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Given the terrible events this week, I suppose we should be glad that noone was hurt in the major blaze which took hold of the Crumlin Road court house. But it is awful that such an historic building should be so badly damaged. I just hope that it's possible to restore the court house to its old self, like the Stormont chamber which was gutted by a blaze in 1995.

During the troubles I had to cover a few court cases at the "Crum" then on one occasion sat nervously waiting to give evidence in a case related to Joe Hendron's election as West Belfast MP (fortunately the point on which I was due to be questioned was conceded before I had to go into the dock).

Then back in and had the chance to walk through the tunnel which links the dock in the Courthouse to the jail on the other side of the road. This is the grim walk which many prisoners took, some of them on their way to the condemned men's cell. The jail still contains a number of unmarked graves.

It was obvious that with the right restoration and imaginative marketing the jail and the courthouse could provide a unique visitor attraction, whether it be a "Troubles Museum" or something more specific to the story of the "Crum" itself. It's therefore frustrating that the re-development of the site has taken so long and that the property owner, Barry Gilligan, has had such a battle to keep the vandals at bay.

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