My first ever trip to Belfast this weekend and we were staying immediately opposite the very famous Crown Bar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Liquor_Saloon), which is a must-see if you're in the city. It's a Grade A listed building, restored to its original Victorian splendour - at great cost - by the National Trust.
It's apparently part of Nicholson's (http://www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk/) pub empire now. Four cask ales on, one of which is the house ale - Nicholson's Pale Ale, brewed for them by St Austell. Belfast Ale is another house regular - brewed by Whitewater Brewery (http://whitewaterbrewing.co.uk/), which advertises itself as NI's largest microbrewery.
Here's a side view of the bar gantry:
The Crown Bar is a GBG entry and we managed just 2 more GBG pitstops, the first of which was The John Hewitt (http://www.thejohnhewitt.com/) - alas no 1983 connection here, but named after an Irish poet of the same name (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hewitt_(poet)). It was the only place we saw Hilden Brewery (http://www.taproomhilden.com/Taproom/Brewery.html), apparently Ireland's oldest independent, advertised - although only Shepherd Neame's Whitstable Bay was on when we visited - it was the annual Culture Night in Belfast and everywhere was mobbed.
Uniquely, The John Hewitt is owned by The Belfast Unemployed Resource Centre!
Our only other GBG entry to tick-off was The Bridge House (http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/home/pubs/the-bridge-house), a tidy enough Wetherspoon's outlet.
We arrived home to another bland reply from our MP, and an equally neutral response from the Government concerning pubcos etc :
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