The traditional restored 56ft trading ketch Ilen of Limerick, under the command of Paddy Barry, is serenely continuing her progress homewards along Greenland’s southwest coast despite that rugged and sparsely-populated coastline suddenly becoming global news, thanks to the revelation that US President Trump views it as a strategic and highly-desirable mineral-rich piece of real estate writes W M Nixon.
While being the world’s largest island, Greenland has a population of only 58,000 who are reliant on Denmark to maintain their independent semi-autonomous position. With inter-cultural visits to many ports large and small - including the Greenland capital of Nuuk - while continuing to conduct the Salmons Wake research programme on the migratory routes of the Atlantic salmon which is so closely linked to Limerick’s own River Shannon, the crew of Ilen have come to have a keen appreciation of the Greenlanders’ perception of themselves as an independent people.
Pure Greenland – Narsaq in southwest Greenland with its tidy church and colourful buildings is a classic small Greenland community set in a big landscape which, at this time of year, has very little evidence of snow.
Thus they well understood the dismissive reaction by Greenlanders and Denmark alike in rejecting President Trump’s exploration of a purchase offer this week, a rejection which has caused a diplomatic spat, and the cancellation of a planned State Visit by the US President to Denmark in two weeks’ time. But this is all in the realms of international geo-politic. Ilen and her crew meanwhile have to continue with the day-to-day requirements of positioning themselves near Greenland’s southern headland of Cape Farewell in preparation for their concluding 1200 mile voyage across open Atlantic, back to the Shannon Estuary and home to Limerick.
