Displaying items by tag: Marconi

18th April 2023

Marconi Links with Connemara's Kylemore Abbey - Public Talk

Italian/Irish inventor Guglielmo Marconi who revolutionised communication, will be celebrated at an event in Connemara’s Kylemore Abbey this weekend.

The abbey’s links with the electrical engineer will be explored by local historian John Hannon at a talk this Saturday, April 22nd.

Marconi and his chief engineer George Kemp spent several months working in and around Kylemore estate in 1911 as they developed the duplex wireless communication upon which modern mobile phone communication was founded.

A Marconi radio mast circa 1905

They were hosted by the Duke of Manchester. Florence Henry, the daughter of Mitchell Henry, also had links with the project, and Marconi’s team based their station site outside Clifden at Derrygimlagh Bog.

A postcard of Kylemore Castle 1905

Hannon’s talk will be introduced by Kylemore Abbey’s experience manager and history expert, Eithne O’Halloran, who recently launched a children’s book on the life of Aleen Cust, Britain and Ireland’s first female vet.

For more information on events or admission tickets to Kylemore Abbey, please see www.kylemoreabbey.com

Published in News Update

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Marconi

Lectures: Marconi - Heritage of Early Transatlantic Radio Communications

#MarconiLectures – Marconi, will be the theme for a series of lectures held in the National Maritime Museum of Ireland, Dun Laoghaire on 22 February.

Each of the three talks (3:00 -6:30 pm) are to be presented by the Radio Officers' Association, topics are listed below.

'The Collections of the Maritime Museum, Dun Laoghaire' (Seamus O'Connor)

'Marconi's Wireless Stations at Clifden and Letterfrack' (Shane Joyce and Michael Gibbons)

'The Making of BBC Coast, with Irish Navy Personnel, on Marconi's Radio Station at Clifden' (Frank McCurry and Tom Frawley)

All are welcome to attend. To book contact: Colman Shaughnessy, Radio Officers Association or by phone: 086 2489319 in addition to emailing: [email protected]
To cover the costs, voluntary donations of €5 would be appreciated.

Published in Boating Fixtures

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About Conor O'Brien, Irish Circumnavigator

In 1923-25, Conor O'Brien became the first amateur skipper to circle the world south of the Great Capes. O'Brien's boat Saoirse was reputedly the first small boat (42-foot, 13 metres long) to sail around the world since Joshua Slocum completed his voyage in the 'Spray' during 1895 to 1898. It is a journey that O' Brien documented in his book Across Three Oceans. O'Brien's voyage began and ended at the Port of Foynes, County Limerick, Ireland, where he lived.

Saoirse, under O'Brien's command and with three crew, was the first yacht to circumnavigate the world by way of the three great capes: Cape Horn, Cape of Good Hope and Cape Leeuwin; and was the first boat flying the Irish tri-colour to enter many of the world's ports and harbours. He ran down his easting in the Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties between the years 1923 to 1925.

Up until O'Brien's circumnavigation, this route was the preserve of square-rigged grain ships taking part in the grain race from Australia to England via Cape Horn (also known as the clipper route).

At a Glance - Conor O'Brien's Circumnavigation

In June 1923, Limerick man Conor O’Brien set off on his yacht, the Saoirse — named after the then newly created Irish Free State — on the two-year voyage from Dun Laoghaire Harbour that was to make him the first Irish amateur to sail around the world.

June 1923 - Saoirse’s arrival in Madeira after her maiden passage out from Dublin Bay

2nd December 1924 - Saoirse crossed the longitude of Cape Horn

June 20th 1925 - O’Brien’s return to Dun Laoghaire Harbour