03/08/2011 BBC Newsline


03/08/2011

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Good evening, this is BBC Newsline. The headlines: up to 2000

:00:21.:00:25.

holidaymakers plans are in ruins after a tour firm goes bust.

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5,000 homes are lying unfinished as a result of the property crash.

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A major security operation in Londonderry is linked to a

:00:34.:00:40.

republican dissident activity. We take a peek inside our new

:00:40.:00:44.

titanic project as sparks fly to have it ready on time.

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And once again, rain will replace the blue-sky is this evening but

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the sun will shine again before the Several thousand people from

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Northern Ireland could be affected by the collapse of a travel company

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which operated outside of Belfast International Airport. Holidays 4 U

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specialised in flights and packages to Turkey. Jim Fitzpatrick is at

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Belfast International. What is happening to those holidaymakers

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who are already abroad? They should be fine. They left here yesterday.

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There is a flight that goes each week to Turkey. We estimate about

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300 people from Northern Ireland in Turkey at the moment and they

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should retire on the flight they intended to return on. That is

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because the insurance scheme, they should be fine. What about those

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who were planning to go over the next few weeks? That is the bigger

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problem. With one flight a week with 200 people on board, that

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could be anything up to 2000 people who are hoping to go from here to

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Turkey. The company operated at the cut-price end of the market. Now

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they cannot go with Holidays 4 U, they will get their money back but

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trying to find another holiday at the same price at the height of the

:02:15.:02:20.

season will be hard work. There are complications. If you book your

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flight and accommodation separately, you will find your flight is

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covered by insurance but your holiday accommodation is still

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there, sitting and waiting for you and you have no means to get there

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to enjoy it. People who have paid for a package and do not go, will

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not lose out? That they should not lose out because of the Civil

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Aviation Authority's scheme. It is a question of whether they get a

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holiday of the price they hope to and with competition very tough and

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company is going out of business, then not -- may not be enough spare

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capacity in the system to get a new holiday with the same money.

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will be hearing from Dublin later in the programme where there is a

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row over air passenger duty. Figures obtained by the BBC suggest

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that up to 5,000 homes are lying unfinished as a result of the

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property crash. This is the first time the problem of so-called ghost

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estate has been quantified here. Now the question is what to do

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about all these eyesores. A symptom of our economic times, a

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derelict house estate. This site was abandoned four years ago when

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the developer went past. It is one of many unfinished developments

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across Northern Ireland, often referred to as ghost estates. The

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majority were brought by developers who could not afford to finish them

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where finance dried up and prices plummeted. Others have been

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mothballed in the hope the market will recover. The Stormont

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executive should do something to address the issue. What we need to

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do is recognise there is a problem. We know the cause of it all. Let's

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deal with the problem we have now. I can fill these houses with people

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queuing up to get houses and that could be represented all over the

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country. The executive have to take the lead. I can see ministers

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sitting round the table, finance, the department that looks after

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housing, the environmental department, all coming together to

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say, what will we do about this? Another ghost estate. The former

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owners of this side went into administration in 2009 owing the

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bank �25 million. The extent of the problem has been called a tide --

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quantified in the Republic for the first time. Data gathered to

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suggest there are between four and 5,000 homes in various states of

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construction from foundations upwards lying idle. As one solution

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to turn them over to social housing where the small number of these

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private developers have been bought by housing associations, it is not

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straightforward. We need to check the design of the homes that we are

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buying, that they match the requirements. We have to make sure

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they are fully constructed or at least 50 % constructed. On

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occasions in this kind of property market, the purchase price that we

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can afford does not make the developers expectations. This side

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is likely to be developed in the new future as is this one in County

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Down. But for many ghost estates it is unlikely they will be brought to

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life any time soon. Now to a property that has been on

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the market for a while, but this one is costing taxpayers �400 for

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every day it goes unsold. Ormiston House is owned by the assembly. It

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was bought for �9 million but its asking price now is a lot less.

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Martina Purdy looks at how close Stormont is to finding a buyer.

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This is Ormiston House, once one of the most exclusive addresses in

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Belfast. It was owned by shipbuilders Sir Edward Holland and

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its present owners, the Stormont Assembly, are keen to sell for

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around �2.5 million. They have been offers but there -- is there any

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sign of a cell? There has been a strong level of interest, there

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have been offers put in and we anticipate there will be a number

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of other offers. There is an incentive for us to sell the

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property because we want to make sure it is not a drain. Whenever

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happens, Ormiston House will be sold at a loss. Its current

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valuation of around �2.5 million is well below its 2001 purchase price

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of �9 million. And every day it remains unsold, it is costing the

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assembly money. The average weekly bill for items such as security and

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repairs is around �3,000. The fees totalled around �150,000 last year

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alone. Provided a buyer is found shortly, the losses could be as

