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It's been a controversial opening. The new centre was £90 million, an extreme budget for an overtaxed economy. The view of many is why celebrate the greatest maritime disaster known to man? Hardland and Wolff operated in a time of high sectarian tension and ingrained and sustained division is synonomous with the shipyards (See plays 'Over the Bridge' and 'Dockers'). The anniversary of the Titanic we all celebrate, 2012, is the same year the Ulster Covenant was signed, a year of torment in the face of Home Rule. But this rhetoric should not define the way Belfast views this great new opportunity for the city.
On Sunday the 1st of April we walked alongside 1,000 men, women and children dressed as shipworkers and headed to the docks. Aside from the fact I was ignorantly wearing bright yellow, it was such an amazing feeling to see a Bowel Cancer Awareness campaign generate such civic pride. The celebrations beside Titanic with local musicians, Titanic flavoured Tayto and Titanic branded tea, and a thousand of Belfast's children and grandchildren of shipbuilding created such a force of positive energy for the city. 
While waiting for the walk to begin we congregated in Pitt Park on the Lower Newtownards Roads, an interface community with one of the highest levels of social deprivation in all of Belfast. Last June this was a site of some of the most contentious rioting for years and it is the location of the most recent violence of the Troubles in 2002. The backdrop most media outlets chose for the fighting was a re-imaged mural of the Titanic- 'Ship of Dreams,' which always seemed so ironic and potentially damaging to the year of Titanic to come. It has not deterred the thousands of visitors from around the world flocking to Belfast for the opening and centennary. A new installation of Yardmen has been built in this area, attracting dozens of busses and taxis down the Newtownards Road each day.
These types of installations are promoting tourism into new interfaces, not just the Peace Wall at Shankill/Falls. They are opening up opportunities for local businesses, such as the newly renamed 'Titanic Fish and Chips' shop. The Newtownards Road, like the Shankill, was historically a bustling road with thriving businesses. It will take continued regeneration and development of this area for East Belfast to market from its new found Titanic fame, but the cultural legacy of ship-building gives it a framework by which Inner-East Belfast and the Lower Newtownards Road may promote itself.
Last night there was a Titanic Lightshow. Through light technology the different processes of shipbuilding were projected onto the building telling a story of the life, death, and rebirth of the Titanic. As a free event supported by Belfast City Council, this was a perfect night out for the families of Belfast. If 10 years ago you told someone the docks were going to be a massive tourist attraction and thousands would flock to Albert Quay for an event, I'd like to hear the response. Today, the city is opening up more sections of itself and regenerating the cultural identity of Belfast.This year, 'Our Time, Our Place' as the marketing campaign goes, has done more than attract tourists. It's taken another step closer to Belfast realising its fullest potentials for cultural, economic, and political regeneration. I moved to this city to study a post-conflict society. What I'm getting is a lesson in building any society. The same buzz that attracted me to Belfast on my first visit 4 years ago still gets me everytime I leave the house and look at Cave Hill or the H&W cranes. Now, I have one more iconic symbol of this city I love so much, and that's the Titanic Belfast.
