Leroy Doherty celebrates the saving of Harland & Wolff. It once employed 35,000 workers but when it collapsed into administration only 79 staff were left

The Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast has been saved, but its takeover may yet be delayed by Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union and the wrangling over the backstop for trading between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

The new owner, Infrastrata, an Aim-listed company that is constructing a £265 million gas storage facility north of Belfast, said that it would take on hundreds of workers at Harland & Wolff for the fabrication of equipment for the project converting salt caverns up the coast at Islandmagee.

Harland & Wolff is a shadow of its former self. It was once one of the great shipyards of Britain, employing 35,000 workers. It built the Titanic and was building supertankers in the 1960s. In the past