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high as �8 million. In hindsight, it should not have been brought in

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the first place, but we have to move from where we are and the

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assembly is trying to get the best value. But even if they cannot find

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a buyer, there are other hurdles. Local residents are objecting to

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the impact on development and those concerned with heritage are worried

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that the asset is being lost to the community. If they can be some use

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that meant the building could be restored back to the community, if

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that was something like a museum or a visitor centre, something that

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could draw on the upcoming Titanic celebrations, if we could do

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something like that, that would be fantastic. So far, there has been

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interest in turning this side to apartments, a nursing home or a

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boutique hotel. There has also been a potential buyer interested in

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recreating a private residence. We will have more on the shipyard

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later in the programme when we take a tour around Titanic Belfast. Four

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people who were arrested as part of a police operation against

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dissident Republicans in Londonderry are being questioned by

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detectives. During a search, and number of people had to be moved

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from their homes while the Army dealt with a suspicious object.

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The dramatic scenes when I witnesses said police rammed a red

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Peugeot. The instant happened last night around 80 Clarke as the P S M

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I investigated suspected dissident activity. Some people describe it

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as something out of the Sweeney. You had police vehicles colliding

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with other vehicles. The three men arrested are aged 54, 42 and 23.

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They have been taken to the serious crimes week for questioning along

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with a 16-year-old youth. The 23- year-old man was arrested in a calf

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at 8:20pm and police say a suspected rifle was discovered. It

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is be examined by forensic experts. In an immediate follow-up, the two

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other men and the teenager were detained. They were not in the car.

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As part of the operation, an object was discovered. It was removed for

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examination by the army. Police asked people in several thousand

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homes to move out last night. whole row behind me was affected.

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It was a fair amount of disruption. A lot of upset for older people.

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would think so. During this major operation, the police carried out

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other searches. They took away plastic bags containing a number of

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objects. This rate has now been opened to traffic.

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Still to come: the board game of fantasy that has come true for two

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County Down man. And find out why this GAA club believes it is backed

:10:55.:11:05.
:11:05.:11:06.

The chief Executive of Ryanair has backed calls for the UK's air

:11:06.:11:12.

passenger duty to be scrapped. The departure tax adds from �12 to �170

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to a flight out of local airports. Michael O'Leary also says the

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Republic is losing out because of its 3 euros travel tax. Our

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reporter is in Dublin. Ryanair operates out of the City of Derry

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airport. What else did Michael O'Leary have to say about the UK

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duty? He was talking on the publication of his latest passenger

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numbers but he was looking more at the disparity between the levy and

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what -- on what passengers leaving the Republic pay on passengers

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leaving Northern Ireland. There have been calls for the air

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passenger duty to be abolished and Michael O'Leary agrees.

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Is should be scrapped in the UK. It causes huge damage. The UK tourism

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industry has declined because it is losing visitors to France, Spain

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and Italy. It is doing untold damage to air travel in the north

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of Ireland, it should be trapped -- scrapped and we think there should

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be no tax. For it was thought that the 3 euros

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tax in the Republic was to be scrapped altogether. That was the

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plan but there was a quid pro quo. The Minister for Transport said to

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the art -- Airlines, increase the number of passengers coming to

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Ireland and we will remove the tax. The minister said there had not

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been sufficient commitment from the airlines. If it does happen it ups

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the ante in what air passengers in Northern Ireland are currently

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paying. It is hoped tens of thousands of

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visitors will be attracted to Belfast next year when the sides

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and sounds of shipbuilding are recreated in the Titanic Quarter.

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A massive building called Titanic Belfast is to be ready in time for

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the 100 anniversary of the ship's sinking. Maggie Taggart has been to

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see the work in progress. 100 years ago Titanic floated

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proudly before its tragic end in 1912. Around 3,000 workers

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constructed it in Belfast and to date thousands of workers are

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constructing this building. The signature project is calling �97

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million and promises to be on time. Estate agents say that location,

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location and location of the most important factors and this location

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is the unique selling point of Titanic Belfast.

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When you face out northwards from the building, that is where the

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Titanic was built. To your left is the river where it first set sail.

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To the south was where the workers came every day.

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From its windows, workers will have a better view Dundee's present-day

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tourists. They will be able to look down on the dry dock and the slip

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away. What you see before us is one of

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the ship's holes. People can get an impression of exactly what it would

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have been like. This is the first time use cameras

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have been allowed in. The opening is in 20th April 12, 100 years

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after it sank on its maiden voyage with the loss of 1500 lives.

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Exhibitions will chart the life of Doug -- Belfast at the time, and

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discovery of the ship on the bed of the Atlantic.

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You can get a feel of the story itself and there is a shipyard

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where you get on a car which takes you through the centre of the

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shipyard, the smiles, sights and sounds.

