Belfast plays host to week long Titanic event

Belfast today played host to the launch of a week long event heralding the role played by the city in the life of the ill-fated liner, 'Titanic'.

The 2004 ‘Titanic - Made In Belfast’ programme was officially launched by Lord Mayor of Belfast, Councillor Martin Morgan, at the Harland & Wolff Titanic slipway where the mighty vessel first once stood during its construction.

A wealth of activities have been organised over the period of April 10 through April 18, including talks and storytelling, walking, bus and boat tours, dramatic re-enactments, music and special commemorative exhibitions.

Unique artefacts are also being brought home to Belfast for this year’s week of events, which celebrates the magnificent engineering achievement that was the Titanic while commemorating the tragedy which befell her and those onboard so soon after she sailed proudly out of Belfast in April 1912.

Speaking at today's launch, The Lord Mayor said: “While Titanic’s story is one of technological achievement coupled with unforeseen disaster, it is also a very human one – the story of the men who built her, and of the men, women and children who sailed in her.

"It is a story of triumph and tragedy. While the tragedy of the story is all too well known, Belfast’s part in this human story, the role of the people of Belfast in bringing Titanic to life, has been neglected."

Centrepiece of the week, ‘Titanic At Home’ focuses on the creation of the ship, the workers who put a piece of themselves into the ship using the best skills and materials available, and those who sailed from Belfast never to return, and truly is an exhibition which could not be staged anywhere else in the world but the home of Titanic.

The story told of Titanic is often that of her fateful final four days at sea. ‘Titanic At Home’ tells the wider story – the people involved in bringing Titanic to life, and those who lost their lives with her: the men who played a vital role in the ship’s history but whose own stories so often are not told.

Titanic left Belfast for Southampton on April 2 1912, and sank 13 days later, with the loss of more than 1,500 lives.

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