Belfast to import iceberg from Norway.

Travel Mole 23 Feb 05

The city of Belfast is looking to “put itself on the tourist map” – by dragging a real iceberg into the harbour where the Titanic liner was built.

In a move described by the Daily Telegraph as “macabre”, the city’s authorities are making plans to drag the iceberg all the way from Norway into the Titanic Quarter of Belfast.

The newspaper quotes Rita Duffy, an artist who proposed the idea, as saying: “The iceberg and the wreck of the Titanic is the main story of Belfast – the sad, interrupted journey of disbelief and disappointment. The iceberg could become a symbol of hope as it melts.”

Duffy has reportedly been promised funding from the International Fund for Ireland, while the idea has been backed by the city’s lord mayor.

But not everyone thinks the initiative is a good one; Una Reilly, of the Belfast Titanic Society, is quoted as saying: “It’s not in very good taste. We have to remember that 1,500 people died. For 80 years the Titanic was a dirty word in Belfast. Only recently have people taken pride in her and recognised that the disaster was an accident.”