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-- the smell ofs. They say it will be finished in

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April of next year, eight months away. Despite the fact that there

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is so much construction going on, the building is becoming a talking

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point a round the Titanic quarter. Two County Down men have put

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themselves on the worldwide board game map. They take the players on

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a streak -- strange journey, you are in a strange world balanced on

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the top of four elephants which sits on the back of a giant turtle.

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Fans of Sir Terry Pratchett will recognise this as the Discworld and

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the game "Guards! Guards!" has been based on the fantasy novels. It has

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been given official approval but it has taken a long time to get to

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this stage. But 20 years the two men who

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designed this board-game have been working towards the day when people

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all over year it -- the world will be playing at.

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It was just something we thought about ourselves but as people

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started to enjoy it we thought it could become something. Being a big

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fan of Terry Pratchett's work, it means a lot that he liked it. The

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last prototype we looked at, he said this is what it should like --

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look like. It was one thing for the author to

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say he liked it, another to get a games company to produce it.

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We did several designs over a year and a half and came back with the

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5th or 6th version of it and tried to take all the boxes that the

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company wanted us to take. We wanted to mix that up with the

:17:02.:17:12.
:17:12.:17:13.

Discworld magic. "Guards! Guards!" is based on Sir

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Terry Pratchett's Discworld series and it comes -- the name comes from

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one of the titles. The game features 90 characters from more

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than 20 of the books but I have been told you do not have to be a

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fantasy fiction fan to enjoy playing at.

:17:29.:17:39.
:17:39.:17:42.

At by have got it spot on -- they have got it spot on. It is quite

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easy to dip in and I think I will read quite a few of the books now.

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The game goes on sale next month and already the pair are working on

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ideas for the next stage. It is a bit more complicated than

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drafts! Next to the jockey who is riding to the rescue of his GAA

:18:01.:18:08.

club. Austin O'Callaghan is speaking from

:18:08.:18:12.

County Down. If you look at any sports club,

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times are not easy, so when you have this man to lend a helping

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hand, Tony McCoy. Does this mean you are coming out of retirement?

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Definitely not. It would be nice if I could play football though!

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to play for this club as a child. - - you used to. Yes, until I was

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pretty much 15. It is nice to be able to give something back.

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Obviously my brother and sister are still playing for the club and my

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nieces and so on. We have your old coach, Raymond. Do you remember

:18:58.:19:08.
:19:08.:19:11.

Tony playing? Was he any good? was, but very demanding. He said to

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me, sorry, I won't be there for the match because I am learning to ride.

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I did not think he would be such a success as today. How did you lose

:19:22.:19:31.

him to racing? He thought it would be better than playing football.

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This is the shirt, in the colours of Moneyglass. It is the blue and

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yellow. Do you want to do the needful? Have I think there will be

:19:46.:19:52.

a round of applause. We might be able to put on the boots. Who

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knows? The Carling football despite Carling Premiership football season

:19:57.:20:02.

has got under way. Linfield manager David Jeffrey has been giving an

:20:02.:20:07.

enough -- in-depth interview to BBC Newsline. After a decade and a half

:20:07.:20:14.

in charge at Windsor Park, by highs, the lows and the new appointments.

:20:14.:20:21.

David Jefferies -- David Jeffrey is Linfield's longest serving manager.

:20:21.:20:25.

He continues to divide opinion. For I do not know what people think

:20:25.:20:32.

of me. In some ways I do not take it personally because it might be

:20:32.:20:35.

that other teams don't like Linfield so they don't like the

:20:35.:20:45.
:20:45.:20:47.

manager! But nobody can take away the time that I and the staff

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around me have been at Linfield. We have won 29 trophies, 5 doubles. We

:20:54.:20:58.

have won a clean sweep. They will never take that away.

:20:58.:21:03.

He has just appointed a successor to Noel Bailey, one of the few

:21:03.:21:10.

Catholics took captain the club. -- to captain.

:21:10.:21:14.

Michael's religion has nothing to do with it. He is a Linfield player

:21:14.:21:20.

and a very good one. He has matured phenomenally well. He was very much

:21:20.:21:26.

the natural candidate. But clean sweep in 2006 was a high

:21:26.:21:31.

point for Jeffrey but during his time as manager he has suffered a

:21:31.:21:37.

marriage breakdown. Did the job contribute to this? It would be

:21:37.:21:42.

wrong to say that the pressures of football do not affect your life,

:21:42.:21:48.

but it would also be wrong, very wrong, to say that the journey

:21:48.:21:55.

which my life has taken has been influenced so much by football.

:21:55.:22:00.

As he embarks on a new season, it is the same old goal - more

:22:00.:22:06.

silverware. Linfield away on Saturday. Full

:22:06.:22:11.

coverage on BBC Radio Ulster at 3 o'clock.

:22:11.:22:16.

