Carrickfergus, a historic N.Ireland town that had the very first shipyard in Belfast Lough is to host the fantastic TITANIC HONOUR AND GLORY EXHIBITION.

Titanic Honour and Glory, based in Scotland are a touring Exhibition that put on an amazing show of RMS Titanic, RMS Olympic and various other White Star Line artifacts and items.

As a proud maritime town of sea farers and ship builders, there will also be local history exhibition panels on display in the Community Archive charting Carrickfergus' maritime history from ancient times to present day.

The Exhibition will be held in Carrickfergus Museum and Civic Centre from 17th Feb - 28th April 2012, Opening each day from 10am to 5pm. The Civic Centre is at 11 Antrim Street Carrickfergus and there is ample parking at the car parks in front of the town hall, just a two minute walk from the exhibition.

ADMISSION IS FREE and you will also be given the opportunity to pick up a Titanic related gift from the nearby gift-shop.

The SS Nomadic, the tendership at Cherbourg to the Titanic and what is now the last surviving White Star Line ship has had its funnel restored this week.

The SS Nomadic now berthed in the Hamilton Graving Dock, has had her funnel fitted and painted this week. It almost brings to a close the exterior work to the vessel with just the bridge now to be fitted.

When she left Belfast on May 31st 1911 she just had an open deck wheelhouse, but soon after arriving in Cherbourg the local White Star Line authorities ageed to the fitting of a more permanant Bridge style wheelhouse.

The restoration so far has seen the re-fitting of all the decks, doors, cabins and solid deck structures including all the railings and venting.

The SS Nomadic restoration is on course and is expected to open to the public in October 2012.

A 15-tonne Titanic sign has been transported from County Tyrone to east Belfast.

It was transported by lorry from the manufacturers near Cookstown to the Titanic Belfast building.

Cut from steel plates, it weighs as much as one of the ship's anchors,

After being driven along the M1 the huge sign was lifted off and placed in front of the signature building which will open in March.

Malachy Devlin, from MCD Engineering, said it had been a massive project.

"It took two weeks to make it and overall it's about 15 tonnes in weight. I'm really pleased to be associated with such a large project," he said.

"A lot of care has been taken in getting it loaded properly so it wouldn't get bent in any way - it's definitely is a one-off."

A new joint venture between the Northern Ireland Science Park and Belfast Sightseeing Tours has put a fantastic service on the road for the expected thousands of visitors due in Belfast over 2012.

Starting from the city centre this entertaining service will include a narrated guide telling you about what you are about to see down at THE YARD.

As stated after starting at the city centre and picking up at all the local tourist points it will then head over the queens bridge in the direction of the Queens Road and the site of the World Famous Harland and Wolff Shipyard.

On the Queens road you will be able to hop on and hop off at all the separate attractions...The SS Nomadic, The Titanic Belfast Visitor Attraction, the Drawing Rooms and the Thompson Drydock (Titanic's Dock and Pumphouse).

This will be a welcome aide to delivering our guests to the heart of what is now Titanic's Heritage and our best tourism attraction.

The Titanic Explorer will also be used by schools to develop pupils knowledge of shipbuilding and engineering.

Regular tours begin in early February and will operate seven days a week from Castle Place.

On Thursday 10th November White Star Momentos hosted a gathering of Northern Irelands finest artistic talent, featuring Titanic related Art and Photography, held at the new Carrickfergus Sailing Club Lower Deck Gallery.



Carrickfergus based Titanic Gift & Souvenir Company, White Star Momentos Ltd, recently hosted a Titanic Art and photograpic Exhibition in the lower deck of Carrickfergus Sailing Club.

The evening was an opportunity to showcase the skills of two local artists and an award winning photographer who have recently signed up to the family run business expanding the range of art available for sale.

Artist Ronnie McClune's (Carrickfergus) and Debra Wenlock's (Groomsport) unique Titanic interpretations on canvas fueled the enthusiasm for those who attended and Bill Abernethy's (Straid) stunning photographs of the drawing office's and Belfast Harbour area where breath taking.

