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centralbelfastapartments · 3 years

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Best Places to Eat in Belfast

Have you decided to come visit Belfast? Amazing. Firstly, you’ll need a place to stay once you read the best places to eat in Belfast you won’t be able to stay away. Apartments are becoming really popular alternatives to hotels and offer a more unique and personal experience. You should check out our Serviced Apartments in Belfast for a memorable place to rest your head as you venture through the city and check out the foodie heaven that is Belfast.

Okay, let’s get down to where you can eat. Here’s some ideas of great places that will make your stomach rumble with excitement!

Himalayan Nepalese and Indian Restaurant

If you love tasting different things, this Himalayan/Indian restaurant is the best place to get a wide selection of different flavours, spices and vibrantly coloured dishes.

This restaurant combines Indian and Himalayan Nepalese Cuisine seamlessly, with a culturally diverse and enticing, all in one menu which will leave you wanting to come back to try all of the things you didn’t order. Dipping perfect poppadum’s into various sauces, with a ‘mmm yum’ after every bite guaranteed. Sweet, spicy, minty, the list just goes on. This is definitely one to add to your list while you are in town.

Nu Delhi

Belfast really is a foodie city, and the locals in Belfast just can’t get enough of the Indian food that we have on offer – simply because it is too good to say no to. Nu Dehli is the perfect choice for you if you are heading out into town after and just a short stroll from our centrally located apartments in the city centre.

With a wonderfully ambiance and mood lighting, Nu Delhi is the perfect place to relax, unwind and enjoy authentic Indian cooking at it’s finest. The cocktails on offer here are to die for, with one of Belfast’s best cocktail bartenders to tend to your every sip.

The Welcome Restaurant-Asian Food

If Asian cuisine is right up your street then Welcome is the one for you – you will just fall in love with the melt in your mouth dishes that are packed with authenticity

With a big Buddha statue welcoming you in the doors, you can’t help feel yourself soaking in the culture. With all of the usual favourites on offer, there are also chef’s specials that are put on for you to choose from. The staff are wonderful, the area is great for a stroll home after, with bars that are popular with the locals on your dander, you will be sure to have a fantastic night here.

Ben Madigan’s Bar and Kitchen

If you’re looking for a traditional pub with nice grub after a busy day exploring the city, then this is just the place to rest your feet, fill your belly and experience classic Irish culture and cuisine.

At Ben Madigan’s Bar and Kitchen you’ll get your Steak or Burger dinner with a refreshing cold pint. If you’re having drinks, this place has some amazing fancy Cocktails, but often you just can’t beat a pint of the black stuff

BLU restaurant

Ambiance and great food. If you’re looking for an atmospheric place to eat with drinks and a quirky presentation of food, you’ve found the spot. From food presented in cocktail glasses, slim plates and interesting decoration-it definitely makes for a unique experience. You’ll also be able to enjoy a classic Mojito, Strawberry Daiquiri and many other cocktails-all in a blue lit setting.

Manny’s Fish and Chips

Before leaving Belfast, you need to try the best Fish and Chips in the city. A place that lives in the hearts of the locals and fuels some of the culture in Belfast.

Manny’s Fish and Chips are known for their traditional chippy chips and fresh cod. If you’re craving a ‘chippy’ – this is the place you don’t want to miss.

A firm favourite for a reason – you will not be disappointed. Even just a battered sausage or a curry chip to takeaway as you dander the streets soaking in the unique and delightful buzz of the city whilst enjoying the street art lining the streets.

Kamakura Sushi & Ramen Restaurant

Calling all the sushi lovers and those who want to finally give it a try! What better way to enjoy sushi than on a boat?-quite literally. If you love having fun with food presentations and need that good Instagram pic (Check out our other instagrammable places in Belfast) then this is the place to dine. Both in taste and in aesthetics.

With refreshing cocktails and beers on offer (bottles), you get the best of both worlds!

