Almost exactly one hundred years after the tragedy of the RMS Titanic, Belfast has evolved a great deal and now embraces the peoples of the world in remembrance, celebration of the ingenuity of the time and mourning for one of the globe’s most prolific and heartbreaking of disasters.
30,000 people, foreign and local, gathered along the newly refurbished River Lagan docks by the original Titanic slipway at Harland and Wolff. The bustling city was thronged by excited families all clamouring for that elusive parking space and queuing for the shuttle buses departing for Chichester Street in anticipation of the hyped Digital Light Show which was to be projected onto the new, strange, angular and chrome, Titanic Building, a free event organised by Belfast City Council.
Thousands walked in high spirits across the pedestrian bridge flagged by the ‘big fish’ monument and the ‘Thanksgiving Beacon’ (fondly termed – the Lady of the Lagoon). The sense of community and kinship was palpable in the twilight of the evening.
Bright yellow and blue wrist bands marked the lucky attendees who managed to score tickets as they gathered, dwarfed by the stature of the iconic build – all triangular ship’s bows in architecture, and surrounded by period clad stilt performers, fire dancers and the continental market.
A hush passed over the awaiting masses as the tall lights were dimmed, a beautiful accompaniment of classical strings stroked the night and spotlights swept over the metallic surface of the edifice like roving lamps of wartime. In the perfect spheres of light silhouettes portraying the history of Belfast’s docks began to weave a story, the towering cranes, Samson and Goliath, followed by the turrets and roundels of the City Hall and the broad, three pointed, wing span of wind towers which are being shipped out in present day.
The display turned industrial with cogs, iron rods and pistons until the large bow of a luxury, cruise ship arose in vivid imagery from the sight of its birth. The chosen graphics were simple and raw but universally understood, the disparate age of steel, hard labour, sweat and toil enlivened again as pyrotechnics of red hissing steam complimented the intense images of blazing furnaces turning the very modern building into a monster of a bleaching machine. An impressive firework display accompanied the music and colours and the crowds applauded as silence settled.
The following display was less well received, many leaving early to beat the crowds retreat as psychedelic ‘magic eye’ creations undulated to more popular beats and the production became more about fancy geometry, spirals, twists and whirls than an historic story arch. Bigger and louder fireworks lit the heavens and the effect was somewhere between a brainwashing scene from a 60s television series and a self-congratulation of technical wizardry.
Still the many onlookers were buoyant to be present at such an iconic occasion and behaved peacefully and with respect and awe as they shuffled on mass back over the lagan to the neon lights and high rises of Belfast’s recent revitalisation.
This was just one of many events and memorials to that ground breaking ship and when one combines this anniversary with the London Olympics, the resurgence of tourism and global notice that Belfast is receiving in the form of the MTV awards last year and the Police and Fire Games of next year, it is clear that the city is surging forward into brighter and better times ahead.
