A little reminder to be at the Kennedy Centre in West Belfast tomorrow for the celebration of a big Titanic anniversary: the week she entered the Thompson Dock, the massive concrete Graving Dock that still lies perfectly-preserved at the far end of the Titanic Quarter.

For those of you who haven’t visited the dock on a Titanic Walking Tour or a Dock Walk (for shame!), the Thompson Dock is the best place to get a sense of Titanic’s massive scale.  As it was the largest dry dock in the world in 1912, the Olympic Class liners were designed to fit within inches, filling it from side-to-side and end-to-end, and, even when the water was pumped out of the dock so that the ship rested on the keel blocks, filling the sky above like a skyscraper.   The ships were brought in when they were almost complete, but needed to be out of the water for some final finishing touches in the last few months of the build process.  Today you can stand at the capstan at the head of the dock and vividly imagine the Titanic towering above you as the men at the bottom of the dock fitted the propellers, painted underneath the ship, and made the final checks before departure.

And this week marks the hundred-year anniversary of Titanic’s arrival in the dock, hauled in by the 5 capstans, turning with immense power driven by the steam engines in the Pump House.  So to mark the event in style, we’re playing tug-of-war along the length of the Kennedy Centre mall.  Glenn Ross, Northern Ireland’s strongest man, along with a few of his mates, will play the part of the capstan, hauling the ship along the length of the Dock.  And on the other end of the rope, the part of the Titanic will be played by local schoolchildren, resisting the pulling power of the capstan as best they can!

I’m really looking forward to it – and really honoured to be asked to rally the troops and run the event.  It’s one of those Titanic anniversaries (like the 62-second launch last May) when we can celebrate all that was heroic and admirable about the Belfast men that built these mighty ships.  Events later this year will obviously have a more sombre tone as we remember that fateful maiden voyage – but it’s important to mark the anniversaries where we can have fun as well!

The event starts at 11am on Tuesday 7th Feb in the Kennedy Centre mall.  See you there!