Work could begin this spring on a project to allow Irish people and those of Irish origin retrace the last steps of their ancestors before departing Cobh for faraway shores.

This is an artist’s impression of a proposed upgrade of a derelict pier from which more than a million people emigrated from Ireland, including 123 passengers who boarded a tender out to the ill-fated Titanic.

A global search has been launched to find stories of emigrants who left for America from the then port of Queenstown.