Belfast Giants: the ice hockey team that captivated and changed a city

The Belfast Giants celebrated their 22nd birthday recently and the party shows no sign of stopping. The Giants won the Challenge Cup last month, beating Cardiff Devils in a sold-out final in front of 7,300 home fans, and they are top of the UK-wide Elite Ice Hockey League with a few games to play. Winning the double would be a huge achievement, but the Giants have been exceeding expectations for decades.

Belfast was a very different place when the Giants played their first match in December 2000. The Good Friday agreement was just two years old and the city had been scarred by a conflict that remained raw. There was peace on the streets but it was fragile, and the sporting landscape was as entrenched and traditional as ever.

Sports fans in Belfast lived on a limited diet of rugby, football and Gaelic games. The Ulster rugby team had just won the European Cup but they played in a rickety, windswept mausoleum of a ground in east Belfast that was mostly favoured by Protestant fans. The Antrim hurling team played in the heart of nationalist West Belfast at Casement Park, but their glory days were long gone. And the various Irish League sides across the city were tied to political tribes. Sectarian chanting was common and made attending a game a rotten experience for anyone who yearned for a brighter expression of local pride.

The city needed something new, but the foundations for a professional ice hockey in Belfast were flimsy at best. There was (and remains) only one ice rink in Ireland and the sport was barely known, never mind understood. Would thousands of fans pay to watch North American athletes play an alien sport in a new venue? The Millennium Commission had stumped up £45m to build a gleaming arena in the shadow of