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#NEWS UPDATE - The PSNI has confirmed that the body recovered from Belfast Lough yesterday morning is that of missing Stranraer man Carius McNicoll.

According to BBC News, the 24-year-old student was last seen on a ferry shortly before docking on 8 January.

His body was discovered near Holywood in Co Down. A post-mortem has confirmed that the cause of death was drowning.

In a separate incident yeserday, The Irish Times reports that a body recovered by divers in the River Lagan is believed to be that of a missing 20-year-old man.

John Murphy had reportedly entered the river at the Lagan Weir after an evening at the nearby Odyssey Arena last month. The body found has yet to be formally identified as Murphy.

In the wake of his loss, Murphy's family has called for an end to cheap drinks promotions.

Published in News Update

#NEWS UPDATE - RTÉ News reports that a body found in Glandore Harbour today is that of Tit Bonhomme skipper Michael Hayes.

The body of the 52-year-old from Helvick Head in Co Waterford, who went missing more than three weeks ago, was discovered floating close to the mouth of the harbour around lunchtime by his brother, Garda Chief Spt Tom Hayes, according to The Irish Times.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the search operation in Glandore is being wound down this week after the remains of three of the five missing crew were recovered. Egyptian crewman Said Mohammed (23) - also known as Saied Ali Eldin - is still missing.

The fishing vessel Tit Bonhomme ran aground and went down in rough seas near Adam's Rock, at the mouth of Glandore Harbour, on Sunday 15 January.

Only one crewmember, 43-year-old Abdul Mohammed, is confirmed alive after he was able to reach the shore.

Published in News Update

#NEWS UPDATE - The Irish Coast Guard told RTÉ News that it has received an "overwhelming" response from the diving community to its appeal to join the search in West Cork for two missing fishermen.

Skipper Michael Hayes and crewman Saied Ali Eldin are still missing after the fishing vessel Tit Bonhomme ran aground in rough seas near Adam's Rock at the mouth of Glandore Harbour.

Only one of the six-person crew - 43-year-old Abdul Mohammed – is confirmed to have survived. The bodies of Kevin Kershaw (21) and Attia Shaban (26) were recovered last week, while the remains of Wael Mohammed (35) were found by civilian divers near the wreck site last Sunday.

Coastguard manager Declan Geoghegan said that search teams now have the 48 divers required to conduct an exhaustive search of the wreck area and urged further volunteers not to travel for the moment.

The search will concentrate on the waters between Adam's Rock and Long Point, where much of the debris from the trawler has washed up.

RTÉ News reports that more than 200 volunteers are assisting the coastal search by boat and on land, which is being co-ordinated from the village of Union Hall.

Published in News Update
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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