I would genuinely recommend everything off this menu – no exaggeration. Top tip if you are visiting here, talk to the staff, they will suggest dishes for you and they sometimes have special extras on offer for a few lucky guests to try.

Finding the right place to stay and eat can be a bit daunting when you aren’t familiar with a city. You want to make sure your trip is the best it can be. We have a wealth of information on things to do in Belfast, apartments to stay, food to eat, as well as local accounts and recommendations to keep you right.

With unique apartments in central Belfast , Central Belfast Apartments are ready to welcome you to the city. So browse some dates and make a booking for your perfect city break..

Staying in our self catering holiday apartments in Belfast is described by previous guests as a dream, close to the city, while enjoying some really funky interiors and having a great weekend guaranteed and making memories that you will not soon forget.

Be sure to follow Central Belfast Apartments on Tik Tok for videos on food places while you are visiting.

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hedgewitchcrone · 4 years

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Casual Racism, Stereotyping & my Shame

I am ashamed of myself but am glad that I have learnt something today on the subject of Racism and about myself.

But before we delve into what happened, I would like to tell you the reader a little bit about myself, hoping it will help you to put into context my actions in outlook on life and of which is not in any way meant to be a defence of my past actions or actions in the last 24 hours, but is more so to let the reader see where I was to a point in my thinking and understand of Racism until I educated myself on the subject of Casual Racism this morning.

I am a white, 55 year old, male, Irish Protestant. Now what I have just stated is important as I knew from my up-bringing I had a problem with sectarianism but never saw myself as a racist. Being brought up in Belfast Northern Ireland during the 60s, 70s and 80s before I left in 1987 was to be subjected to constant lift of violence, murder, beatings, petrol bombings and riots it was just our way of life. The Catholics hated the Protestants and vice versa, it was just how it was. We were both groups Irish by decent being born on the Island of Ireland whether in the North as in Northern Ireland or the south as the Republic of Ireland we were still Irish.

This is important to recognise as Protestants from the North of Ireland Identified themselves as British as opposed to Irish. Just at the Scottish, Welsh and English are British being born on the Island of Britain they prefer to identify themselves by their cultural heritage and call themselves Scottish or Welsh or English whereas the Northern Ireland Protestant would never normally refer to himself as Irish, he was British even though it wasn’t born on the Island of Britain but on the Island of Ireland.

Truth be told he would have been more accurate calling himself UK’ish as Northern Ireland makes up part of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland) even though it is not part of the island of Great Britain. The & in the brackets above stands out to me as it shows distance and in my mind represents the Irish Sea which divides the two countries. To the Protestant in Northern Ireland if you were Irish you were lived in the Republic of Ireland in the South of the country and not in the North.

For those of you that don’t know Sectarianism is when members of different Denominations within a faith display bigotry and prejudice towards each other. Examples include Protestants and Catholics in Christianity, or Sunni and Shia in Islam or Orthodox and Reform within Judaism.

In Northern Ireland Protestants didn’t hate English, Welsh or Scottish Catholics you had to be Irish and Catholic to be hated by a Protestant it was ingrained in the psyche of the Irish Protestant.

I learn to get over this once removed from the country and the violence and bigotry of my upbringing it actually happened very quickly over a course of 6 to 18 months and I studied Irish History to learn the point of view of the Catholic which I was never taught whilst in Ireland due to the segregation of both the Protestant and Catholic communities which never mixed if they could help it living and schooling separately throughout the North of Ireland keeping to their own communities wherever possible.

Yet we took the time to Murder, Maim and Riot with each other at every opportunity we could.

35 years down the line I don’t have any animosity towards any religion or culture on the planet.

In fact I though I didn’t have a racist bone in my body and put it down to my upbringing. In Northern Ireland when I was there I only knew personally 1 person of colour and there was none at my boys school of 800 pupils or the girls school across the way of 600 girls you just didn’t come across anybody of colour unless you went out for a Chinese takeaway (I didn’t know of any Indian Restaurants in Belfast at the time).

