Blogs
#irishmaritimehistory – It was a life which would have been remarkable by any standards, in any place, at any time. But in the Dublin of its era, this was a life of astonishing achievement against all the odds, in a…
A celebration of European maritime communities is to be held tomorrow Tuesday (May 21st) but who here has heard of it? We are a small island in the North Atlantic but thanks to our sea territory we're also one of…
"Harbour rots ships and ruins men". So said Horatio Nelson. He not only knew it from his own extensive command experience, but from time to time during long stays in port, he proved it personally with cringe-making results. He should…
#marinas – It was only fifteen years ago that ocean voyager Paddy Barry set off in his much-travelled Galway Hooker St Patrick for a cruise round Ireland. He completed it, and he also succeeded in his secondary objective of seeing…
Dunmore East is a charmingly located and picturesque coastal village, whose enormous potential as a holiday and maritime centre is blighted by having an outdated and rather drab industrial zone at its core. For it has the misfortune to be…
#vintage boats – The season-long Golden Jubilee cruise of the Old Gaffers Association starts to roll this weekend, with vintage boats from the Thames Estuary setting out tomorrow to rendezvous in the Orwell estuary in Suffolk with character boats already…
#irishcruising – Henry Ford famously said that if he'd started out by asking people what they wanted, they'd have demanded a faster horse. Quite. But if you don't have the lightbulb moment of a Fordian concept so utterly brilliant that…
#ruffian23 – Congratulations, Ruffian 23s – you've passed your 40th birthday. It was the Springtime of 1973 when we were invited by Dickie Brown to go down to Portaferry for a sail test of the prototype of the new 23ft…
#offshoresailing – There were four of them, back in 1968 in New York. There was Dick Nye (1903-1988). Briefly a theatrical hopeful, he'd got no further than spear carrier in an opera. But Broadway's loss was Wall Street's gain –…
On THIS ISLAND NATION this week... I take the view that every sport needs a national association to lead its development. So Ireland needs a national sailing association. How a national association serves its members must be the definition of…
#teamracing – The chances in Ireland of snowfall on St Patrick's Day are statistically better than the chances of the white stuff coming down on Christmas Day. The reason we haven't really got our heads round this notion is that…
How Government Misled Maritime Public, Respect for the ISA & the Unluckiest Ships' Captain?
11th March 2013 Island Nation
#islandnation – On THIS ISLAND NATION this week... How the Government has misled the maritime public ... The unluckiest Ships' Captain? ..... What about this collision in Singapore! Have you checked your marina's ladders? And much more... Government reform to…
#dinghy – General de Gaulle used to say that of course it was a very difficult job to govern France – what else would you expect in a country with 387 different cheeses? So when people talk of how difficult…
#islandnation – This week...Steamship history from a small town in Cork Harbour...Coastal areas deserve State support for development projects to create jobs...Ice on the river...Grant Dalton blows his cool on America's Cup hypocrisy... Indian sharks have gone missing and more...…
#wolfhound – Abandon ship!!! Complete with its insistent screamers (that's exclamation marks to you and me), it's such a hoary old nautical cliché that when it happens, you expect awesome background music to roll, with the blackest of black clouds…
Fishing – THE MAN WHO SEARCHED FOR 60-FOOTERS #islandnation – Can you imagine spending years searching for old 60-foot boats, travelling the country's coastline because of a 'bug' within your system? Pat Nolan from Cork, who now lives in County…
