The time: 6pm on Sunday 4th Sept
The place: A sofa in Dock Cafe
The command: BE THERE!
It’s the first Sunday of the month and time for our regular Sunday Nights at The Dock, and this week we’ve got a very special guest: David Gavaghan, the visionary leader who was at the helm of Titanic Quarter throughout the birth and growth of Dock Cafe and Dock Market. He’ll be sharing his vision for the future of Belfast and dreaming some big dreams for the city… don’t miss it!
A funny thing about vision… sometimes it’s seen more clearly through fresh eyes, by people visiting, than by the sometime-weary gaze of the people who are living in the middle of it. That was my experience recently reading an amazing blog called Nooks and Crannies of the Irish Coast – written by locals who decide to literally experience EVERY nook and cranny, every activity, attraction, and eatery that the Titanic Quarter can offer!
The whole series of blogs is brilliant and well worth a read – including the writers’ first ride on the Wee Tram – but the latest in the series – Coffee, Craic and a Close-knit Community – brings their TQ experiences to a close by reflecting on the whole area, and is just incredibly moving and describes (better than I ever could) the way vision is becoming reality on a daily basis in the TQ:
I was struck a number of times by the sense of community in the area. It seems as though every business is working together with the shared vision of placing Queen’s Island once again into the daily life of Belfast. One example of this was when we contacted T13 to see if their cafe was still running. They told us that it had unfortunately closed, but they made sure to point us in the direction of other cafes in the area. We have felt incredibly at home in TQ and it’s fantastic to see that Chris Bennett’s dream of a close-knit TQ community has been realised, not just in the Dock Cafe, but in the whole area in just a few short years.
Isn’t that awesome! When you’re part of a process, sometimes it’s so refreshing to see your work from a new angle – and realise that, whatever the imperfections and challenges that stretch me and stress me day by day, the vision is starting to take hold… the rubber is hitting the road.
And just as I was about to post this blog, I checked the Dock Trip Advisor reviews again (and that’s the last time I’ll mention them for a while, promise!) and found this absolute beauty – which again sums up the entire raison d’etre of the Dock in new words and from a new perspective:
