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Displaying items by tag: Bicentenary Lectures

#Bullock200 - The scenic south Dublin Bay harbour at Bulloch, Dalkey, is where construction on the stone-cut structure began in the winter 1818/19 and to celebrate the 200th anniversary a series of talks as Afloat previously highlighted will continue to May 2019.

The famous Dalkey landmark, used locally sourced granite to built the harbour for the Ballast Board (now managed by Dublin Port Company). The primary purpose of the harbour was to ship the granite from their quarry on Harbour Road to construct the city quays.

The present walls were built over the breakwater of the medieval fishing port in the tidal rocky creek at the foot of Bullock Castle. See previous coverage photo presenting the harbour in more sequal times! compared to the recent scene as depicted above. 

Organisers of the monthly 'Bullock 200' lecture talks (p.17), the Bulloch Harbour Preservation Association (BHPA) and Dublin Port Company will be held in the Dalkey Castle & Heritage Centre.

Admission is free but places should be pre-booked through the Heritage Centre by emailing: [email protected] 

Tuesday 4 December 8pm - The History and Heritage of Bullock Harbour

Rob Goodbody, Historic Building Consultant & Local Historian

Tuesday 22 January 8pm -The Building of Bullock Harbour

Elizabeth Shotton, Associate Professor, UCD School of Architecture, Planning & Environmental Policy

Tuesday 12 February 8pm - Bullock Harbour into the Future; Monitoring and Repairs

Eamon McElroy, Port Engineer, Dublin Port Company

Tuesday 12 March 8pm - Port Collections; History of the Port and the Port Archive

Lar Joye, Port Heritage Director, Dublin Port Company

Tuesday 9 April 8pm - Dublin Bay Biosphere

 A Panel Discussion

Tuesday 9 May 2019 - Hugh Leonard Walk

with Danielle Keyes-Byrne

The talks are been supported by the Dalkey Community Council, Dalkey Tidy Towns and the Dalkey Castle & Heritage Centre. 

As for the Dublin Port Company update on Bullock Harbour Storm Damage (Notice to Mariners No. 31) click here. As mentioned above in the photo-caption, repairs work to the harbour's main pier breakwater began last month and is due to be completed at the end of January 2019.

For much more on the history of the harbour and present day initiatives, among them the up-keep and maintenance of Bulloch (or spelt Bullock) Harbour, between the BHPA, DPC and DTT over the past couple of years click here. 

Published in Dublin Bay

#Bullock200 - While taking a stroll at Bullock Harbour on Dublin Bay, a poster erected next to the former premises of Western Marine, highlights a lecture series celebrating the bicentenary of the landmark gem neighbouring Dalkey, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The scenic stone-cut charm of Bullock Harbour, this winter marks 200 years since construction began in 1818/19 by the Ballast Board (now Dublin Port Company) which still manages the small working harbour on the southern shores of Dublin Bay. The harbour is home to inshore fishing craft, the Dalkey Sea Scouts, a seasonal boat-hire fleet for anglers and is a popular spot for kayakers to embark from a slipway. In addition the attractive maritime setting draws an attentive audience of tourists. 

Such present day use is in stark constrast to the origins behind the Ballast Board's reason in building the harbour. The principle purpose for its existance was to enable loading locally quarried granite rock to be shipped across Dublin Bay for constructing the capital quays.

The harbour's piers at Bullock were built over a previous breakwater of the medieval fishing village port, tucked in a tidal rocky creek at the foot of Bullock Castle. The Cistercian monks held lucrative fishing rights that came with the land though this had to be to protected from tribes in Wicklow. 

The Castle remains intact and has commanding views overlooking the bay to Sandycove, Dun Laoghaire Harbour, the South Wall breakwater of Dublin Port and Howth Peninsula.

Bullock's Bicentenary Lecture Series

According to DPC's facebook, thanks was made to those who attended this week the first of six Bullock Harbour Bicentenary Lecture Series (to May 2019) held in the Dalkey Castle & Heritage Centre. 

