rantaholics anonymous

rantaholics anonymous: Belfast's New Titanic Centre - A Celebration of What, Exactly?

derevaun-seraunnn — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 23:07:11 +0100

rantaholics anonymous: Belfast's New Titanic Centre - A Celebration of What, Exactly?:

skypipez:

belfastvulture:

It is a fact universally acknowledged……….. that Belfast rarely makes any kind of international headlines, except when something terrible happens [usually people being murdered by paramilitary organisations] However Belfast did make the news recently at the launch of the new Titanic Belfast Visitor…

THIS.

This is a prime example of the weird anti tourism attitude of most of Belfast’s people (generalising is fun, huh?) that makes us out to be a bunch of sour faced cunts.

Ok! Yes the Titanic sunk! due to navigational errors… but what our ship builder’s have achieved at the time was tremendous… Belfast was not always just known for The Troubles; we were at one point the number one manufacturer for all things ship building. If we as a city try to move on from that for tourism; what is the big fucking deal? I mean seriously.

People around the world are interested by the Titanic, and as Belfast is essentially the birth place of it… Why should we not advertise that? Should we discourage people from travelling here, because we like to feel isolated? The money we will get from this increase in tourism will obliterate all the spending to gain it, but I guess that’s bad for Our Wee Country!

I will never understand the people when asked of their home Belfast, immediately talk about The Troubles, when most weren’t alive for the worst of it (or at all)! It’s almost as if people cling to that bit of history. Thrive on telling people that Belfast once upon a time was similar to Downtown Baghdad.. Ugh. Just. Shut up.

Belfast is actually a wonderful city. People that live here don’t seem to realise this; or want too. Seriously. Go travel. Walk in a few cities around the world, you will realise how nice a place Belfast is. How Northern Ireland is. Enjoy it. It’s fucking gorgeous.

I am sorry for the OP getting the brunt of this, but this struck a nerve. There is only so many ‘Fuck the Titanic’ posts I can see in a night…

When something good happens to this city; people are up in arms about how much of a irritation it is. Yet when there’s nothing of note happening; why does Belfast always get skipped out? Fuck off. Some people literally can’t be happy unless they’re miserable. /rant

This is a reply to http://skypipez.tumblr.com/

Thank you for reading my post. It is the first post I’ve written and I’m glad it has encouraged some discussion and debate :) However, I disagree with some of the points you raised. I would like to say, that I am not anti-tourism, I do not necessarily condemn the Titanic centre… and I don’t think my post represents that view at all. It is just when you consider the sheer amount of money which has been pumped into it [The Northern Ireland audit estimate for the centre made it one of the most expensive venues in Europe in terms of money spent to build it per visitor that was expected to see it.] For £100 million – it does need to justify itself.

You mention it as being part of a celebration of an achieved accomplishment for Belfast- and I agree there is nothing wrong in wanting to do that, but surely the most appropriate thing would to call it the Harland and Wolff centre, or the Belfast Shipworkers centre – something along those lines, instead of advertising it as the Titanic Centre - after a ship famous for the deaths of 1500 people which ultimately becomes a brand to be sold. This is the main problem that people I know have with the centre – the ‘cashing in’ aspect [especially with the likes of Tayto and ofc, James Cameron’s film]. All of this contrasting with the deaths of so many, means that it is not only distasteful but just disrespectful.

Lastly I’d just like to talk about the troubles aspect – well, you say that some people can’t let go of them.. obviously, they were a hugely significant part of history and their after effects are unfortunately still being felt today, however the ‘Troubles Experience’ is being marketed in the city and makes up a significant fraction of its tourism, with black taxi tours and open bus tours exploring the old murals and most violent sites of the city. I have mixed feelings about this. But, this is, in essence, why I find the Titanic centre interesting [although I don’t agree with everything about it]– it is interesting in that it marks a new step for how Belfast represents itself through tourism, which I think is very significant.