White Star Momentos Managing Director, Ed Larkin said, "Our company are extremely proud to sign up local artists and promote the skills of individuals from the Birthplace of Titanic, we are the largest suppliers of Titanic Merchandise in Europe and the works of Debra, Bill and Ronnie will greatly enhance our range of products, "

The full range of products including those exhibited can be found in the website shop.

Yet another new supplier joins us, this time its a local artist Debra Wenlock from Groomsport, Co Down. Debra has brought us a fantastic new range of Titanic Greetings Cards.

A word from Debra herself :

I'm a member of the Belfast Titanic Society and have had a big interest in Titanic for over a decade, mainly sparked by involvement with a special evening celebrating the 90th anniversary of the great ship's launch in my village - Groomsport, County Down. If you don't know it, Groomsport is located at the mouth of Belfast Lough and Titanic passed here three times on 2nd April 1912. She steamed from the Harland & Wolff shipyard out past Bangor, Groomsport and the Copeland Islands for a day of trials in the Irish Sea, returning to Belfast briefly before heading off to Southampton, Cherbourg, Cobh and on into the Atlantic...

I began my series of Titanic paintings back in 2001 along with a series of White Star Line themed posters that decorated the venue of our special event. My paintings show the building, fitting out, launch and sea trials of the great White Star liner - her Belfast beginnings. I seek to celebrate the positive and optimistic period of Titanic's life and reinforce awareness of the fact that she's so much more than just the ship that sank!

My six paintings of Titanic are now available to buy as greetings cards on the White Star Momentos website and I hope you will find them to be fun yet accurate as we celebrate one hundred years since Titanic's launch, fitting-out and completion in Belfast.

You will find the Debra Wenlock collection in our Prints, Cards and Posters section of the web-shop.

Award winning local photographer Bill Abernethy has agreed to sell his limited edition Drawing Office work in a new format exclusively by White Star Momentos

Titanic Drawing Office - Mounted Print

Bill Abernethy is a local acclaimed photographer who has been taking photographs for over
30 years. Although interested in many different types of photography, he has a particular
interest in Architecture. His most recent Exhibition in September 2011 received much critical
acclaim. Bill has also recently just completed a successful commission for the Executive
Suite of The Northern Bank in Londonderry.
Bill is a member of the Society of International Travel and Tourism Photographers (SITTP)
and the Society of International Nature and Wildlife Photographers (SINWP), both of which
are affiliated to the SWPP. He has attained many Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards for entries
submitted to SWPP competitions.
Bills image - Titanic Drawing Office - available in vivid colour or classic black and white, is
an example of his attention to detail in Architectural photography. Whether in colour of black
and white, the image is thought provoking and atmospheric. The image, in its present format,
will be sold exclusively through White Star Momentos.

View both the colour and black and white print in the prints, cards and posters section of our web-shop.

The team from White Star Momentos were invited Guests at this weeks N.I.T.B. 2012 year of opportunity Event held at the Stormont Hotel, Belfast. We have learned in detail what is planned and have some great news for all our readers, outlining all the scheduled events being held in the province in 2012.

We all know that 2012 is Northern Irelands year of oppertunity, there will be so many anniversaries, events, shows, tours, displays and things to see and do that we will be spoilt for choice. We have been told that there will seven major events taking place in N Ireland in 2012, some of which are outlined below.

7th April 2012 LIGHT SHOW AT TITANIC BELFAST ... This will be a totally mind boggling technical light show done at the Titanic Belfast Building, up to 100,000 people will be able to view the show at a time and we are told that it will be possible to interact with the lighting via you mobile, Wow.

THE GIANTS CAUSEWAY ... The long awaited Giants Causeway visitors attraction will open for the tourist year in early 2012, giving the visitor a magnificent centre to relax in, buy gifts and experience what is one of our wonders of the world.

