The Titanic

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It's boat. It sank Get over it. So reads a popular T-shirt slogan that encapsulated the backlash to the hype surrounding Titanic.

James Cameron's 1997 movie about the doomed luxury liner. It is advice that should be taken on board by the burghers of Belfast, Northern Ireland, who remain inexplicably proud of their city's association with the infamous floating coffin.

The Titanic was built in Belfast's Harland & Wolfe shipyard, and launched in April 2, 1912. Thirteen days later, it struck an iceberg and sank, with the loss of more than 1,500 lives.

Despite the death toll, the link with the disaster remains Belfast's most cherished boast.



The city fathers seem endlessly happy to find Titanic-related japes and revels. The latest wheeze they're backing is a tasteful plan to tow an iceberg into the quay from which the ship first sailed. The glacier, it is hoped, will become a visitor attraction, the anchor feature of a dockside redevelopment in what is (inevitably) called the Titanic Quarter.

www.sunday-times.co.uk