Paisley gets Titanic welcome at remarkable visit to Cork
THE doomed liner Titanic provided the key to Dr Ian Paisley's remarkable two-day visit to Cork.
The DUP leader stunned Cobh business chiefs by accepting an invitation to address the local Chamber of Commerce -- and his two-day visit, which ended yesterday afternoon, was then quickly expanded to include a courtesy call to both Cobh Town Council and Cork's City Hall.
Not even Cork City Hall's strong links with republican martyrs Tomas MacCurtain, Terence McSwiney and even Michael Collins could distract from the bonhomie of the visit.
The outgoing Northern Ireland First Minister, accompanied by his wife, Eileen, revealed that his decision to accept the invitation to Cork was largely rooted in the city's shared links with the Titanic.
"The Titanic is a very important part of our new desire to uplift the centre of our (Belfast) city," he told the Sunday Independent.
"I accepted this invite to Cobh because it seemed to me that this was a very notable time especially about the Titanic.
"We have the new Titanic Quarter and we are going to have a big museum and we are going to have a real emphasis on this. This (trip) was tied in with that and this (Cobh) was the last place the Titanic was seen," Dr Paisley added.
Dr Paisley also said his visit to Cork came amid the success of the Northern Ireland peace process.
"We certainly have got the ship into the water and we have found that the ship is waterproof -- and it is sailing in the right direction," he said.
"I feel the generation who are now growing up, those young people need to take over from us. There is a very big change in Northern Ireland," he added.
With the 100th anniversary of the liner's sinking occurring in 2012, Cork and Belfast will lead the way in a year-long series of Titanic events aimed at commemorating the legendary ship and the 1,503 passengers who died in the tragedy.
Both cities now view the Titanic centenary as a global tourism event.
- Ralph Riegel
