Unveiling of Titanic Pall at Belfast Cathedral today and links to Titanic attractions and events
Unveiling of Titanic Funeral Pall at Belfast Cathedral today
The 1,517 lives lost in the Titanic tragedy will be commemorated in a beautiful hand–crafted funeral pall which will be dedicated today at 11.00 am in St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, a century after the disaster. The Cathedral hosted the civic memorial service immediately following the disaster and there are several family links with the designer of the ship in the Cathedral’s architecture and furnishings.
The pall, made of 100 per cent Merino felt, is backed with Irish linen and dyed an indigo blue, evoking an image of the midnight sea in which the Titanic finally came to rest.
This stunning memorial to those who died when the historic ship hit an iceberg in April 1912 has been made by Helen O’Hare and Wilma Kirkpatrick, textile artists at the University of Ulster. The 12ft X 8ft pall was the gift of the Friends of St Anne’s Cathedral.
A large central cross is fashioned from lots of tiny crosses and hundreds more of these crosses, in different sizes and shapes, each individually stitched in silk, rayon, metallic and cotton threads, fall away towards the velvet rimmed edges of the pall, symbolic of lost lives sinking into the dark ocean.
The vision behind the new pall came from the Dean of Belfast, the Very Rev John Mann. “The Cathedral doesn’t have a pall and really needs one,” he said.
“The theme of the lost lives was inspired by Philip Hammond’s new Requiem for the Lost Souls of the Titanic which will be performed for the first time in the Cathedral on April 14.”
Dean Mann enlisted the creative and inspirational talents of Helen and Wilma, members of staff in the Textile Art Section at the University.
The commission took three and a half months from the first meeting with the Dean until the pall’s completion at the end of February.
Helen said: “Wilma and I truly enjoyed working on this. You find great satisfaction in solving problems to make a piece work. Wilma and I came together to use our strengths and skills to create the pall. We have both worked on large scale textile artworks in the past so we were ready for this new challenge.”
Dean Mann said the ultimate design of the pall had been down to Helen and Wilma.
More at : http://ireland.anglican.org/news/3999
Speck on ocean floor – incredible new images of the Titanic
Belfast Telegraph – It may be the most famous ship in the world. But these extraordinary images show the Titanic as it has never been seen before. The pictures, produced using sonar and taken by underwater robots, provide new clues about what exactly happened when the doomed White Star Liner sank in the North Atlantic 100 years ago.
For the first time researchers have pieced together what is believed to be a comprehensive map of the entire three-by-five-mile Titanic debris field.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/speck-on-ocean-floor-incredible-new-images-of-the-titanic-16129265.html
Legend of Titanic is home again
News Letter – Belfast’s historic pride as a global leader in engineering and manufacturing has been reignited in the form of the new Titanic experience.
The days when we led the world with our shipbuilding prowess and linen production may be long gone, but the Titanic Belfast visitor attraction is a world leader in its own right.
It houses nine state-of-the-art, interactive galleries that blend technology with an easy-to-grasp historical narrative and carries the Titanic theme seamlessly throughout.
It also exudes a level of class evocative of the great liner itself – including the showpiece grand staircase recreated in the 1,000-seat banqueting and conferencing suite.
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/local/legend-of-titanic-is-home-again-1-3625564
In Pictures: Sneak preview of Belfast’s £90m Titanic Experience
Belfast Telegraph – The Titanic Belfast Experience is a new £90 million visitor attraction which opens on March 31, 2012. Almost 80,000 tickets have been snapped up to tour the world’s largest Titanic attraction when it opens. Operators of the £90 million Titanic Belfast, which has been built in the derelict shipyard where the ill-fated liner was constructed a century earlier, say they are delighted with the interest the centre has generated. They have also revealed that their banqueting suite, which is themed on the White Star Line’s first class dining facilities, has already had almost 200 bookings, representing £1 million of business.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/nostalgia/titanic/in-pictures-sneak-preview-of-belfasts-90m-titanic-experience-16131441.html
An awesome experience… Titanic’s epic story comes vividly to life
Belfast Telegraph – It’s hard not to be impressed on entering the new attraction.
To get inside you cross a plaza designed to emphasise the location of the building, right in the heart of Belfast’s docks and shipyards — the old Harland and Wolff drawing offices and paint halls visible, a view down the slipways now lined with steel pillars representing the arrol gantry which held the ship under construction, the water and a new sign, the word Titanic cut out of rusty metal.
The windows are full of Titanic facts and people, and as you step through the door the ceiling is lined with steel panels, the ticket booths made from huge wooden planks, all oozing an industrial atmosphere of days gone by.
But this is just a taster of what’s to come.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/nostalgia/titanic/an-awesome-experience-titanics-epic-story-comes-vividly-to-life-16130912.html
Shipbuilding in Belfast – A short history
http://www.belfast-titanic.com/History.html
Requiem for the lost souls of the Titanic
On the night of April the 14th 2012, a century after the Titanic hit an iceberg, the loss will be remembered by a “REQUIEM FOR THE LOST SOULS OF THE TITANIC”by Belfast born composer Philip Hammond.
Part of the ‘Titanic Festival of Creative Arts 2012,’this is the final event in a ‘mini-festival’ series of new art commissioned with funds provided by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
The Requiem will be premiered on the night of the 100th year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, on Saturday 14thApril 2012, commemorating the tragic loss of over 1, 500 lives. St. Anne’s Cathedral Belfast will host a specially commissioned choral work from the Belfast composer, with the performance being funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board Events Fund and the PRS Fund for Music, with sponsorship from Harland & Wolff and Power NI.
http://www.businessfirstonline.co.uk/?p=4361