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Displaying items by tag: World War Two

Stories that abound in the West of Ireland concerning German U- boats refuelling and resupplying, or having pints in local pubs during World War Two appear to be "fanciful myths" the second annual Irish Maritime History Conference has been told writes Tom Mac Sweeney.  The conference is being held this weekend at UCC. Delivering a paper on German espionage initiated by sea, Sam Moore from Sligo IT said there, in reality, been only three successful U-boat landings of German agents, two in Kerry and one in Sligo and only one agent had been even partially successful in his mission.

The conference heard from Jean Prendergast, wo has been researching Cork and the Great War that 70 Cork sailors were decorated for bravery during WW1.

Irish Maritime History Conference

Also at the conference today, tributes have been paid to Dun Laoghaire's long-time maritime figure and campaigner Dr.John de Courcy Ireland at the national maritime history conference in Cork.

Dr. John Mulqueen from Trinity College said he had spent a lifetime highlighting the potential of the sea as a natural resource.

Published in Historic Boats

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.