Introduction

Belfast, as a city, has come to be represented in recent years by the shadow of its industrial heritage. The Titanic, and the shipyards in which it was built, have become central to the city's attempt to give cultural and economic purchase to its contemporary identity. This lecture uncovers some of the history behind that branding of Belfast. It takes Thomas Carnduff's shipyard poetry, written in the 1920s and 1930s, as a way in which to understand the complexities of labour which underpinned the products of the shipyards and to reconsider the meaning of the shipyards for Belfast today.

Colin Graham

Colin Graham lectures in English at NUI Maynooth. His books include Northern Ireland: 30 Years of Photography (2013), Deconstructing Ireland (2001) and Ideologies of Epic (1998), and several co-edited collections of essays. He is co-editor of The Irish Review and curator of the Illuminations digital gallery at NUI Maynooth. He writes for The Vacuum in Belfast and for the photography review Source. See http://19acres.wordpress.com.