The Titanic Museum in Belfast is slightly misleading insofar as it encompasses much more than the Titanic tragedy. The first portion of the exhibit is dedicated to an exploration of early-twentieth-century Belfast, which was nicknamed Linenopolis because of its linen production. It was fascinating to read about linen production and to see its production in various phases. The museum engages visitors on a variety of tactile and technological levels as early-twentieth-century Belfast comes alive through multiple moving screens, interactive maps, and still exhibits.

There’s a fun 4D ride halfway through the exhibit that allows visitors to see, hear, and feel what it may have been like to work on the Titanic’s hull. I enjoyed seeing examples of class-based living quarters and reading survival accounts of the sinking.

A few things in the exhibit reminded me of themes we’ve discussed over the last few weeks. In the portion of the exhibit dedicated to the building of the Titanic, a narrator mentions that the Titanic was often referred to as the pride of Belfast. In this way, the city’s identity was intertwined with this feat of engineering. Tickets were given away and sold so that spectators could witness the Titanic being launched. This representation of Belfast as a lively, thriving city stands in marked contrast to the paralysis of Dublin represented in much of the literature we’ve read and studied.

Something else that stood out to me was a section devoted to the captain of the Titanic. There are many accounts of where he was and what he was doing as the boat sank. All of them are heroic. These various and contradictory accounts speak to the human tendency to mythologize and/or canonize tragic figures.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed the museum not only for its fascinating history of the Titanic but for its larger contextual history of Belfast.