The giant gaunt cranes of the Verolme dockyard in Cork still stand as a testament to an era when the State's only shipbuilding yard was a huge regional employer. It closed in 1984 with the loss of the remaining 500 jobs. It the early 1970s it employed 1,500 people.
After closure, the yard limped on in receivership and was then taken over by the Dutch shipbuilders, Damon, which used it for ship repair until that too was wound up in the 1990s.
Even when the vast site near Cobh was taken over subsequently by the Cork stevedoring firm, D.F. Doyle, it was difficult to see where its future might lie.
Today, the yard is home to a number of small businesses and operates as an industrial park. Neither it nor the companies there command too much attention. Things may be about to change, however. ProsCom is one of those small companies.
It was started six years ago in Cork and now employs 250 people generating an annual turnover of £15.7 million.
As well as the Irish operation, it has offices in Britain and Singapore and has undertaken projects for giants such as Schering Plough, Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb, Valence Technology and Klinge Pharmaceutical.
Today it will announce the acquisition at the Verolme site of Cork Fabrication Services, a subsidiary of ADM, which will bring the size of its fabrication facility, workshop and laboratory at the old yard to 150,000 sq ft.
The highly computerised operation supplies integrated process and control solutions to industry. Because of the deepwater dock at Verolme, it can transport completed plant systems to customers by sea.
The managing director, Mr Liam O'Brien, said the company was still growing and the likelihood was that there would be further news on overseas moves as well as job-creation within the coming year.
Why hasn't such a good news story been told before?
"I agree we haven't been good at blowing our own trumpet but we are very proud of what a Cork-grown, Irish-owned company has achieved in such a short time and we feel the future look very promising," he said.