It was built in Belfast, yet no-one bothered to make an application for a museum to commemorate it.

Now a fresh appeal is being made for the establishment of a maritime museum in Belfast linked to the Titanic.

The Heritage Lottery Fund was criticised in Northern Ireland earlier this year, when it allocated £500,000 towards a new museum in Southampton which will include an element dedicated to the liner.

But the body revealed on Wednesday that it had never been asked to fund a Titanic museum in Belfast.