A week-long celebration marking the 90th anniversary of the launch of the Titanic has begun in Belfast.
"Titanic - Made in Belfast" includes actors playing the ship's crew and passengers in the grounds of Belfast City Hall.
The world's largest ocean liner in its time, the Titanic was hailed as unsinkable. On April 15th, 1912, it collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic while on its maiden voyage. Around 1,500 people died in the tragedy.
Yesterday, Belfast City Council unveiled a plaque at the south Belfast home of the ship's designer, Mr Thomas Andrews, which is now the headquarters of the Irish Football Association.
The celebrations also include a gala ball in full Edwardian costume with a replica seven-course-meal staged by the Ulster Titanic Society.There will also be an exhibition of memorabilia at City Hall.
Special tours of the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast where the vessel was built are also planned.A children's book containing stories about the Titanic has also been launched.
Its authors come from Belfast; Cobh, Co Cork, where the ship last docked, and Halifax, Nova Scotia, in Canada where many of the dead were buried. Cobh will celebrate its own Titanic festival next week to mark the ship's departure on April 11th, 1912.
The Lord Mayor of Belfast, Councillor Jim Rodgers, said that since Saturday more than 12,000 visitors had either passed through Belfast City Hall to see the exhibition or been to the shipyard to see the dry dock where the Titanic was built.