A gallery of images from our recent trip to Belfast and North Antrim coast:
© Mark Simms Photography (2018)
The Titanic Museum in Belfast is well worth a visit. In fact I believe that it’s been regularly voted as one of the best museums in the world…….and rightly so.
The building itself is truely spectacular and everything about it’s architectural design, materials used, proportions and location have some relevance to the famous ship.
The galleries and exhibits themselves are very impressive, taking the visitor on a journey through the life and times of the ship and the men and women of Belfast who built her.
Unsurprisingly most moving of all are the exhibits that deal with the tragic events in the early hours of 15th April 1912, when the RMS Titanic hit an iceberg and sank with the loss of over 1,500 passengers and crew.
One of my favourite attractions, depicted in a couple of the photos below, is the SS Nomadic which is berthered next to the museum itself. This beautiful little ship, now restored to her original 1911 glory, served as the tender ship to the RMS Titanic and is the last remaining White Star Line ship in the world…….a fact that is even more remarkable when you consider that she also played a prominent role during the evacuation of the British and allied forces from Dunkirk in 1940.
© Mark Simms Photography (2018)
The recently restored HMS Caroline is the last surviving ship from the Battle of Jutland in 1916, the only major naval battle of World War One:
© Mark Simms Photography (2018)
The two massive gantry cranes of the world famous Harland & Wolff shipyard dominate the Belfast skyline.
The cranes, known locally as Samson and Goliath, each have a span of 140m and are capable of lifting weights of around 840 tonnes. Goliath is actually the shorter of the two with a height of 96m, and Samson has a height of 106m. Goliath was completed in 1969 and Samson in 1974.
© Mark Simms Photography (2018)
Purpose built in the 1920’s to house Northern Ireland’s new Parliament, Stormont is now home to the NI Assembly……..or it would be if the various political parties representing both Unionist and Republican opinions could put aside their differences and share power as intended under the Good Friday Agreement:
© Mark Simms Photography (2018)
A few images from the Remembrance Sunday service in Hamilton Square, Birkenhead, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War on 11th November 1918:
© Mark Simms Photography (2018)
A few random images taken whilst we were walking around the streets of Belfast:
© Mark Simms Photography (2018)
Belfast is world famous for it’s fantastic murals painted on the side of various houses and buildings throughout the city.
Even though the decades of sectarian violence known as “The Troubles” were, officially at least, brought to an end with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, the underlying tensions between Catholics/Protestants and Republicans/Unionists haven’t really gone away. Consequently many of the murals still depict images that leave the viewer in little doubt as to which side is being supported.
On a more positive note, Belfast has undoutedly come along way in the last two decades, and so there are also many murals that depict images of peace and hope for the future…..and that despite the fact that Brexit threatens to undermine the progress made over the last two decades.
There are also some murals that have meanings that are not so obvious or easy to discern.
Whatever the message or politicals behind these murals though, there is no question the artists responsible are incredibly talented and they have turned Belfast into possibly the worlds largest open air art gallery.
© Mark Simms Photography (2018)
Belfast’s City Hall dates back to 1890. Below are a handful of images of this magnificent Victorian building. The two night-time images are taken with my lovely little Olympus 17mm F1.2 Pro lens and the others with my trusty Olympus 12-100mm F4 Pro that is the perfect travel lens for the micro four thirds format:
© Mark Simms Photography (2018)
A distant shot of the famous Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge on the North Antrim coast in Northern Ireland, suspended 100ft above the Atlantic Ocean:
© Mark Simms Photography (2018)
