
At its peak, the Harland & Wolff shipyard employed 35,000 people (IndustriAll) and the flat-capped worker became a symbol of east Belfast, along – much later – with Samson and Goliath, the two gantry cranes at the shipyard that were raised in 1974 and 1969 (WP) and which have become the symbol of Belfast.
The title of this entry is the first line of Martin Mooney’s poem ‘Launching The Whaler Juan Peron‘.
The silhouetted workers and cranes are on a mobile office in Fraser Pass, Newtownards Road, Belfast, next to the Belfast Bikes racks.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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