At the core of Belfast's Cathedral Quarter’s claim to cultural accreditation stands the John Hewitt, much more than one of the city’s most friendly bars, but also a hive of arts activities managed by the Belfast Unemployed Resource Centre cooperative. Hardly an evening passes without a poetry slam, a literary quiz, a book launch or a live music session where the disciplines flit from traditional Irish to traditional jazz and all grace notes in between. It is the watering hole for the area’s hacks, musos, art students and arts administrators, plus as many raconteurs as you’d care to buy a pint for. Built as part of the offices and printworks of the News Letter (established 1737), the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the English-speaking world, the walls of the John Hewitt are hung with paintings or photographs by, in the main, Northern Irish artists.