East Belfast’s streetscape resembles a historical tapestry. Murals commemorate the Titanic, first world war battles and loyalist paramilitaries – faded eras of building ships, fighting Germans and striking back at the IRA and Catholics during the Troubles.
The impression is of a constituency held in aspic, a timeless bastion of working-class unionism, but this is deceptive. The giant yellow cranes of Harland & Wolff still dominate the skyline but the shipyard’s glory days are long gone. Neighbourhoods that relied on traditional industries have decayed while other areas have gentrified amid a burgeoning population of tech workers and other well-paid professionals who do not paint their kerbstones red, white and blue.