There is a rumour that in a few minutes Tony McCoy is going to try

:22:16.:22:21.

to kick a few points over the bar. I will believe it when I see it.

:22:21.:22:26.

Enjoy the rest of your evening! Sporting moments and even the

:22:26.:22:30.

simple things in life can be preserved forever in a photograph

:22:30.:22:36.

and from tomorrow at a whole array of those images will be on show at

:22:36.:22:37.

Belfast's first photography festival.

:22:37.:22:42.

It is about creating a stage for local and international talent and

:22:42.:22:46.

there will be a host of exhibitions. Our reporter has been to take a

:22:46.:22:51.

look at one of them. This is one of a number of places

:22:51.:22:56.

where you can check out some really fantastic photographs. With me is

:22:56.:23:03.

one of the festival's organisers. Give me a flavour of what it is

:23:03.:23:08.

about. The whole idea is to create an event which will have wide

:23:08.:23:13.

appeal but what we are dealing with is a unique event, in that this is

:23:13.:23:16.

the first ever international photographic festival to take place

:23:16.:23:20.

in Northern Ireland. It was the dream of one individual two years

:23:20.:23:25.

ago and it has taken two years to put together. The idea is that we

:23:25.:23:29.

have a history of photography in Northern Ireland and we need to

:23:29.:23:36.

make people aware of that. We have people like Donovan Wylie and what

:23:36.:23:40.

we wanted to do with the festival was create a platform. We brought

:23:40.:23:46.

not only local talent but fresh new talent from university accompanied

:23:46.:23:50.

with international talent. These photographs are at surely from

:23:50.:23:58.

Chicago, aren't they? A day are. -- they are. This was one of the

:23:58.:24:05.

surprises for me. Probably this is in my top five. Really stunning.

:24:05.:24:09.

The presentation alone really does them justice. This is what we are

:24:09.:24:13.

trying to do throughout the festival is reach out to a wider

:24:13.:24:19.

audience with images like this that people can think, I can do that.

:24:19.:24:24.

But everybody will have their own favourites. So lots going on. If

:24:24.:24:33.

you have an eye for nice pictures and a head for numbers, -- are 36

:24:33.:24:42.

events over 10 days. -- and there are 36 events.

:24:42.:24:51.

Time to find out if a change is on We had a nice day today, the sun

:24:51.:24:55.

made a return, and we know how brilliant the local photographic

:24:55.:25:01.

talent is because we have so many pictures sent in. It sounds like

:25:01.:25:06.

some of those venues for local photographs will be something to do

:25:06.:25:10.

if we had some rainy weather, which we will have tomorrow. Sunshine has

:25:10.:25:14.

been the main thing, particularly across eastern areas. This is the

:25:14.:25:23.

satellite picture at the moment. We are likely to catch some nice

:25:23.:25:31.

sunset. This was last night. It will turn increasingly damp, the

:25:31.:25:35.

cloud thickening up. Not too much rain initially but by morning it

:25:35.:25:41.

will be more persistent and it will be quite wet. Look at the

:25:41.:25:45.

temperatures, marched milder compared to last night and it will

:25:45.:25:55.

probably feel quite sticky. -- much milder. It may make for some

:25:55.:25:59.

interesting scenes in the morning. This is how it looked a couple of

:25:59.:26:05.

mornings ago. Tomorrow morning, if you are driving over the hills, it

:26:05.:26:09.

is likely to be quite misty with some hill fog are round. Persistent

:26:09.:26:19.
:26:19.:26:19.

rain mainly down into the Belfast area. There will be some surplus of

:26:19.:26:26.

water around if you are driving. Not particularly cold, though,

:26:26.:26:30.

temperatures of 14 or 15 degrees in the morning. The rain gradually

:26:30.:26:36.

peters out from the South, but it will be dull and gloomy, especially

:26:36.:26:43.

over the moors. It changes later in the day, gradually brightening up

:26:43.:26:48.

from the south and west, the rain turning more to showers, but those

:26:48.:26:54.

becoming fairly few and far between as the afternoon wears on. Probably

:26:54.:26:59.

quite a close field today. Some fresher weather for Friday,

:26:59.:27:04.

temperatures of 17 or 18 degrees, but it is dry. A great start if you

:27:04.:27:08.

are taking part in the walking Festival. At the weekend it will be

:27:08.:27:17.

. Several thousand people from Northern Ireland could be affected

:27:17.:27:21.

by the collapse of a holiday company which operated out of

:27:21.:27:25.

Belfast International Airport. Up to 5,000 homes are lying

:27:25.:27:30.

unfinished as a result of the property clash forced.

:27:30.:27:35.

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is wheeled into court

:27:35.:27:38.

charged with the killing of protesters.

:27:38.:27:44.

More have -- more phone hacking allegations - Heather Mills says

:27:44.:27:48.

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