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Displaying items by tag: Belfast City Council

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

Anyone aged between 16 and 28 who would like to sail aboard a Tall Ship is being offered the opportunity by Belfast City Council and Sail Training Ireland. As Afloat.ie previously reported, The Tall Ships, “Maybe” and “Morgenster” are the vessels on which voyages between Belfast, Scottish and Irish ports, will be available, as part of Belfast’s Maritime Festival. Applications are invited with a deadline of Friday, March 25.

Published in Tall Ships

#tallshipsbelfast – Sailing and maritime charities are to raise cash from the big summer Tall Ships Spectacular in Belfast this July. The Tall Ships Company Ltd has appointed five key charities who will benefit from the event, according to the Belfast Telegraph. The charities are RNLI Lifeboats, Ocean Youth Trust, The Mission to Seafarers, Sea Cadet Corps and Belfast Lough Sailability.

This is the first time individual charities will be working as a collective and will be holding a variety of fundraising activities leading up to and during the three day extravaganza in Belfast from 2nd to 5th of July.

"It's an amazing event for any city to have," said Gerry Copeland, Belfast City Council City Events Manager.

"In 2009 at the Tall Ships event there were half a million people, and we expect another half a million people at this event."

He added: "Because the ships leave Belfast on 5 July to make their way to Norway, we expect another half a million people along the Antrim coast and the Causeway coast."

The ships will be berthed in and around Belfast Harbour and the Titanic Quarter area.

Meanwhile, an organisation known as the Atlantic Youth Trust has drawn up a plan for a 40m sail training ship for Ireland as the country considers what type of Tall Ship would be best for Ireland.

Published in Tall Ships
#TALL SHIPS - Ireland will be getting a double dose of the Tall Ships Races this decade as Belfast has been chosen to host the first leg of the event in 2015, BBC News reports.
Belfast City Council made the official announcement this afternoon, with Belfast Lord Mayor Niall O Donnghaile saying the return of the event in July 2015 was "another very real endorsement of Belfast's ability".
Northern Ireland's capital last hosted the tall ships in 2009, when some 800,000 visitors thronged the city to see 40 vessels in a parade of sail.
BBC News has more on the story HERE.

#TALL SHIPS - Ireland will be getting a triple dose of the Tall Ships Races this decade - after Waterford last year and Dublin next summer - as Belfast has been chosen to host the first leg of the event in 2015, BBC News reports.

Belfast City Council made the official announcement this afternoon, with Belfast Lord Mayor Niall O Donnghaile saying the return of the event in July 2015 was "another very real endorsement of Belfast's ability".

Northern Ireland's capital last hosted the tall ships in 2009, when some 800,000 visitors thronged the city to see 40 vessels in a parade of sail.

BBC News has more on the story HERE.

Published in Tall Ships

Galway Port & Harbour

Galway Bay is a large bay on the west coast of Ireland, between County Galway in the province of Connacht to the north and the Burren in County Clare in the province of Munster to the south. Galway city and port is located on the northeast side of the bay. The bay is about 50 kilometres (31 miles) long and from 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) to 30 kilometres (19 miles) in breadth.

The Aran Islands are to the west across the entrance and there are numerous small islands within the bay.

Galway Port FAQs

Galway was founded in the 13th century by the de Burgo family, and became an important seaport with sailing ships bearing wine imports and exports of fish, hides and wool.

Not as old as previously thought. Galway bay was once a series of lagoons, known as Loch Lurgan, plied by people in log canoes. Ancient tree stumps exposed by storms in 2010 have been dated back about 7,500 years.

It is about 660,000 tonnes as it is a tidal port.

Capt Brian Sheridan, who succeeded his late father, Capt Frank Sheridan

The dock gates open approximately two hours before high water and close at high water subject to ship movements on each tide.

The typical ship sizes are in the region of 4,000 to 6,000 tonnes

Turbines for about 14 wind projects have been imported in recent years, but the tonnage of these cargoes is light. A European industry report calculates that each turbine generates €10 million in locally generated revenue during construction and logistics/transport.

Yes, Iceland has selected Galway as European landing location for international telecommunications cables. Farice, a company wholly owned by the Icelandic Government, currently owns and operates two submarine cables linking Iceland to Northern Europe.

It is "very much a live project", Harbourmaster Capt Sheridan says, and the Port of Galway board is "awaiting the outcome of a Bord Pleanála determination", he says.

90% of the scrap steel is exported to Spain with the balance being shipped to Portugal. Since the pandemic, scrap steel is shipped to the Liverpool where it is either transhipped to larger ships bound for China.

It might look like silage, but in fact, its bales domestic and municipal waste, exported to Denmark where the waste is incinerated, and the heat is used in district heating of homes and schools. It is called RDF or Refuse Derived Fuel and has been exported out of Galway since 2013.

The new ferry is arriving at Galway Bay onboard the cargo ship SVENJA. The vessel is currently on passage to Belem, Brazil before making her way across the Atlantic to Galway.

Two Volvo round world races have selected Galway for the prestigious yacht race route. Some 10,000 people welcomed the boats in during its first stopover in 2009, when a festival was marked by stunning weather. It was also selected for the race finish in 2012. The Volvo has changed its name and is now known as the "Ocean Race". Capt Sheridan says that once port expansion and the re-urbanisation of the docklands is complete, the port will welcome the "ocean race, Clipper race, Tall Ships race, Small Ships Regatta and maybe the America's Cup right into the city centre...".

The pandemic was the reason why Seafest did not go ahead in Cork in 2020. Galway will welcome Seafest back after it calls to Waterford and Limerick, thus having been to all the Port cities.

© Afloat 2020