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Displaying items by tag: H&W Support

A motion by Belfast City Council has been passed to call on the UK government to support Harland and Wolff as it faces administration.

As BBC News reports, the council is seeking an urgent meeting with the Northern Ireland secretary to discuss the future of the shipyard.

Harland and Wolff is at risk of closure after its parent company ran into severe financial problems.

It is understood the city shipyard could go into administration as early as Monday, putting 123 jobs at risk.

SDLP councillor Brian Heading said he would have a conference call with Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith on Saturday.

At Friday's emergency meeting of Belfast City Council there was cross-party support for the workers and their families, many of whom were seated in the public gallery.

For more on the week-long campaign by the shipyard workers click here

In addition click to view a webcast of the motion held in the city hall chamber. 

Published in Belfast Lough

William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland and internationally for many years, with his work appearing in leading sailing publications on both sides of the Atlantic. He has been a regular sailing columnist for four decades with national newspapers in Dublin, and has had several sailing books published in Ireland, the UK, and the US. An active sailor, he has owned a number of boats ranging from a Mirror dinghy to a Contessa 35 cruiser-racer, and has been directly involved in building and campaigning two offshore racers. His cruising experience ranges from Iceland to Spain as well as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, and he has raced three times in both the Fastnet and Round Ireland Races, in addition to sailing on two round Ireland records. A member for ten years of the Council of the Irish Yachting Association (now the Irish Sailing Association), he has been writing for, and at times editing, Ireland's national sailing magazine since its earliest version more than forty years ago