Aw, what a fab time at the Kennedy Centre this morning – the kids were class!  Almost made me miss youth work… (almost).

So as y’may know, the idea was to commemorate the arrival of the Titanic into the Thompson Dock at the start of February 1912 with a full-scale tug-of-war down the length of the shopping mall.  The part of the capstan was played with great relish by Glenn Ross and his mates – men whose pints you would try very hard not to spill:

And on the other end of the rope, the part of the Titanic was played, in ever-increasing numbers (representing the 3 propellers, 5 years from design to completion, 15000 builders, 20 lifeboats, 2200 passengers, and any other Titanicy number we could think of) by a fantastic bunch of kids from nearby Primary Schools – who knew their Titanic facts and figures to a hugely impressive degree!

The Mayor got in on the act, the choir from the Belfast Met sang, the strongmen pulled, the kids pulled back, chaos ensued, and (hopefully) a great time was had as we celebrated another milestone in Belfast’s Titanic story.

And it is a big milestone: amazing to think that the only authentic surviving footage of Titanic was filmed during the days of its arrival and berthing in the Thompson Dock.  That dock we walk beside every Sunday on the Dock Walk is the exact same location as these flickery black-and-white images; the riveted gate in the background is the same one we see today.  Gives you a shiver of history, doesn’t it?

And oh what agony, after spending a day away from the TQ, to see on Twitter (thanks Mark Simpson!) that I missed the arrival of the huge new Titanic sign for the visitor centre – clocking in at 15 tons to match the weight of Titanic’s anchor.  Just goes to show – you can’t miss a minute in the TQ these days!