Written by on Oct 14, 2011. Posted in On Location

Titanic miniseries films on location doubling historic Dublin for period Belfast

A new period miniseries charting the construction of the Titanic has filmed scenes in Dublin, doubling the city for Belfast, according to the Belfast Telegraph. Titanic: Blood & Steel takes place over the 15-year time period it took to build the famous ship at Belfast’s Harland and Wolff shipyards.

The original site in Northern Ireland now looks very different, so instead the EUR22 million production chose to shoot scenes in St James’s Gate in Dublin. The location more closely resembles how the Belfast shipyards looked in the early years of the 20th Century.

In terms of Harland and Wolff, there is nothing left in Belfast so the cobblestone streets and brown brick buildings here in St James's Gate are perfect, and pretty much of the period in 1907.

Ciaran Donnelly, Director

Ciaran Donnelly, a Dublin native, is the series Director and spoke to the paper: “In terms of Harland and Wolff, there is nothing left in Belfast so the cobblestone streets and brown brick buildings here in St James's Gate are perfect, and pretty much of the period in 1907. The size of the Guinness plant here replicates the scale of industry Harland and Wolff was to Belfast at that time.”

Eastern Ireland has been popular for TV production in recent years, with glossy period dramas The Tudors and Camelot both having filmed in County Wicklow. In recent months Glenn Close filmed in Dublin for Albert Hobbs, a production that’s generating early Oscar buzz for 2012.

Titanic: Blood & Steel received funding from both the Irish Film Board and Ireland's tax incentive Section 481.