Rare Titanic artefacts could be housed in Belfast

Rare artefacts being sold by the Titanic's last remaining survivor could be bound for Belfast.

Millvina Dean has been forced to sell the mementoes connected with the ill-fated liner in order to pay for her nursing home costs.

The Belfast charity which is restoring the SS Nomadic, a tender vessel that ferried passengers on board the White Star Line cruiser ahead of its maiden voyage in 1912, has now signalled its intention to bid for the collection at auction.

The Nomadic Charitable Trust hopes to display the items in the boat when it opens as a floating museum near the Belfast docks where the Titanic itself was built.

Miss Dean, 96, from Hampshire in England, hopes to raise €4,000 from the items, which include a suitcase filled with clothes given to her family by the people of New York after they arrived after being rescued.