Wishing all of our loyal readers a Merry Christmas

The annual rush home to Northern Ireland is under way, as the pictures opposite show.
News Letter editorialNews Letter editorial
News Letter editorial

Thousands of people who are originally from the Province try to get home every Christmas, such is their fondness for the place.

It is easy to forget the lure of Northern Ireland, given how grim the political news can often be.

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This has been a particularly difficult and bitter year. In a few weeks Stormont will have been down for three years, and the health dispute is one of the ramifications of that impasse.

There are, however, so many good things happening in Northern Ireland.

It has become an ever more prosperous and lively country, with easy travel access to overseas, and increasingly well constructed and insulated homes, even for the hundreds of thousands of people who live in social housing.

We do not have the population density that makes southern England so expensive, or so congested. And while the roads are comparatively clear of traffic, there are public transport successes too. Some train and bus services around Belfast are so popular that park and ride can barely cope.

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Employment levels are high, the many restaurants are bustling, and Belfast is a vibrant capital city, that comes into its own with the popular Christmas Market in the centre.

The Province is, and has long been, a good place to live and that is why Ulster folk have such a strong attachment to home, and did even during the Troubles.

We wish our readers a Merry Christmas and happy new year. The paper will be back in the shops on Boxing Day.

We now have a popular print edition, despite an increased purchase price, which most print newspapers need in this challenging digital age, and an ever growing online presence.

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This year we serialised our 1739 papers, 280 years later. Who then could have envisaged the thriving News Letter of 2019? It is a success story that this historic title could not achieved have without the support of you, our loyal readers.