BELFAST 1912
Belfast was Ireland’s industrial heart and its lifeblood was the talent of its workers. They’d made Lord Pirries’s company, Harland & Wolff, the biggest shipbuilder in the world. But political, sectarian and economic divisions were about to rip the city apart.
By the time the Titanic started to take shape in the Harland & Wolff shipyard, Belfast was a city of contrasts. One the one hand it was a developed industrial city with a population just short of 400,000 enjoying relative wealth thanks to its two main industries – shipbuilding and the manufacture of linen. But the workers were not benefiting from this wealth. Many labourers lived in houses with outside lavatories, tin baths and barely enough food on the table. A trip to the doctor
was out of the reach of many families and early deaths were common. The gap between
rich and poor was widening and unemployment and political unrest was increasing.
