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Displaying items by tag: War of Independence

Last Wednesday (24 August), an Army Bomb Disposal Team was tasked to investigate a suspected grenade found at Balbriggan Harbour.

Following a request from An Garda Síochána, the team arrived at the scene in Balbriggan at around 2.10pm and a cordon was set up for the safety of the public in the north Co Dublin town.

The concerning item was assessed to be a grenade dating from the War of Independence era 100 years ago, and it was rendered safe at the scene.

“Should members of the public encounter suspicious items, or hazardous substances, they are advised to maintain a safe distance and inform An Garda Síochána,” a spokesperson for the Defence Forces said.

Published in Irish Harbours

Dublin Port has highlighted An Post’s issuing of a €1 stamp to honour the Dublin Dockers’ Society and their strike during the War of Independence.

The stamp, of a set of two designed by Ger Garland, reproduces a headline in the Freeman’s Journal on 21 May 1920 — ‘Dockers Down Tools’ — and refers to the Munitions Strike whereby dockers refused to discharge British munitions from a vessel in Dublin.

The strike action — which continued until December 1920 — quickly spread across Ireland, with rail-workers also refusing to handle munitions.

Issued on 24 September, the new ’N’ rate stamps covering postage in Ireland and accompanying First Day Cover envelope are available from main Post Offices, Dublin’s GPO and online at www.anpost.com/shop

Published in Dublin Port

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.