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Displaying items by tag: Irish maritime heritage

#MARITIME MUSEUM-The much awaited re-opening of the Maritime Museum in Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin is to take place in April, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The museum which is near to Dun Laoghaire Harbour's East Pier, is to reopen on Tuesday 3rd April between 11am t- 5pm. Throughout the season, these same visiting hours apply Tuesdays to Sundays, though the museum will be closed on Mondays.

To read more about the initial exhibits on display (click HERE) in the apt surroundings of the former Mariners Church, where major and essentail renovation work took place over several years. The museum which is run by the Maritime Institute of Ireland (M.I.I.) celebrated its 70th anniversary last year and with the reopening they can now look forward to a new and exciting era.

Located on High Terrace,  a Cul-de-Sac that links the town's main shopping thoroughfare on Georges Street Upper to The Metals, the pedestrian walkway –is only minutes away from the Dun Laoghaire DART station.

Car parking is limited in the immediate vicinity though there are car-parking facilities nearby in the Pavilion which is accessed along the harbour waterfront (Queens Road) and the Dun Laoghaire Shopping Centre approached from Marine Road.

In addition to visiting the museum the M.I.I. also welcome members and volunteers to assist in hosting lectures, producing newsletters, journals, a library, hosting and supporting commemorations in addition to conducting research and highlighting Irelands maritime heritage. For further information click HERE.

Published in Dublin Bay

#MARITIME MUSEUM - A video recording of the 'Mariners with Memories" wreath-laying ceremony held at sea off Bray last year, is to take place tomorrow afternoon (at 14.30) in the maritime museum in Dun Laoghaire.

The ceremony which was held on 30 July involved a flotilla off Bray Harbour where floral tributes were made to commemorate all those lost at sea especially those whose last resting place is the sea which claimed their lives.

In addition the video presentation will also mark the 70th anniversary of the formation of Irish Shipping Ltd in 1941 and the founding of the Maritime Institute of Ireland (M.I.I.) which was also established in that year.

Copies of the D.V.D. will be available on request R.S.V.P. to this email: [email protected]

The institute aims are to foster an appreciation of the nation's maritime heritage and the museum which is located in the former Mariners Church. The museum has been closed for several years due to essential renovation, though is open on an invitation only basis during this winter. It is due to be officially re-opened in Easter of this year.

Activities of the M.I.I. (which is open to members) include running a winter/spring lecture programme, newsletters, a library, research and the hosting and supporting of commemorations.

For more information including how you can support them as a volunteer click HERE

Published in Boating Fixtures

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