page_title: Titanic Memorial, Belfast
section_title: Move, restoration, and creation of Memorial Garden
hierarchical_section_title: Titanic Memorial, Belfast / Move, restoration, and creation of Memorial Garden
caption_attribution_description: Opening of the Titanic Memorial Garden, Belfast
context_page_description: The Titanic Memorial in Belfast was erected to commemorate the lives lost in the sinking of the RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912. It was funded by contributions from the public, shipyard workers, and victims' families, and was dedicated in June 1920. It sits on Donegall Square in central Belfast in the grounds of Belfast City Hall.
  The memorial presents an allegorical representation of the disaster in the form of a female personification of Death, or Fate, holding a laurel wreath over the head of a drowned sailor raised above the waves by a pair of mermaids. It has been used as the site of annual commemorations of the Titanic disaster. For a while it was obscured by the Belfast Wheel that was removed in April 2010. It is now the centrepiece of a small Titanic memorial garden opened on 15 April 2012, the centenary of the disaster. Together with the garden, it is the only memorial in the world to commemorate all of the victims of the Titanic, passengers and crew alike.
context_section_description: The memorial was originally located in the middle of the road on Donegall Square North. However, this caused multiple accidents, as drivers travelling around the square often did not see it or could not change lanes in time and collided with it. In 1959 Belfast City Council decided to move it and requested suggestions for an alternative location. Various sites around the city were suggested and a bid was even made by the County Down fishing of Portavogie, whose inhabitants suggested that their community would benefit from tourist traffic generated by moving the memorial to their village. In the end, though, it was decided to move the memorial only a few hundred yards, to a new site in the grounds of the City Hall at Donegall Square East. The move took place on 28 November 1959 and cost £1,200.
  In 1994 the Consarc Design Group was commissioned to restore and repair the memorial. The bronze water-fountains had disappeared during the 1959 move, so replacements were made to restore the memorial to its original appearance. The memorial was renovated again in 2011–2 to clean the statue and to recarve and repaint the lettering so that it would be more legible. An annual service of commemoration for the Northern Irish victims of the Titanic's sinking is still held each on 15 April each year at the memorial.
  The memorial became the focus of controversy when the Belfast Wheel was constructed around and on top of it in November 2007. The Belfast Titanic Society objected to the wheel's location and proposed that the memorial be moved to the north eastern corner of the City Hall grounds. The wheel was eventually closed and removed in April 2010.
  After the wheel's removal it was proposed that, to mark the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic, a memorial garden should be established around the sculpture. The idea was widely supported. The garden was opened in a ceremony held on 15 April 2012, with wreaths laid by Lord Mayor of Belfast Niall Ó Donnghaile, Jack Martin, great nephew of Titanic victim John Simpson, and David McVeigh on behalf of Titanic″s builders Harland and Wolff.
  The memorial garden is set on two levels around and above the existing Titanic Memorial. Its upper level includes five bronze plaques on a plinth 9 metres (30 ft) wide, naming all 1,512 victims of the disaster, passengers and crew, listed in alphabetical order. It is the first memorial anywhere in the world to record all of the names of the victims on one monument. The main area of the garden is planted with springtime flowers such as magnolias, roses, forget-me-nots and rosemary, the colours being intended to evoke those of water and ice. Two of those who died in the disaster are thought to have travelled under false names, and are recorded with an asterisk next to their pseudonyms as their real names are still unknown.
caption: The opening of the Titanic Memorial Garden on 15 April 2012
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