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Displaying items by tag: Abhainn

#RNLI - Volunteers from Arklow RNLI in Co Wicklow are to feature in RTÉ's Irish language programme Abhainn.

The TV series features the rivers of Ireland, and this episode (to be broadcast in September) looks at the Avoca River from its source high up in Wicklow Mountains to the river mouth at Arklow.

An RTÉ film crew spent the afternoon and evening of Thursday 5 June filming at what is the oldest of the RNLI's lifeboat stations in Ireland.

During the day the film crew had the opportunity to experience firsthand and get a glimpse of the level of training required by the highly skilled and efficient RNLI volunteers in their lifesaving work, which can often be difficult and sometimes dangerous.

New station operations manager John Tyrrell said: "Filming with RTÉ was a great opportunity to showcase the commitment of volunteers not only in Arklow but in the many other coastal and inland water communities across Ireland."

He added that the RNLI wouldn’t exist without fundraising. The charity is totally reliant on the generosity of the public and indebted to the work of fundraisers at station branches as well as those raising money inland.

"It is because of the willingness and selfless nature of our volunteers, who will readily swap leisure, comfort and sleep for cold, wet and fatigue, that the charity can provide an on-call, 24-hour lifeboat search and rescue service here," said Tyrrell.

Published in RNLI Lifeboats

#OnTheTV - A new series of Abhainn begins this evening on RTÉ One as the Irish-language TV programme explores Ireland's second-longest river, the River Barrow.

Described by the Kilkenny People as one of Ireland's most picturesque rivers, the programme will follow the near 200km journey from Glenbarrow Waterfall in Laois and along the Kilkenny-Carlow border - stopping along the way at such spots as Cushendale Woolen Mills - till it joins with the Nore at New Ross.

Future editions of the series will focus on the Blackwater and the Erne, taking viewers on a visually stunning journey revealing the unique personality of each river and the stories both ancient and new that tell us who we really are.

The new series of Abhainn begins on RTÉ One tonight Monday 28 January at 7.30pm.

Published in Maritime TV

William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland and internationally for many years, with his work appearing in leading sailing publications on both sides of the Atlantic. He has been a regular sailing columnist for four decades with national newspapers in Dublin, and has had several sailing books published in Ireland, the UK, and the US. An active sailor, he has owned a number of boats ranging from a Mirror dinghy to a Contessa 35 cruiser-racer, and has been directly involved in building and campaigning two offshore racers. His cruising experience ranges from Iceland to Spain as well as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, and he has raced three times in both the Fastnet and Round Ireland Races, in addition to sailing on two round Ireland records. A member for ten years of the Council of the Irish Yachting Association (now the Irish Sailing Association), he has been writing for, and at times editing, Ireland's national sailing magazine since its earliest version more than forty years ago