Now the lives and careers of 44 of north Belfast’s most celebrated faces have all been highlighted in a new guide entitled The Famous Faces of North Belfast.

The free guide was published by the Renewing Communities Visitor Servicing Project, a tourism initiative delivered by the Belfast Visitor and Convention Bureau, and was funded by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, to raise the tourism profile of north Belfast and to educate the local community and tourists alike of the distinguished people that came from the area.

The guide is packed with short introductions, childhood memories and profiles on a range of characters that were either born or spent a considerable part of their childhood in north Belfast including Kenneth Branagh, who won a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar nomination for his Shakespearian adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing, Sir James Galway, who was knighted in 2001 for his services to music, Chaim Herzog, Israel’s longest serving president and Jake Burns, the vocalist and guitarist from punk band Stiff Little Fingers, to name a few.

Councillor Nelson McCausland hopes the new guide will help promote the area to tourists.

“The guide was published as an endorsement for north Belfast,” he said. “I hope it will make the area more attractive and interesting to tourists and encourage them to visit.

“I feel we have an interesting and unique tourism offering and I hope this comes across in the guide and in the other work we have completed through the Renewing Community Visitor Servicing Project.

“There is such a great range of inspiring people highlighted in the book and local residents should be proud to come from north Belfast,” he concluded.

Jayne O’Neile from the Belfast Visitor and Convention Bureau said: “Tourism is continuously increasing in Belfast and the latest figures show that 6.9 million visitors came to Belfast in 2007 — a record high for the city — contributing an estimated £313million to the economy. It is therefore very important to encourage tourists to visit local areas and this guide provides a great marketing tool to do just that.”

Anyone interested in the Famous Faces of North Belfast guide can pick up a copy from the Belfast Welcome Centre, North Belfast Partnership Board or local attractions and accommodation providers in north Belfast.