Descendants of the men who built the Titanic marked the 100th anniversary Tuesday of its launch in Belfast in a moving ceremony aimed at restoring the city's maritime pride after years of shame. A single flare was fired above the Harland and Wolff shipyard at 1113 GMT - exactly a century on from the moment the ill-starred ocean liner, then the largest boat ever built, slid into Belfast Harbour.
At the time the launch was a moment of huge pride, but ever since the "unsinkable" liner hit an iceberg on its maiden transatlantic voyage nearly a year later the tragedy has hung over Belfast. The Lord Mayor of Belfast, Niall O Donnghaile, said the centenary should be a moment of celebration for the city, which itself has overcome 30 years of Northern Ireland's sectarian strife known as "The Troubles".
"For too long, Belfast's part in the Titanic story, and the role of the people of Belfast in bringing Titanic to life, has been neglected," O Donnghaile said at the ceremony. Guests included local schoolchildren and representatives from four other cities and towns linked to the Titanic story - Cherbourg in France, Cobh in the Republic of Ireland, Liverpool and Southampton. The Titanic sailed from Southampton and stopped at Cherbourg and Cobh, then known as Queenstown.