Northern Ireland's most infamous courthouse could be reopened as a luxury hotel.
Planning permission is being sought to transform the Crumlin Road courthouse in Belfast, which closed eight years ago, in a £25 million project that could create more than 200 jobs.
With an estimated six million visitors last year, the city badly needs more hotel accommodation, according to Barry Gilligan, the developer heading the scheme. The proposed new hotel would have 161 beds and an application has been submitted for Government funding.
Conservation architect Dawson Stelfox, who once climbed Everest, has been hired to carry out the design work.
The huge entrance hall, the two main courtrooms where hundreds of IRA men and loyalist paramilitaries were jailed, as well as an underground tunnel that links one of the docks to a former jail on the opposite side of the road would be among the historical features to be retained as part of the massive refurbishment.
Mr Gilligan, who has been given the backing of several local groups, claimed: "I am confident that this proposal can kick-start further regeneration in the area."
The feared loyalist Shankill Butchers, the Milltown Cemetery killer Michael Stone and dozens of IRA men jailed on the word of former associates turned informers, were among hundreds sentenced in the courthouse, once by a judge wearing a bullet-proof vest and protected by police officers armed with high velocity rifles who stood guard on either side of him.
It closed in June 1998, just weeks after the signing of the Belfast agreement, but the new building would retain much of its character if the scheme is given approval.