Belfast, Northern Ireland

Our tour today was in the afternoon so Bob was able to get his workout done in the morning. The day was cloudy, but fairly warm considering what it has been.

Belfast is the largest city in Northern Ireland and its capital. It was granted city status in 1888 by Queen Victoria. It’s largest industry in the 1860s was ship building. The main company was Harland and Wolff, which is still in business today. Two of the companies current cranes are called Samson and Goliath. Harland and Wolff built 1700 ships in their history, the most famous being the Titanic. 70 of these ships were for the White Star Line, which was owned by J. P. Morgan, an American industrialist. His objective was to build the largest and most luxurious ships.

We saw the SS Nomadic, the tender ship for the 2nd and 3rd class passengers on the Titanic. There is a whole section of the city dedicated to Titanic and how it affected the history of Belfast.

The area around the Titanic Museum is being redeveloped. Some of the huge buildings previously used for ship building are now being used for film and TV production. Bob was even able to “sneak” into one of the areas and saw some of the sets for the Game of Thrones show which was filmed in this area.

Our main attraction was the Titanic Museum. The building is shaped like a star, honoring the company which ordered the ship. The museum is interactive and very informative, following the planning and building of Titanic. All the parts needed for the ship to be built were shown, from the linen that was used on the ship, to the ropes, to how the rivets were put in and on to the launch. There were mock-ups of the cabins for the three classes of passengers on Titanic. There was a very touching section that had the SOS signals and mayday calls. There were interviews from passengers who were saved.

The final section was about how Titanic was finally found almost 100 years after it sank. It also explained why they did not salvage anything from the ship or debris field.

It is one of the best museums we have been to. The final parts were about what was done to ensure the passengers in the future were safer; enough lifeboats for everyone on board, life vests for everyone and better communication if a ship is in peril.

After the museum we had a panoramic tour of the city. We heard about The Troubles, which dealt with part of the people wanting to be part of England and another part wanting to be part of Ireland. The sides were split partially by religion, Catholic vs Protestant. There were many years of bombings and fighting. This happened between 1960 and 1995. The Good Friday Agreement brought peace in 1998.

Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, celebrated 100 years of being a country last year.