Editorial: The large UK naval order for Harland and Wolff will help revive a fine old shipyard

Harland and Wolff is more than 160 years old, and its workforce peaked roughly halfway through that time span.

In the years after the Titanic and then the Great War its workforce peaked at almost 40,000 people.

To put that in perspective, there are probably only three or four private companies now in all of Northern Ireland that have a big enough turnover to employ so many as 10,000 workers, a quarter of that former H&W number.

The reasons for the decline are many, and are reflected in the great shipyards in Great Britain. Unlike Germany (and to an extent France) the UK does not do heavy industry now.

We are much more of a service economy, that is based on writing and thinking rather than handiwork.

This is part of the reason, for example, that the economic gap between Ulster and the rest of Ireland has narrowed over the last century. The part of the island that became Northern Ireland was far more industrialised and advanced but now both vie to attract businesses that deal in services.

But while Harland and Wolff is a shadow of its former self, it has not in fact closed, as some of its counterpart ship builders in England and Scotland have done.

Latterly Harland and Wolff has focused on ship repairs and improvements.

Last year for example it worked on the the biggest ship to drydock in the UK, Cunard’s Queen Victoria (the sight of which sailing down Belfast Lough was a magnificent spectacle, and reminiscent of H&W’s heyday).

Now around 900 jobs are to be created in the shipyard as part of of the Team Resolute consortium, which is to deliver three fleet solid support ships for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.

This UK money using a great UK facility to enhance the UK’s naval capabilities.