Ben Lowry: Film screening depicted Belfast company Gilbert-Ash's role in constructing great buildings around the UK

This week I was at a film about a Northern Ireland company’s role in creating or improving major buildings around the UK.

(To read Ben Lowry’s main column about a setback for the NI courts on legacy, click here)

placeholder image — The Giant's Causeway Visitor Centre, one of the five buildings in the Gilbert-Ash film, Building Culture, which were previously shortlisted for the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Stirling Prize

I was intrigued by the documentary, which was held in that crucial cultural forum the Queen’s Film Theatre, which continued to be a cultural beacon through the Troubles, apart from a brief period when it had to close due to the worst of the violence in 1972.

The hour-long film about work done by the construction experts Gilbert-Ash resonated with me because it raised themes that I mentioned in a recent column about Belfast city centre, in which I mentioned its beautiful buildings. Fine buildings now cost so much to make that they are much rarer than they were in the 1800s and early 1900s.

The Gilbert-Ash film, Building Culture, highlighted five iconic buildings which were previously shortlisted for the Royal Institute of British Architects’ highly prestigious Stirling Prize, including two local projects – the Lyric Theatre and Giant’s Causeway Visitor Centre. Also depicted was their work on the National Portrait Gallery redevelopment, the Cambridge central mosque and the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool.

It all reminded me of this province’s magnificent industrial past. While we are now dependent on UK financial handouts, our underyling creativity persists.

Ben Lowry (@Benlowry2) is News Letter editor