Belfast’s maritime heritage is a source of pride - and hope

The Ulster Unionist Party launched its Assembly 2022 election manifesto beside HMS Caroline at Alexandra Dock on Belfast Lough yesterday.

The last surviving warship from the Battle of Jutland during World War One had its future secured recently with a fresh injection of cash from many quarters including the National Heritage Lottery Fund.

It is a floating monument and a source of pride in the maritime history of Belfast and Northern Ireland as a whole especially when one considers that 260 Irishmen from every tradition on this island fought and died during that momentous sea battle.

At the same time the UUP candidates gathered at HMS Caroline nearby Titanic Belfast was celebrating its 10th birthday and over that decade it has welcomed over six million visitors from more than 145 countries. It has also generated an estimated £430 million for the Northern Ireland Economy in that period.

By a benign coincidence it was announced on Thursday that this summer a record 132 cruise ships will dock in Belfast bringing a much welcomed post-Covid wave of mass tourist spending across the Province.

The waters through which the Titanic was launched and that HMS Caroline sped through to fight that decisive naval battle were in the 19th century the pathway circuits by which Belfast’s industrial revolution was turbocharged. In the 21st century these circuits are flowing back in the opposite direction, pulling millions upon millions of tourist-driven pounds into Northern Ireland’s economic heart, boosting expenditure and creating jobs after the devastation of the Pandemic. The city’s sea faring tradition both naval and merchant over the centuries is not only one to be proud of but also to take hope from. Belfast rose up around its lough and the Lagan. The news about Titanic Belfast’s first outstanding decade, the cruise ships return, the salvation of HMS Caroline remind us of the regenerative power of the city’s waterway to the world.

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