I saw persons of colour on television reading the BBC News and in the odd TV program but nothing else so I didn’t form any opinions of persons of colour and related to them to be the same as me.

It wasn’t until coming to England that I experienced Racism in conversation and society and like the Murders, Maiming and Rioting I had experienced when you are immersed within something in society as a fact of life rightly or wrongly it can slowly start to become the norm.

Please bear in mind I was experiencing racism myself being Irish in England and the fact that trouble and bombings and murders where not spilling onto the English Mainland I was being tarred with the same brush as a potential terrorist. The only thing saving me was I had Joined the Royal Navy.

And in the late 50’s and 60’s when if you came to England for work the signs on the windows of the lodgings normally stated in the following order of distain.

No Blacks

No Dogs

No Irish

Luckily the Irish have a thick skin to go with being Thick. Now that’s Stereotyping and I thought until this morning that Stereotyping and Racism when not linked. To me Stereotyping was used to form an opinion of general appearance and used to make Jokes but not meant to be offensive where as Racism was to be offensive and violent towards someone.

I was wrong Stereotyping can lead to what is know as Casual Racism.

Stereotyping is a fixed, over generalized belief about a particular group or class of people. For example all lumberjacks wear checked red and black shirts.

An advantage of a stereotype is that it enables us to respond rapidly to situations because we may have had a similar experience before.

A disadvantage is that it makes us ignore differences between individuals, therefore we think things about people that might not be true or make generalizations about them.

The use of stereotypes is a major way in which we simplify our social world as it reduces the amount of mental processing we have to do when we meet a new person. In stereotyping we are inferring that a person has a whole range of characteristics and abilities that we wrongly assume all members of that group of people have. Stereotyping leads to all types of social categorisation, which is one of the reasons for prejudiced attitudes which leads to inclusion and exclusion within society. Once there you are on the slippery slop towards casual racism which may develop or lead to others developing full blown racism there isn’t much difference in reality as they end up both being related.

Casual racism is one form of racism. It refers to conduct involving negative stereotypes or prejudices about people on the basis of race, colour or ethnicity and can take the form of something as simple as making jokes about a persons Nations Dress or physical appearance, or excluding a person form some form of social situation or occasion upon the basis of race such as excluding a Muslim from going out with a group of people for a drink as you wrongly believe they will not want to because of their religion whereas they could have still enjoyed the occasion by inclusion and social interaction even though the may not be taking alcohol.

Some people believe wrongly the racism is solely a belief in racial superiority or deliberate acts of discrimination, whereas casual racism concerns not so much a belief in the superiority of race but the negative prejudice or stereotypes concerning race and unlike overt, intentional acts of racism, casual racism is not often intended to cause offence or harm.

This belief of which I have been guilty presents an obstacle to being able to have an open and frank conversation about race as it has the tendency to downplay your actions and beliefs as not truly or really being racist, which can therefore embolden or lead to the encouragement or prejudice in society. Racism is as much about the impact it has on a person as it is about the intention to hurt that person and we shouldn’t forget about the person on the receiving end of discrimination.

Even the private joke away from the person it is about in a closed group or friend or work colleagues can lead to someone in your company developing prejudice and discriminating thought towards other. Therefore being aware of casual racism involves recognising that were are all accountable for the tings we say or do. Making casually racist/stereotypical jokes or comments have a negative impact upon the targeted individual or group and can also lead to others in your group forming unfavourable impression of you.

I have worked all over the world, Africa Middle East, Asia, Europe and America and have meet persons of colour for all background and walks of life and seen many things from stricken poverty, sickness, death and disease over the last 30 or so years. I have many friends from many races and nationalities and didn’t believe myself to be racist in any way but I now know different.

So how have I come to be writing this today.

