TRAVELLING around the cities and towns of Ireland, both north and south, often involves encounters with adjacent areas which are either thriving or, for a range of reasons, in need of urgent attention.

However, there can be few more depressing experiences than passing through the centre of Belfast, with all its new developments, and then immediately reaching an important thoroughfare which was once commercially vibrant and is now a semi-abandoned embarrassment.

Sandy Row links the £350m Grand Central Station, Ireland’s biggest transport hub, with the south of the city and beyond and, as well as its prime location, is a place with considerable cultural and political significance.

Its name is synonymous with loyalism, and for generations it was proudly described by its residents as the “Heart of the Empire”, but shoppers from all traditions also flocked to its popular mix of large and small outlets.

Noel Doran: The Jeffrey Donaldson I saw in south Down

Noel Doran: How Belfast’s Sandy Row has gone from ‘Heart of the Empire’ to a hollowed-out heartland

While long-established ventures have closed elsewhere, entrepreneurs are usually not slow to spot a chance to move in and launch fresh schemes which create jobs and generate........

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