Displaying items by tag: Dive Ireland

6th April 2024

Dive Ireland Expo 2024 Takes Place This Weekend

The annual Dive Ireland Expo is running this weekend at the Sport Ireland Campus near Blanchardstown in West Dublin.

Organisers at Viking Sub Aqua Club promise “the biggest dive show ever”, with SCUBA diving featured along with snorkelling, free diving and other watersports from paddle boarding to sea swimming and even ocean photography.

The weekend also welcomes a host of guest speakers, with Sunday’s bill including award-winning underwater photographer George Karbus and film-maker Ken O’Sullivan.

Tickets and more are available at DiveIreland.ie.

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1st March 2019

Jim Warny Leads Guest Lineup At Dive Ireland Expo This Weekend

Jim Warny suited up for a subterranean dive near his home in Ennis last year

#Diving - This year’s Dive Ireland International Expo opens tomorrow (Saturday 2 March) at the Great National Abbey Court Hotel in Nenagh.

Hosted by the Lough Derg Sub Aqua Club in association with the Irish Underwater Council, the two-day event will as ever feature a wide array of diving exhibitors, traders and speakers, as the Nenagh Guardian reports.

Star among them will be Clare-based cave diver Jim Warny, just months after his key role in the dramatic rescue of a youth football team from a flooded Thai cavern network.

Recently Warny was a guest at the Pendulum summit in Dublin where he downplayed his heroism, describing himself as “just a person with a specific skill”.

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21st February 2017

Speakers Announced For Dive Ireland 2017

#Diving - A number of main stage speakers have been announced for Dive Ireland 2017 at Athlone’s Hodson Bay Hotel from 4-5 March.

Marine salvage specialist Brian McAllister will talk the challenges of raising the Costa Concordia off the coast of Italy, a pioneering effort that involved the greatest minds and hands in the industry.

Renowned wreck diver Barry McGill discusses the struggle to control pivotal shipping waters in the North Atlantic off the Irish coast during the First World War by the use of U-boats and mines.

On a similar war theme, Irish-born but France-based diver and photographer Catherine Connors surveys the remains of the Second World War’s Operation Overlord, better known at the D-Day landings.

Closer to home, Tosh Lavery gives a brief history of the Garda Underwater Unit and its work on missing person and murder cases alike.

The Dive Ireland International Expo is the event of the year for all underwater enthusiasts, featuring two days of talks, trading and networking on Lough Ree that also includes the AGM of the Irish Underwater Council (CFT) on Sunday 5 March.

More details are available from DiveIreland.ie

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7th March 2013

Dive Ireland 2013 Is 'Huge Success'

#Diving - The Irish Underwater Council (CFT) reports the "huge success" of the 22nd annual Dive Ireland expo in Athlone at the weekend.

The two-day event at the Hodson Bay Hotel welcomed "speakers from near and far as well as photography workshops and a fully loaded international trade fair" - not to mention the CFT National Dive Conference and AGM.

Ahead of the expo, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan commented on the role of SCUBA clubs and diving centres in Ireland's national tourism infrastructure in promoting this country's dive sites.

In the foreword to the recently published Warships, U-boats and Liners, he also wrote of the Government's commitment to developing its archive of wrecks in Irish waters.

“With the support of responsible dive centres and local dive clubs ... these wrecks can be explored now and into the distant future by visitors from home and abroad.”

According to the CFT, local authorities are also starting to recognise the importance of developing aquatic activities to encourage tourism.

One example is Mayo County Council's Blue Ways list of swimming and snorkelling sites along the county's coast, which complements its Green Ways walking trails.

The council also highlighted the importance of heritage among Ireland's diving community, and their role in discoveries such as the Viking-era swords retrieved from the River Shannon near Banagher last autumn, as the Offaly Independent reports.

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6th January 2013

Dive Ireland Expo Returns To Athlone For 2013

#Diving - The Dive Ireland expo heads to Athlone in 2013 with a full weekend of speakers, exhibits and workshops for divers and snorkelers of all levels.

This year's hosts at the Athlone Sub Aqua Club have announced details of the 22nd-annual dive show from 2-3 March 2013 at the Hodson Bay Hotel, which also doubles as the AGM for the Irish Underwater Council (CFT).

Speakers lined up for this year include renowned wreck diver Barry McGill, cave divers Jim Warney and Jason Masterson, limit-pushing free diver Feargus Callaghy and snorkelling advocate Victor Kutischev, as well as representatives from marine wildlife conservation group Sea Shepherd.

Just like last year, Dive Ireland 2013 will also feature a wide array of exhibitors to cater for all types of diver interests - and entry for each day costs just €5.

The Athlone Sub Aqua Club has more details on the Dive Ireland 2013 programme HERE.

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Irish Sea Ferry Routes

Irrespective of the type of vessel deployed on Irish Sea routes (between 2-9 hours), it is the ferry companies that keep the wheels of industry moving as freight vehicles literally (roll-on and roll-off) ships coupled with motoring tourists and the humble 'foot' passenger transported 363 days a year.

As such the exclusive freight-only operators provide important trading routes between Ireland and the UK, where the freight haulage customer is 'king' to generating year-round revenue to the ferry operator. However, custom built tonnage entering service in recent years has exceeded the level of capacity of the Irish Sea in certain quarters of the freight market.

A prime example of the necessity for trade in which we consumers often expect daily, though arguably question how it reached our shores, is the delivery of just in time perishable products to fill our supermarket shelves.

A visual manifestation of this is the arrival every morning and evening into our main ports, where a combination of ferries, ro-pax vessels and fast-craft all descend at the same time. In essence this a marine version to our road-based rush hour traffic going in and out along the commuter belts.

Across the Celtic Sea, the ferry scene coverage is also about those overnight direct ferry routes from Ireland connecting the north-western French ports in Brittany and Normandy.

Due to the seasonality of these routes to Europe, the ferry scene may be in the majority running between February to November, however by no means does this lessen operator competition.

Noting there have been plans over the years to run a direct Irish –Iberian ferry service, which would open up existing and develop new freight markets. Should a direct service open, it would bring new opportunities also for holidaymakers, where Spain is the most visited country in the EU visited by Irish holidaymakers ... heading for the sun!