I was forwarded an image on Whatsapp the other day with some text applied to it and I posted it as I have a morbid sense of humour (Developed from being to close to death over the years as a defence mechanism) to a different group on the same app.

It was a stereotypical image which I have not decided to post in this article due to the above.

The top picture showed 5 Saudi Arabian gentlemen in nation headdress wearing their Red and White Guthrah which I have on occasion worn myself to keep the sun off working in the Saudi Arabian Desert. The text stated the words (Before and After) and was followed by a second picture depicting a picture of 5 jars of Strawberry Jam with little Red and White checked cloths covering the lid sat on a table with the works (Explosion) referring to the recent Explosion in Beirut Lebanon.

Stereotypical in the fact that it assumed all persons of Arabic decent wear this type of head gear which is of course not the case and morbidly wrong in finding humour in somebody else’s suffering.

This was casually racist and within minutes had been answered with fully racist pictures and comments from others in the group of which I am ashamed. I instigated this, it was my own doing and for that I apologise as until this morning I hadn’t heard of casual racism.

There was one person within the group whom didn’t answer any of the texts but immediately just left the group and I can see why. The realisation has now dawned upon me that I am responsible as the picture I posted had started the string of comments, I was unwittingly being racist but as it was a closed group and I hadn’t wished to offend or injury anyone, as I felt nobody who would find it offensive would see it and it was only meant to be morbidly funny and I was wrong.

I thought I had been stereotypical but now I know better I had been racist for which I am ashamed and will not do it again in the future.

I have not posted this article as an apology though I am sorry for my actions but from what has transpired I learnt something and feel I would not have done it had I known better.

This post is in the hope that in reading it someone might find it beneficial and hopefully learn the association between Stereotyping, and Casual Racism and not make the same mistakes I have made for which in future I will correct such persons who make these posts when I see them in my group chats and hopefully not come across as a Hypocrite.

Once again I heartfully apologise to the world as a whole and society and persons themselves for my past inappropriate jokes and any offense I may have caused through my ignorance and I will endeavour to improve myself in going forward.

#Casual Racism #Racism #Sterotyping #Bad Taste #Sorry

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ellafryme · 5 years

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Green Chilli is an Indian Takeaway in Bangor BT20. Located in the heart of Belfast, Green Chilli offers fresh Indian food and fast service for delivery & collection Order takeaway food and book a table online from Green Chilli through ChefOnline in just a few clicks.

#Green Chilli #Indian Restaurant in Bangor #Indian Takeaway in Bangor #order indian food in Bangor

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orderonlinetakeaway · 5 years

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#order Indian food online #Indian restaurant near me #Dhaka spice Belfast #Dhaka spice BT12 #order food online Belfast #food order Belfast #Indian Food in Belfast #Indian Takeaway near Belfast

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bithikaindiantakeaway-blog · 6 years

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Bithika | Best Indian Takeaway near me in Ballymurphy, Belfast

Located in Belfast of Northern Ireland, Bithika is an Indian Takeaway in Lisburn road. Belfast is a very calm place and having an Indian takeaway around is a feast in itself. We at Bithika, are proud to be a part of a very modern suburban neighborhood where people love to chill and enjoy their time. We know it well as we have been serving here for a while. You will see Bithika while you cross Lisburn road. Unlike a lot of other popular takeaways, Bithika will not look very packed from the outside, but we would like to invite you to come in and see the rush. Belfast is not that populated either. Indian food is epic and unique and indulging in it once in a while is one heaven of an experience.

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We ensure providing you quality food. We have a chain of operations which we religiously maintain to deliver the best. Our ingredients are fresh and vegetables and poultry are taken from local vendors which are organic and fresh as well. Our chefs are experienced in Indian cooking and they have a track record of serving in the industry for around decades. The menu is created by our chefs and they have kept everything you need to know about Indian food.

