As the Tall Ships arrive into the Port of Belfast after sailing a colossal 7,000 nautical miles, BBC Northern Ireland will become the essential port of call for the best broadcast coverage of the Belfast Maritime Festival across television, radio and online.
Led by a live, hour-long programme
presented by Eamonn Holmes, BBC
Northern Ireland’s coverage will also see
presenters such as Hugo Duncan, Alan
Simpson and Gerry Kelly head to the Belfast
Quays to capture the excitement of this
major event, providing unmissable coverage
from Thursday August 13 until the ships
depart on Sunday, August 16.
Eamonn Holmes will be returning to his home city for an exciting hour-long live programme on BBC One NI on Friday August 14 at 7pm, which will bring viewers all the colour, spectacle and atmosphere of the Belfast Maritime Festival 2009.
Eamonn and his roving reporters, who include Darryl Grimason, Claire McCollum and Joe Lindsay, will be chatting to the event’s many visitors, the crews of the ship and going behind the scenes to look around one of the impressive vessels.
Eamonn says: “This is the sort of thing that lifts not only the whole city, but the whole country out of the humdrum of daily life. It’s escapism as well as being history in motion. I think we have got to make the most of it while it lasts. Belfast Lough was made for this spectacle. There was a time when the Lough would have been covered in sail ships for real – so welcome home these masters of the sea!”
When the Tall Ships last visited Northern Ireland in 1991 there was no peace process, no Agreement and no paramilitary ceasefires. The crews who disembarked in Belfast’s docklands were warmly welcomed by a community desperate for peace and on the cusp of change.
Digital viewers can go behind the red button to see how BBC Northern Ireland reported the visit at the time and then celebrate Belfast’s most famous ship, the Titanic, in a documentary charting Mike McKimm’s undersea voyage to the wreck of the doomed liner. Satellite, Freeview and cable viewers can catch those archive programmes behind the red button after the transmission of the Tall Ships television special on Friday August 14.
BBC One NI viewers will also be able to keep right up-to-date with the progress of the Tall Ships during their voyage across the Atlantic with BBC Newsline. Reporter Julian Fowler is on board one of the Tall Ships since their departure from Halifax, and, weather and technology permitting, the programme also hopes to have live broadcasts from the decks of the ‘Bark Europa’ during its journey to Belfast.
Julian will also be providing additional reports, blogs and photographs on the BBC Newsline website - bbc.co.uk/ newsline and he’ll also be ‘tweeting’ from the mid-Atlantic – his Twitter stream is @bbcjulian
Also on television, on BBC One NI on Sunday, August 16 at 10.35pm, after the ships have left Belfast Lough, there will be a highlights programme looking back at all the best bits from the Tall Ships visit.