A big honour for Dock-world today: we were asked by the top brass behind Titanic Belfast to lead a ceremony to ‘launch’ (if that’s the right word) the new ‘Titanica’ sculpture at the entrance to the visitor centre.

And in keeping with the Dock ethos, I didn’t lead the ceremony All By Myself – it was a team effort between representatives from all the traditions involved in Dock-world. Which is exactly as it should be – it just gives me such hope and joy that the ‘shared medley’ is part of the DNA of everything we do right from the start.

The sculpture itself is an interesting one! – Rowan Gillespie, the sculptor (a lovely bloke) admits himself that most people are going to notice certain aspects of the figurine first… “that woman is in the nip!”.  The sculpture draws on the angles of the building behind it, the idea of a ship’s figurehead, the image of Kate Winslet’s famous pose from the movie, and the contrast in scale between the life-size human figure and the towering hulls of Titanic Belfast soaring above.

More seriously, Rowan also spoke about the many hours of effort he spent on the face of the figure – a sad, haunting expression, paying tribute to the tragedy of Titanic’s story.  And he also confirmed that he very consciously made the figure ‘cruciform’, so that those with eyes to see could identify a cross, the ultimate symbol of both death and life, despair and hope.

So – what a day!  An Anglican, a Methodist, a Catholic and a Presbyterian joining forces to dedicate a sculpture of a woman in the altogether!   It certainly provided both a light-hearted piece for the Evening News, and a great example of the new Shared Belfast in action…