The inaugural lecture organised in partnership between Bullock Harbour Preservation Association (BHPA) and Dublin Port focused on the history, expansion and role of the port since 1707 and looking at the close links with the capital city. 

The next lecture lined up in the Dalkey Castle & Heritage Centre will be held on: 

Tuesday, 4 December at 8pm - The History and Heritage of Bullock Harbour

Speaker: Rob Goodbody, Historic Building Consultant & Local Historian

Further details of the remaining lectures will be posted shortly on Afloat.ie

Admission is free to attend the lectures but places should be pre-booked in advance with the DC&HC by emailing: [email protected]

The lectures have been supported by the Dalkey Community Council, Dalkey Tidy Towns and the Dalkey Castle & Heritage Centre

Published in Dublin Bay

Ireland's Trading Ketch Ilen

The Ilen is the last of Ireland’s traditional wooden sailing ships.

Designed by Limerick man Conor O’Brien and built in Baltimore in 1926, she was delivered by Munster men to the Falkland Islands where she served valiantly for seventy years, enduring and enjoying the Roaring Forties, the Furious Fifties, and Screaming Sixties.

Returned now to Ireland and given a new breath of life, Ilen may be described as the last of Ireland’s timber-built ocean-going sailing ships, yet at a mere 56ft, it is capable of visiting most of the small harbours of Ireland.

Wooden Sailing Ship Ilen FAQs

The Ilen is the last of Ireland’s traditional wooden sailing ships.

The Ilen was designed by Conor O’Brien, the first Irish man to circumnavigate the world.

Ilen is named for the West Cork River which flows to the sea at Baltimore, her home port.

The Ilen was built by Baltimore Sea Fisheries School, West Cork in 1926. Tom Moynihan was foreman.

Ilen's wood construction is of oak ribs and planks of larch.

As-built initially, she is 56 feet in length overall with a beam of 14 feet and a displacement of 45 tonnes.

Conor O’Brien set sail in August 1926 with two Cadogan cousins from Cape Clear in West Cork, arriving at Port Stanley in January 1927 and handed it over to the new owners.

The Ilen was delivered to the Falkland Islands Company, in exchange for £1,500.

Ilen served for over 70 years as a cargo ship and a ferry in the Falkland Islands, enduring and enjoying the Roaring Forties, the Furious Fifties, and Screaming Sixties. She stayed in service until the early 1990s.

Limerick sailor Gary McMahon and his team located Ilen. MacMahon started looking for her in 1996 and went out to the Falklands and struck a deal with the owner to bring her back to Ireland.

After a lifetime of hard work in the Falklands, Ilen required a ground-up rebuild.

A Russian cargo ship transported her back on a 12,000-mile trip from the Southern Oceans to Dublin. The Ilen was discharged at the Port of Dublin 1997, after an absence from Ireland of 70 years.

It was a collaboration between the Ilen Project in Limerick and Hegarty’s Boatyard in Old Court, near Skibbereen. Much of the heavy lifting, of frames, planking, deadwood & backbone, knees, floors, shelves and stringers, deck beams, and carlins, was done in Hegarty’s. The generally lighter work of preparing sole, bulkheads, deck‐houses fixed furniture, fixtures & fittings, deck fittings, machinery, systems, tanks, spar making and rigging is being done at the Ilen boat building school in Limerick.

Ten years. The boat was much the worse for wear when it returned to West Cork in May 1998, and it remained dormant for ten years before the start of a decade-long restoration.

Ilen now serves as a community floating classroom and cargo vessel – visiting 23 ports in 2019 and making a transatlantic crossing to Greenland as part of a relationship-building project to link youth in Limerick City with youth in Nuuk, west Greenland.

At a mere 56ft, Ilen is capable of visiting most of the small harbours of Ireland.

©Afloat 2020