The famous curries, tandoori, balti dishes with all the delicious starters come street food essentials, all can be found and ordered from our menu. We are quick to process your orders both on delivery and collection. We currently deliver in Finaghy BT10, Woodvale BT13, Belmont BT4 & Ormeau BT7. We pack the food in such a way, it is easier for you to carry without spilling for long distances. We also make sure that food that is packed retains and keeps flavour, aroma, and texture so that you feel it has been just cooked and served and piping hot. While your food is being packaged, you can even have a lively chit chat with our chefs who are keen to explain customs of Indian food and a bit of history. We can promise you won’t be bored.

You can order Indian food online in Belfast from Bithika on Lisburn road by visiting our website www.bithikabelfast.com or calling directly over the phone. We have offers and discounts always running at Bithika. Be sure to claim and avail them at your convenience while available both on delivery and collection. Our opening and closing hours are given on our website.

#Indian Takeaway Belfast Indian Takeaway BT9 Indian Takeaway Near Belfast Indian Takeaway Near BT9 order food online Belfast order food onlin

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findusonweb-blog · 6 years

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Powered by our strategic partner ChefOnline, the concept of ARTA and its journey begins and ends on a customer level. Galvanised by the technological platforms at our disposal alongside our initial clientele base of over 150,000 active customers, we ask the regular consumers of South Asian cuisine.the dedicated frequenters of curry houses on the streets of Britain - to put forward their most beloved Indian restaurant. The process of nomination via online applications and websites will help us compile an authentic list of the nation’s most cherished eateries based on the opinions of local residents from regions across the UK. After the launch of our campaign, we endeavour to separate the UK into 15 distinct areas in order to distinguish the Top 30 South Asian restaurants in each region - from Edinburgh to Southampton, from Belfast to Cambridge, and everywhere in between. This comprehensive campaign will be a national operation over the course of four months. We will then conduct a formal assessment to determine the leading culinary establishments dependent upon such criteria as quality of service, quality of product, value for money and food hygiene ratings, in tandem with the number of nominations provided by the public.At ARTA, we are not simply concerned with cuisine. Our prerogative is the entire culinary experience - 360 degrees from the moment you step in the restaurant to the moment the door closes behind you.We will then embark upon a regional media campaign, engaging with local newspapers, businesses and media partners. Furthermore, we will establish partnerships with local colleges and universities who will host our regional cook-off events, where restaurateurs will have the chance to earn the accolade of being among the region’s top establishments and customers will have the chance to win the grand prize of a brand-new car thanks to ARTA’s business partnerships. These exhilarating occasions will entail a competition between each respective region’s best restaurants as determined by their customers. This is where the ARTA project elevates its ambition.The Asian catering industry is valued at an approximation of £5 billion. Even so, over the years the industry has witnessed a steep downturn. This decline is manifested in the shortage of skilled workers in the hospitality sector - from a lack of talented chefs all the way through to front of house staff. There exists a palpable sense of disinterest amongst younger people or job seekers with regard to the hospitality sector as a potential career path. The ARTA initiative involves addressing this insufficiency.ARTA celebrates the art of cookery, but places the same amount of emphasis on all roles in the hospitality environment, including extraordinary service or bar management. ARTA was conceived to play a pivotal role in reinvigorating the general perception of the possibilities afforded by embarking upon employment in the culinary sector. Through reaching out to current and prospective students at our regional cook-offs, we aim to establish a program of youth engagement that we think will revitalise the food industry by targeting a demographic that it is crucial to the future prosperity of the sector.We aim to do this from the ground up - by encouraging individuals to engage with businesses on a local level at our competitions, buttressed by a targeted program utilising our business and media partnerships in addition to cooperation with educational institutions. As we work with businesses, colleges and universities nationwide, we introduce the industry and prospective workers to one another, inspiring a symbiotic relationship whereby the image of the culinary sector is enhanced. Furthermore, our digital and social media campaign will reach out to the wider community and help individuals discover resources relevant to the trade, such as information for courses in hospitality and catering at their local educational facility. Our end goal lies in collectively promoting the hospitality sector as a legitimate and desirable career path for the youth of today, inevitably breathing new life into the industry

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mavwrekmarketing · 7 years

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Image copyright Pacemaker

Image caption The Enniskillen bombing killed 11 people but became a turning-point

The threat from terrorism is always evolving, but some things remain constant – the emotions of loss and the risks taken by those who want peace, writes Peter Taylor.