I don’t condemn such things – it is an ambitious venture, but its just whenever you have the people behind the Titanic Centre asking Kate Winslet and Leonardo di Caprio to cut the ribbon for the opening [yes they really tried to do that] – this is what completely cheapens the whole thing – and cheapens the deaths of people, all in all ironic considering 100 million pounds went into it.

Belfast's New Titanic Centre - A Celebration of What, Exactly?

derevaun-seraunnn — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 11:52:00 +0100

It is a fact universally acknowledged……….. that Belfast rarely makes any kind of international headlines, except when something terrible happens [usually people being murdered by paramilitary organisations] However Belfast did make the news recently at the launch of the new Titanic Belfast Visitor Centre.

Around one hundred million pounds has been poured into the centre, based in the run down former shipyards in the east of the city [The newly named ‘Titanic Quarter’]. The centre offers tours, talks, and apparently a few ‘theme shows’, with talk of ‘Titanic the Musical’ being present [cringe] of course, all of this seems to teeter on the edge of black humour….. to then being completely awe-inspiringly terrible. Yes, everyone has seen the film. I remember teaching myself ‘My heart will go on’ by Celine Dion on recorder as a young’un, and thinking myself a young musical prodigy. We all remember the story of Kate and Jack, including the bit in the car where one of them did that strange hand gesture to that steamy window. [As a child I remember being quite confused - ‘this is what people do when they have sex?!’]

In any case, aside from the film, the fact remains that the sinking of the Titanic was a terrible thing, which caused the loss of 1,514 people’s lives. So where is the celebration in all of that? The people behind the Titanic centre, obviously see it - not as a celebration of the deaths of so many innocent people, but rather, a celebration of the ship building industry in Belfast, which was a successful industry for the city in the early twentieth century. This recent boost in the Titanic-revival is also apparent in the huge copper beams which now line Royal Avenue, having different names of ships that were made in the docks. The problem however, lies within the fact that there are numerous ‘holes’ in Belfast’s new venture. Although the city is eager to find a way out of its conflict-riddled past and reputation, most locals will agree that it seems quite an arbitrary project to suddenly start to try to ‘claim’ the Titanic, as many Belfast people had for years seen it as a source of shame or embarrassment in being associated with it. Indeed there are already Titanic centres in Cobh, County Cork, and in Southampton - both ports of departure for the ship, which seem justifiable - but can Belfast really justify its centre? And can it justify 100 million pounds being spent on it?

Well, this brings us to another problem. Although millions of pounds have been poured into the creation of the new building, the original buildings of the shipyards which were historically significant have for the most part been pulled down, with the rest of them left to decay. Add to this the recent bandwagon-ing of new Titanic related things suddenly springing up in Belfast - such as the ‘MTV Titanic Sounds’ [taking place in the Titanic Quarter] the Belfast Titanic Festival and perhaps most horrifyingly of all - Tayto crisp company’s new Titanic Crisp edition.
Even Chinese Supermarkets are getting in on the action.

The Lee chinese supermarket on Donegal Pass - Pic by @ShaneHoran

In any case, Belfast’s Titanic centre seems like a textbook example of a city searching for an alternative history and culture for its people, whose proudest achievements have mainly been blowing each other up quite effectively since the late 1960’s. Thus the aim is to find and create a history, which its people can be proud of.

However with tickets to the centre being priced around the £13 mark, it is unlikely if many local people would be willing to go at all. The politicians of Northern Ireland have defended the costs of the centre, claiming that it will provide hundreds of new jobs and also help to regenerate the surrounding area. However for many critics, the Titanic centre is another case of ‘forget the quality, feel the width’ with doubts over the integrity of the project, and also whether or not they will ever see that £100 million again.

hello.

derevaun-seraunnn — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 10:30:26 +0100

hello! welcome to my blog. the intentions of this blog are to provide a platform for insights into certain issues in belfast and northern ireland.
it seeks to be an alternative source, and perhaps even……insightful. to encourage discussion and debate and to represent different viewpoints of belfast.
however who knows what delights will come of it!