Titanic project needs serious thought
Professor William Neill (Letters, December 15) is right to express serious misgivings about the Titanic Signature Project, now being backed with taxpayers' cash by the Stormont Executive.
The artist's impression of the proposed Titanic structure recently released by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board is a ghastly creation – a cloned and mutilated version of the controversial Sydney Opera House.
Prince Charles' celebrated phrase about a "monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved friend" was never more apt. As Professor Neill points out, this is a world heritage site and the "memory of the Titanic belongs to western civilisation".
That memory must be preserved for the benefit of future generations.
A powerful case has also been made by John Neill (Letters, December 11) for the Victorian former drawing office of Harland and Wolff, a listed building, being restored and transformed into an international Titanic Centre.
I would also suggest an additional feature – a suitable memorial to all those who perished in the 1912 tragedy incorporated within a carefully landscaped park, to add some natural features to the project.
Trendy apartments and a car park (of all things) must be ruled out on such a historic site.
There is a clear choice between creating a dignified and lasting memorial to the Titanic and all who sailed in her, or allowing private sector fantasy merchants, with access to loads of public money, to create a soulless monstrosity that will be reviled by future generations.
Braidman
(Name and address supplied)
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Belfast
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
