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Sligo Bay RNLI Celebrates 15th Anniversary This Weekend

12th June 2013
Sligo Bay RNLI Celebrates 15th Anniversary This Weekend

#RNLI - Sligo Bay RNLI will celebrate its 15th anniversary this Sunday (16 June) with an open day at the lifeboat station in Rosses Point.

There will be an opportunity to chat to the crew, have a look around the station, visit the lifeboat shop and enjoy the seafaring music provided by the groups involved in the Sea Shanty Festival which is also taking place this weekend from 14-16 June.



Sligo Bay RNLI began life in a prefab cabin at Sligo Yacht Club back in 1998. Construction on the new lifeboat station situated at the pier in Rosses Point was completed in 2002. It houses a D Class lifeboat named Elsinore and has 22 volunteer crew members, along with a fundraising team and a lifeboat shop. 



As part of the Sea Shanty Festival there will a gala concert in the Yeats Country Hotel on Saturday night (15 June), all proceeds from which will go the Sligo Bay lifeboat station. Tickets are available from the lifeboat station shop, Bay View Stores, Rosses Point and Source on John St in Sligo.

Elsewhere, RNLI volunteers and supporters from around Ireland were recognised for their role in supporting and raising funds and awareness for the lifesaving charity and its crews at the RNLI Annual Presentation of Awards in the Great Hall at Trinity College Dublin.

Guest of honour was the outgoing chairman of the RNLI, Admiral the Lord Boyce, who handed out awards to 51 volunteers throughout Ireland.

Irish Coast Guard director Chris Reynolds and his wife Geraldine along with Irish Water Safety CEO John Leech were also in attendance at the ceremony, presided over by the chairman of the RNLI Council of Ireland, John Coyle.

Awards presented on the day included two Gold Badges, four Silver Badges, 19 statuettes, 17 Bronze Badges, one pair of RNLI binoculars and eight Supporter Awards.   

The Gold Badges were received by Jackie O’Grady from Clifden RNLI branch for his work over 25 years with the station, and to Hugh Stafford in Wexford for his role in the setting up of the Fethard-on-Sea lifeboat station in the early 1990s and his work since then in raising funds for the charity.

Also receiving an RNLI statuette was former lifeboat man at Rosslare Harbour, Fergus Wickham, who was recognised for almost five decades of volunteering with the RNLI, first as a lifeboat man and then as a launching authority at the station.

Published in RNLI Lifeboats
MacDara Conroy

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MacDara Conroy

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MacDara Conroy is a contributor covering all things on the water, from boating and wildlife to science and business

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Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) in Ireland Information

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is a charity to save lives at sea in the waters of UK and Ireland. Funded principally by legacies and donations, the RNLI operates a fleet of lifeboats, crewed by volunteers, based at a range of coastal and inland waters stations. Working closely with UK and Ireland Coastguards, RNLI crews are available to launch at short notice to assist people and vessels in difficulties.

RNLI was founded in 1824 and is based in Poole, Dorset. The organisation raised €210m in funds in 2019, spending €200m on lifesaving activities and water safety education. RNLI also provides a beach lifeguard service in the UK and has recently developed an International drowning prevention strategy, partnering with other organisations and governments to make drowning prevention a global priority.

Irish Lifeboat Stations

There are 46 lifeboat stations on the island of Ireland, with an operational base in Swords, Co Dublin. Irish RNLI crews are tasked through a paging system instigated by the Irish Coast Guard which can task a range of rescue resources depending on the nature of the emergency.

Famous Irish Lifeboat Rescues

Irish Lifeboats have participated in many rescues, perhaps the most famous of which was the rescue of the crew of the Daunt Rock lightship off Cork Harbour by the Ballycotton lifeboat in 1936. Spending almost 50 hours at sea, the lifeboat stood by the drifting lightship until the proximity to the Daunt Rock forced the coxswain to get alongside and successfully rescue the lightship's crew.

32 Irish lifeboat crew have been lost in rescue missions, including the 15 crew of the Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) lifeboat which capsized while attempting to rescue the crew of the SS Palme on Christmas Eve 1895.

FAQs

While the number of callouts to lifeboat stations varies from year to year, Howth Lifeboat station has aggregated more 'shouts' in recent years than other stations, averaging just over 60 a year.

Stations with an offshore lifeboat have a full-time mechanic, while some have a full-time coxswain. However, most lifeboat crews are volunteers.

There are 46 lifeboat stations on the island of Ireland

32 Irish lifeboat crew have been lost in rescue missions, including the 15 crew of the Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) lifeboat which capsized while attempting to rescue the crew of the SS Palme on Christmas Eve 1895

In 2019, 8,941 lifeboat launches saved 342 lives across the RNLI fleet.

The Irish fleet is a mixture of inshore and all-weather (offshore) craft. The offshore lifeboats, which range from 17m to 12m in length are either moored afloat, launched down a slipway or are towed into the sea on a trailer and launched. The inshore boats are either rigid or non-rigid inflatables.

The Irish Coast Guard in the Republic of Ireland or the UK Coastguard in Northern Ireland task lifeboats when an emergency call is received, through any of the recognised systems. These include 999/112 phone calls, Mayday/PanPan calls on VHF, a signal from an emergency position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) or distress signals.

The Irish Coast Guard is the government agency responsible for the response to, and co-ordination of, maritime accidents which require search and rescue operations. To carry out their task the Coast Guard calls on their own resources – Coast Guard units manned by volunteers and contracted helicopters, as well as "declared resources" - RNLI lifeboats and crews. While lifeboats conduct the operation, the coordination is provided by the Coast Guard.

A lifeboat coxswain (pronounced cox'n) is the skipper or master of the lifeboat.

RNLI Lifeboat crews are required to follow a particular development plan that covers a pre-agreed range of skills necessary to complete particular tasks. These skills and tasks form part of the competence-based training that is delivered both locally and at the RNLI's Lifeboat College in Poole, Dorset

 

While the RNLI is dependent on donations and legacies for funding, they also need volunteer crew and fund-raisers.

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