Spirits soar as tall ships sail in

By Andy Martin
BBC News

The Tall Ships were last in Belfast 18 years ago

The Tall Ships have been here before, but it was 18 years ago and the Belfast backdrop of 1991 was very different to that provided by the city the ships are sailing into this week.

At the time the man chairing the committee behind the visit was known simply as Robin Dixon.

Almost two decades later he enjoys the title Lord Glentoran and the walls of the entrance hall to his home near Doagh are testament to how important this "happening" was in his life.

Lord Glentoran was also an Olympian, a bob-sleigh competitor, off-shore sailor and soldier.

Yet it is the memorabilia associated with the Tall Ships visit that enjoys pride of place on the wall.

His organising committee, the ship he skippered and the brochure advertising the event all enjoy prominence over photos of his personal sporting achievements or political career.

"There were a number of reasons behind the magic of 1991," he said.

"Firstly, we were in a serious terrorist situation. Nothing on the scale of fun like this had happened in living memory of many people.

"This particular happening just gave everybody a huge lift. I remember one evening seeing the youngsters all dancing in the discos and members of the RUC, as it was then, with their pistols on their hips, dancing with the girls from west and north Belfast. It was really a very seriously fun happening".

Archive from a BBC programme captures the dereliction of the docks at the time.

Bill Loughridge was proud to be part of the 1991 Tall Ships event

The commentary describes the "grey Victorian Pollock Dock" and its transformation into a venue for vessels of the size once built in Belfast.

In 1991 the concrete quayside was soon far from abandoned.

An estimated 100,000 people meandered through the area every day.

Bill Loughridge was the civil servant tasked with tying together the various committees organising the event.

"The first morning I arrived, 23 July, the ships were there. I'm not a desperately sentimental or easily impressed sort of fellow in that way, but I was very, very impressed," he said.

"I looked at all of these vessels with their masts reaching right up into the mist, it was just extraordinary.

"I felt very proud to have been a part of it and I would still do a bit of boasting about it and say, 'I worked with the Tall Ships when they came to Belfast'."

When asked whether any other event of similar scale could have captured the imagination in the same way, Lord Glentoran is clear.

"I don't think it could have been done in the same way or to the same extent by anything else. There are several reasons.

"We are primarily and emotionally a maritime nation. I think the international support that we had from so many countries' national youth, coupled with the natural spontaneity and hospitality of the Ulster people, made a huge difference."

It was Bill Loughridge's last job after 35 years as a civil servant, and he remembers it with glazed eyes and a fond smile.

"It was the most enjoyable year ever. I was so happy and so proud to have been a part of such an event.

"It seemed to make such a great difference to Belfast. It could not have been better."