11th April THE MTV MUSIC FESTIVAL ... This has been nicknamed ROCK THE DOCKS and will prove to be a huge event featuring many major headlining bands performing on the slipways.

30th June THE CLIPPER EVENT, LONDONDERRY ... A four day maritime festival will welcome the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race on its home coming leg.

You may have noticed that we have only listed four of the seven huge events planned for 2012, the reason for this is that the Northern Ireland Tourist Board have spent untold hours, days,weeks and yes even years in the planning of this and there are no better placed experts than N.I.T.B. to Spill the Beans! We would like to thank Siobhan McGuigan and her team for all their hard work and ask you all to now click on the LINK below for the full event schedule.

The team at White Star Momentos made the journey to the O2 in London recently to sign off on a very successful contract.

The Titanic Artifact Exhibition is owned by Titanic Inc, they are the people that over the years have done various dives on the wreck and have recovered thousands of artifacts from the sea bed. They now have enough artifacts to supply eight touring exhibitions.

The show has been running in the O2 in London for the past 6 months featuring all sorts of artifacts including : knives and forks, plates, jewelry, tools, ornaments, partial pieces of clothing and even a newspaper that was readable because it was compressed in a leather case for over 75 years.


We at White Star Momentos as well as supplying the Dublin Exhibition had the contract to supply goods to the O2 Titanic gift shop and we were pleased to see on the last day that the goods were still flying off the shelves. Deck Plans, dvd's, Books and badges were all supplied by us, in what was to be a very lucrative contract for W.S.M.

We would like to thank all at P.R.X.I. for their business and wish them well for the exhibitions next destination.

VERY RARE, ORIGINAL AND GENUINE HARLAND & WOLFF TIME KEEPING BOARDS HAVE BEEN AQUIRED BY WHITE STAR MOMENTOS.


From 1861 to 1971 Harland and Wolff shipyard used time-keeping boards to keep track of how many hours each man worked per week. These boards measured one and a half inches by three inches and were made of hardwood. They also had a unique number stamped between the two teeth at the bottom of the board, eg...53267, the first two digits were for the area in the Yard that the man worked and the last three numbers were his own personal number.At the start of a day as he entered through the gate he would be given his board, this could be used during the day as a token for the use of machinery from a store but when the machinery was returned his board was given back to him, the board was then handed in at the gate at the end of that days work. Any one of the boards we are offering could have been used by a man who built Titanic.

White Star Momentos have aquired a limited number of these and for a short period are offering them to our customers at a bargin price.

They are all original from the Harland & Wolff Yard of Belfast, very rare and are a piece of maritime history. One can be yours for only £50.00, what price do you put on a unique gift ?

Check them out on our Premier Products page and dont miss a very rare opportunity.

The story of a beautiful Irish cottage with an incredible link to the Titanic.
Fools Haven is much more than just a traditional old Irish thatched cottage, it holds the memories of days gone by and has a wonderful feeling of warmth to all that cross the door.





FOOLS HAVEN - OUR TITANIC CONNECTION


Fools Haven is where two local children, orphaned by the Titanic tragedy, were brought up. They had been sent to live with their Aunt when their father sailed on-board the Titanic as an engineer on that fatefull maiden voyage to New York in April 1912. There were eight children already living in the cottage, the additions of two more made ten.

Susie Millar is the great grandaughter of the Titanic Engineer, she has published a book THE TWO PENNIES, a true story from the Titanic. It tells the story of the Millar family and offers a unique insight into how the tragedy affected ordinary lives, in particular those of Thomas Millar's two sons.

This gem of a thatched cottage is over 250 years old and is situated at the start of the world famous Causeway Coast and Glens Route, on the shores of Belfast Lough.

Arrival by either air or sea, to one of the main airports or ferry ports in Northern Ireland, brings you within 30 minutes easy drive to Carrickfergus. Why not experience this Titanic Connection yourself and stay at FOOLS HAVEN.


The Two Pennies Book can be purchased on this website.