When I first started working in television 50 years ago, I never imagined that I would spend much of the next half century reporting the phenomenon of terrorism.

From those early days I have tried to understand the roots of violence and explain not what happens but why it happens.

Gradually I got used to reporting death. But I never became insensitive to it.

During Northern Ireland’s Troubles, I got to know a loyalist assassin – Billy Giles – well and grew to like him. I first met him when making a documentary in the Maze Prison in 1989.

I talked to Billy in his cell. He was doing life for the murder of his Catholic workmate. He had lured him into a car and then shot him in the back of the head.

“The only way to stop them was to terrorise them. It was them and us,” he said. But the act of pulling the trigger had a profound effect on Billy.

“Before I was a decent young man. It [the conflict] turned me into a killer. It felt like someone had reached down and ripped my insides out. You hear a bang and it’s too late. [I] never felt a whole person again.”

Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption The Maze prison now stands empty

He was released under the Good Friday Agreement – which established peace in Northern Ireland – and I met him again. He was a man transformed from the gaunt, haunted figure I’d met in the Maze. He was now wearing a suit, collar and tie and carrying a briefcase.

He looked every inch a businessman and not a loyalist killer. Billy was upbeat and optimistic as he told me about starting a new life. But his ambition proved illusory.

I later heard that he’d hanged himself. I was shattered. I couldn’t believe that he’d taken his own life. He left a suicide note. He said he’d ordered a Chinese takeaway, prepared the noose and sat down to write a letter.

“I was a victim too, now hopefully I’ll be the last. Please don’t let any kid suffer the history I have. Please let our next generation live normal lives. Steer them towards a life that is Troubles free. I’ve decided to bring this to an end now. I’m tired.”

I remember reading Billy’s suicide note, hoping that his final wish would come true. At least some of it has.

The emotion that has never left me is the profound sadness I feel for some of those whom I have met, got to know and interviewed. One interview affected me personally above all others.

Image caption Peter Taylor covered the early years of the Troubles

The blanket protest by the IRA prisoners in the Maze started in 1977. They refused to wear prison uniform, insisting they were political prisoners and not criminals. The protesters resorted to wearing only a blanket to try and force the issue.

To try and understand the situation from the other side of the cell doors, I met Desmond Irvine, the secretary of the Northern Ireland Prison Officers Association.

As a unionist prison officer, what he said came as a surprise. He agreed to do an interview despite the Northern Ireland Office advising him against it. I felt he wanted to get his message across.

I asked if he respected the prisoners for their protest. “I don’t think they just do it mainly for publicity but because it’s their belief. I suppose one could say a person who believes sincerely in what he is doing, and is prepared to suffer for it, [deserves] a certain measure of respect which you give to him.”

Image caption Normal life was disrupted for many years in parts of Northern Ireland

After transmission, he wrote me a letter saying how pleased he was with the positive reaction he had had to the interview.

Then a few days later, the IRA shot him dead.

Deeply shocked, I felt sick. At his funeral I cried. And I remember the prison governor telling me not to blame myself, saying he was murdered because he was a prison officer and not because I had interviewed him.

But I’m still haunted by what happened. I was called by a Belfast journalist who asked how it felt to have blood on my hands. Death had come too close to home and I seriously considered stopping reporting Northern Ireland. In the end, I decided to carry on.

