The industrial high-point of Belfast, according to this mural, would seem to be when people travelled on trams, cloth was woven by hand, and Titanic sat in dry dock. Only the Shorts-Bombardier aircraft confuses the nostalgia.

Bloomfield Ave, east Belfast.

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Copyright © 2012 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Pictured in the centre of the mural is Captain Edward John “Ted” Smith – who, as captain of the ship, went down with Titanic after it hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic – in between shipyard workers at Harland & Wolff, where the ship was built.

On the painted “plaque” to the left: “Her name is publicly announced in April 1908. Designation begins in March 1909. On May 31. 1911, the Titanic was launched here in Belfast, April 10, 1912. She left Southampton for New York. April 14, 1912 disaster struck in the North Atlantic ocean, 1523 people lost their lives in the disaster, 705 passengers and crew survived.”

At the bottom of the mural: “This mural is respectfully dedicated to the men, women and children who lost their lives in the waters of the North Atlantic on the night of April 14, 1912: to those who survived – whose lives from that night on were forever altered; and to those who built the Titanic [at Harland and Wolff]. We forget them not.”

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Copyright © 2012 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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