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Displaying items by tag: Irish Maritime and Research Centre

#energy – A major energy conference entitled "Cork Harbour – Energising the Region" will be held in Cork this week, to discuss the opportunities and challenges in terms of energy, industry and tourism for the Harbour.

Providing more than one third of Ireland's energy requirements, the Harbour region is a vital element of Ireland's energy infrastructure and will be the focus of the the event hosted by Energy Cork and the Irish Maritime and Research Centre (Imerc) on Friday, 12 December 2014.

"From the legacy of a historic trading centre to today's modern port, Cork Harbour has become a world-class model of how industry, energy, tourism and leisure work together in harmony," explains Michael Quirk, Vice Chair of Energy Cork and conference co-ordinator. "A number of international and national speakers will discuss the success of Cork Harbour, as well as highlighting viable opportunities for future development."

A number of international speakers will address the event, including Gordon McIntosh of the Aberdeen City Council who will discuss the potential for Cork to become an oil and gas services hub. Aberdeen has been hugely successful and created enormous employment and wealth from their development as an oil, gas and offshore wind services hub in the UK. Hugo Niesen will discuss the Eharbours project, which may similarly provide new opportunities for Cork Harbour.

Cork Harbour is home to two major power stations, an oil refinery, a number of natural gas fields as well as several wind farms, and world-class marine renewable energy research centres. Cork Harbour's energy cluster will be a focus of the event, along with the region's industry, environment and green route energy opportunities.

"Cork is ideally placed to become a national hub for low-carbon vehicles, such as electric cars and gas powered buses. By implementing a number of policy measures, Cork is already leading the way for other Regions to follow in terms of green routes and energy efficiency in the Harbour," said Ian Kilgallon of Gas Networks Ireland, who will discuss the green route for the Harbour region.

Other speakers include Val Cummins of iMerc, Mike King of Phillips 66, Michael McCarthy of the Port of Cork, John Killeen of the Maritime Institute, John Mullins, Chair of Port of Cork and CEO of Amerenco. Minister for Agriculture, Food, the Marine and Defence, Simon Coveney, T.D. will also deliver the keynote address at the event.

The conference is free to attend, but registration is essential. For more information click here

Published in Power From the Sea

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.

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