Find out more

Peter Taylor’s documentary, Fifty Years Behind the Headlines – Reflections on Terror, is on Saturday 1 April at 20:00 BST on BBC Radio Four.

The pain I felt was nothing compared with that suffered by loved ones long after victims are forgotten.

Joan Wilson was one of the most unforgettable people I met. She lost her 20-year-old daughter, Marie, a nurse, in the IRA bomb attack on Enniskillen’s Remembrance Day parade in November 1987.

Eleven people died, all of them Protestants, and all civilians, apart from one police reservist. Over 60 were injured.

Joan was at home when the bomb went off. “I thought, well, Gordon [her husband] and Marie are there. I hope nothing terrible has happened.”

Both were buried under 6ft of rubble. Gordon managed to reach Marie’s hand. “Daddy, I love you very much,” were the last words she uttered.

Joan rushed to the hospital knowing little of what had happened. “I was absolutely horrified to see Marie on the bed, wired up. I took her hand, and it was cold. “As we stood there watching her life ebbing away, it ebbed away, and she passed over to our heavenly father in our presence.”

The attack did incalculable damage to the IRA and the beginning of the peace process can be traced from that day.

Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley eventually found compromise

At the time, British and Irish intelligence services believed that Martin McGuinness was the acting head of the IRA’s Northern Command – in whose operational area the attack took place – although when I put it to him, he denied it.

I interviewed Joan after McGuinness had become Ian Paisley’s partner in the Stormont government’s devolved power sharing executive – a sight you might think Joan would find hard to stomach. But that wasn’t the case.

“I’m very pleased to see Dr Paisley, whom I regard as a great man of God, sharing with Martin McGuinness, and I think each will be good for the other.

I’ve spoken to many victims of the IRA’s campaign and many, like Lord Tebbit, whose wife Margaret was paralysed in the Brighton bomb, would profoundly disagree.

Tebbit is excoriating in his condemnation of Martin McGuinness and furious at the media hagiography that he believes followed McGuinness’s death.

Peace eventually came to Northern Ireland, but other conflicts have proved more intractable.

Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption The 1983 Lebanon barracks bombings presaged the widespread modern use of suicide attacks

Going through my archive of over 100 documentaries reminds me of how chillingly prophetic many interviewees have been.

In Lebanon, 25 years ago, I talked to Col Bill Cowan, the US undercover soldier sent to identify the masterminds behind two devastating truck bomb attacks carried out by Islamist suicide bombers in Beirut in 1983.

The first reduced the US Embassy to rubble, killing 63 people including most of the CIA station. Six months later, the second suicide bomber killed 241 US Marines at their base south of Beirut. Many perished in an avalanche of concrete and masonry.

I later interviewed Cowan by one of the few walls left standing – it had been part of a bar and you could still see a Playboy bunny drawn on it. He warned: “Unless we find a way of working with Islamic fundamentalism, we are going to face much, much greater threats over the next decade.”

Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption The attack on the embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam brought notoriety to al-Qaeda

The threats went far beyond the next decade. In 1998, al-Qaeda suicide truck bombs shattered two of America’s east African embassies, massacring more than 200 people, most of them Muslims.

Then three years later, 9/11 claimed the lives of almost 3,000 – it was a dramatic wake-up call to the world that Cowan’s dire warning had come true.

In another interview shortly after 9/11, Dewey Claridge, the spy who helped set up the CIA’s Counterterrorism Centre, described what he wanted to see happening to Osama Bin Laden.

“I don’t want him brought to trial. I don’t want to see a dead body because that just makes him a martyr. I just want him to disappear. Concrete shoes dropped into the Indian Ocean takes care of the dead part of ‘dead or alive’.”

Bin Laden’s fate was exactly as Dewey Claridge’s crystal ball had predicted.

In Northern Ireland it was a military stalemate that persuaded the British and the IRA to talk.

That stalemate, in which the SAS and its covert intelligence arm, known as the “Det” (for Detachment), left the IRA in no doubt that the “Brits” were not going to allow the IRA to win.

