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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
National
Rebecca Black

Merchant founder ‘gambled on peace’ to open first five star hotel in Belfast

merchant Belfast
The Merchant Hotel in Belfast (Alamy/PA) -

A Belfast man has described how he took a gamble on peace in Northern Ireland lasting to open the capital’s first five star hotel.

Twenty years after the opening of the Merchant Hotel, Bill Wolsey said he was advised it would never work as he transformed the grade A-listed former Ulster Bank building in Skipper Street.

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