seen to be taking / from Alliance Party, because that's where the problem lies. And, so, yes, it is better to be completely agnostic on this and / help / that way. /
And, on that, / both / you can answer this, you both / concentrate on city center venues more because, for those who don't know the geography of Belfast, everybody / city center, __ __ some part of the city which would still be difficult for some community to go to, aren't they? / I live in east Belfast, a literal stone's-throw away / where a lot of the trouble has been / and that / talk too much about stone-throwing, but, uh, and, that is the sort of the community that I want to see still going strong and businesses I want to support and be able to continue to support, mm, for as long as I'm living there, and, as you say, traveling around the city isn't practical for everybody, or just something that they don't want to do / city center / businesses have also been affected by this. So, I will be encouraging people to support whatever local business they can in Belfast at this time. /
And that was / I was gonna conclude because / you mentioned specific figures relating to / cafes / they are talking about tourism, about wider investers ... the impact of what's happened and what is still happening could be so much greater here, couldn't it, if people are not careful? / Absolutely. I mean, my day job in PR / I can how difficult it has been to remedy the reputation and image of Belfast over the last number of years. And it all takes is one burning bus, you know, one riot to completely ... to plunge Belfast back into the kind of image that we just ... we know it's only temporary. We know it isn't going to last, but it has resonance that goes on forever and ever. /
Thank you both very much for coming on. ... Joris Minne an Sarah Patterson, joining me from Belfast.
(Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/yyhighlights/yyhighlights_20130118-1407a.mp3 09:31 - 18:15)