Lorna Siggins
Lorna Siggins is a print and radio reporter, and a former Irish Times western correspondent. She is the author of Search and Rescue: True stories of Irish Air-Sea Rescues and the Loss of R116 (2022); Everest Callling (1994) on the first Irish Everest expedition; Mayday! Mayday! (2004); and Once Upon a Time in the West: the Corrib gas controversy (2010). She is also co-producer with Sarah Blake of the Doc on One "Miracle in Galway Bay" which recently won a Celtic Media Award
The rapid swimming migratory Atlantic bluefin tuna may be targeted by a limited number of Irish recreational craft under a pilot scientific research programme run by several State agencies writes Lorna Siggins. Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) and the Marine Institute are…
Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council on Cruise Berth Withdrawal
23rd May 2019 Dun Laoghaire Harbour News
Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has said that “significant commercial, technical and environmental risk” had influenced its decision to withdraw a planning application for a 30 million euro cruise liner berth in Dun Laoghaire on Dublin Bay writes Lorna Siggins In a…
Tourism interests have said Dún Laoghaire will still be a cruise ship destination, in spite of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council’s decision to withdraw controversial plans for a 30 million euro cruise berth in the south Dublin harbour writes Lorna Siggins…
Over 270 coastal projects have been awarded grants totalling four million euro in EU and State funds just five days before the European Parliament elections. The grants to 274 projects across seven coastal regions were announced yesterday by Minister for Agriculture,…
European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly has initiated an investigation into the lack of transparency around EU ministerial decisions on annual fish quotas. “The famous all-night meetings of ministers in Brussels are completely behind closed doors, and yet make important decisions for…
Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Michael Creed has denied that a roll-out of several million euro for coastal projects has been delayed to tie in with his party’s European election campaign. Dozens of projects qualifying for grants totalling up…
Angel shark are in such a perilous state of decline in Irish waters that a group of marine environmentalists has appealed for urgent action by Minister for Fisheries Michael Creed writes Lorna Siggins Sharks, rays and skates are the most threatened…
New Community-Led Plan for The Corrib, Ireland's Second Largest Lake
29th April 2019 Inland Waterways
Oscar Wilde’s surgeon dad waxed lyrical about it, Vikings lost their weapons in it, and poitín makers and anglers have shared their knowledge of its rocks and islands. The Corrib – this island’s second largest lake after Lough Neagh –…
The “power and mystery” of the Earth’s tides is the theme of a new three-part television series involving TG4 and several broadcasters, with Chinese backing writes Lorna Siggins. Marine Institute scientist MacDara Ó Cuaig is presenting the Irish language version…
Minister for Marine Michael Creed has discontinued a license held by Norwegian multinational Mowi for a fish farm in Co Kerry. A breach of license conditions at a smolt hatchery run by the Norwegian aquaculture company’s Irish division in Donegal…
Galway Gleoiteog 'Lovely Anne' Restored for Sail Training by Bádoirí an Cladaig
22nd April 2019 Historic Boats
King of the Claddagh Michael Lynskey (88) and his community took to the Galway waterside at the weekend to welcome home a historic workboat which plied the Atlantic during two world wars writes Lorna Siggins The 8m-long gleoiteog named Lovely Anne has…
A German ship with 62 migrants which had been blocked for ten days from landing in Mediterranean ports has been allowed to berth in Malta writes Lorna Siggins. As Afloat reported previously, The Alan Kurdi - named after three-year-old Syrian…
EirGrid Opens Consultation on South Coast Landfall of Celtic Interconnector
14th April 2019 Power From the Sea
The State’s electricity transmission grid operator EirGrid has opened a two-month consultation on proposed south coast landfall and converter station locations for its electricity link between France and Ireland writes Lorna Siggins. The Celtic Interconnector will be the first direct…
Eight years after British celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall campaigned to end the EU’s wasteful practice of encouraging skippers to dump unwanted fish at sea, a new Marine Institute “app” aims to make life easier for Irish fishing vessels writes Lorna…
Irish Linked Migrant Offshore Aid Station Delivers Supplies to Stranded Alan Kurdi Rescue Ship
10th April 2019 News Update
The Mediterranean migrant rescue charity founded by a Malta-based couple with Irish links has launched a relief mission to assist a German rescue ship which has been stranded for over six days in international waters and refused safe harbour writes…
RNLI Round Ireland Runner Sets off on Bike on Another Lifeboat Fundraiser
10th April 2019 RNLI Lifeboats
Mary Nolan Hickey (66) ran around Ireland for the RNLI lifeboat last year, but is now setting off again on her bike for the same cause writes Lorna Siggins. The veteran athlete from Arklow, Co Wicklow with some 57 marathons under…
Safehaven Marine Launch New Survey Catamaran for Bord Iascaigh Mhara
8th April 2019 Safehaven Marine
Bord Iascaigh Mhara has acquired a new inshore survey vessel for monitoring the state of mussel bed stocks on the south-west and east Irish coastlines. The 12m-long survey vessel, named T Burke II, was built by Cork company Safehaven Marine.…
Collective shame about the Titanic’s sinking, accounts by survivors, Belfast shipyard Harland and Wolff’s role, and fears by some local politicians some decades later of a “Dublin-based developer” coming to “rape and pillage” are among themes explored in a documentary…
President Michael D Higgins has turned down an appeal made to him by lawyers for four mussel fishermen to refer controversial new legislation on access to Irish inshore waters to the judiciary. The legislation restoring access by Northern Irish vessels…