Between 1983 and 1992 the SAS and the Det shot dead 35 IRA suspects.

I remember doing an interview with one “Det” operator, a young woman, who described the celebrations back at base after the killing of IRA volunteer, William Price in 1984. To some of the team, the permanent removal of an IRA man from the battlefield was cause for a party.

“They [the IRA] make no secret of the fact that they celebrate the death of a soldier or policeman,” she told me. “We celebrated in the same way. If a terrorist was shot, there was a cake made with their name on it.”

Wasn’t that macabre? “Possibly,” she replied, “but the saying is live by the sword and die by the sword.”

I finally found a photo of the cake – in the shape of a cross, with icing round the edges and “RIP” etched above the place where Price was killed.

Perhaps the most uplifting stories in the midst of seemingly endless atrocities are about those who have the courage to take great personal risks to work towards peace.

I found that the Derry businessman, Brendan Duddy, displayed extraordinary generosity of spirit. For over 20 years, he was the vital secret back channel intermediary between the MI6 officer Michael Oatley (and later his MI5 successor) and the IRA’s ruling Army Council, via Martin McGuinness.

This top secret channel of communication cultivated for so long in the shadows ultimately led to the IRA ceasefire and the Good Friday Agreement.

It took me many months to discover the identity of the mysterious intermediary and when I finally did, to my astonishment, his first words were: “I’ve been waiting to hear from you.”

A long night followed at Duddy’s home, in the tiny parlour where many of the secret meetings were held. He told me his remarkable story.

Extraordinarily, IRA leaders were being smuggled over the border and brought in from Belfast for negotiations with the British government via MI6 and MI5.

It was 10 years after our first contact before Brendan finally agreed to an interview.

The emotional stress he had suffered in his efforts to bring peace were apparent in his voice.

He described being present at the seminal first meeting in his parlour between the MI6 officer, Michael Oatley, and Martin McGuinness in 1991.

I asked why he had taken the risks he had. “When you ask questions like that I choke. I get emotional. I find it hard to answer. I had no choice.”

But can the principle of engaging with the enemy be applied to other conflicts?

Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption After 9/11 a long and exhaustive hunt for Osama Bin Laden was launched

The former director of MI5, Eliza Manningham Buller, believes that it can. I interviewed her when the main threat came from al-Qaeda, in the wake of the 7/7 London bombings.

The so-called Islamic State was yet to emerge. I asked if the “war on terror” was winnable. “Not in the military sense,” she said.

“There won’t be a Waterloo or an El Alamein. The terminology about winning the ‘war on terror’ was not something that I ever subscribed to. It’s always better to talk to the people who are attacking you than attacking them. I would hope that people are trying to reach out to the Taliban, to people on the edges of al-Qaeda to talk to them.”

So after 50 years what are the lessons to be learned about defeating terrorism?

It has to be tackled on both the military and political front, with both security forces and their political masters being sensitive to the delicate balance between alienating communities and gaining their support.

In the absence of the elusive military victory, governments also need to be ready to engage with the enemy as the British did with the IRA, the Spanish have tried with Eta and most recently the Colombians have achieved with the Farc.

All these were possible because the enemy had a political agenda around which there could be dialogue.

The problem with al-Qaeda and the so-called Islamic State is that their agenda embraces a thousand years not 50. And al-Qaeda and IS are infinitely more ruthless and indiscriminate than the IRA ever was.

It is even difficult, as last week’s attack in Westminster shows, to establish whether or not an attacker is genuinely one of their adherents or supporters.

Although victory over IS may be declared in Mosul and Raqqa, the final victory lies not in crushing its armies on the battlefield but in defeating its ideology.

Peter Taylor’s documentary, Fifty Years Behind the Headlines – Reflections on Terror, is on Saturday 1 April at 20:00 BST on BBC Radio Four.