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Displaying items by tag: The Aud @ NMMI

#1916Lectures – On this centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising, a series of lectures themed on the lesser known maritime aspects of the rising continue to be held at the National Maritime Museum of Ireland.

The second of the seven free talks running to June, will be presented by Dr. John Treacy on the topic: The Silent Shore, The AUD, Roger Casement and Banna Strand.

The lecture takes place on Tuesday, 5 April (7.30 to 9:30 pm). The lecture will trace the story of the Aud from its departure from Lubeck to its scuttling off the Daunt Rock, plus the ill-fated landing of Roger Casement from U-19 on Banna Strand.

Dr. John Treacy has previously lectured extensively on the development of the modern Irish Naval Service.

The NMMI's commemoration of the Rising is supported by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council and the Ireland 1916 – 2016 Centenary Programme.

Also running at the museum is a specially produced 1916 Rising exhibition held in the former Mariners Church which houses the maritime museum.

Published in Ilen

About Brittany Ferries

In 1967 a farmer from Finistère in Brittany, Alexis Gourvennec, succeeded in bringing together a variety of organisations from the region to embark on an ambitious project: the aim was to open up the region, to improve its infrastructure and to enrich its people by turning to traditional partners such as Ireland and the UK. In 1972 BAI (Brittany-England-Ireland) was born.

The first cross-Channel link was inaugurated in January 1973, when a converted Israeli tank-carrier called Kerisnel left the port of Roscoff for Plymouth carrying trucks loaded with Breton vegetables such as cauliflowers and artichokes. The story, therefore, begins on 2 January 1973, 24 hours after Great Britain's entry into the Common Market (EEC).

From these humble beginnings however, Brittany Ferries as the company was re-named quickly opened up to passenger transport, then became a tour operator.

Today, Brittany Ferries has established itself as the national leader in French maritime transport: an atypical leader, under private ownership, still owned by a Breton agricultural cooperative.

Eighty five percent of the company’s passengers are British.

Key Brittany Ferries figures:

  • Turnover: €202.4 million (compared with €469m in 2019)
  • Investment in three new ships, Galicia plus two new vessels powered by cleaner LNG (liquefied natural gas) arriving in 2022 and 2023
  • Employment: 2,474 seafarers and shore staff (average high/low season)
  • Passengers: 752,102 in 2020 (compared with 2,498,354 in 2019)
  • Freight: 160,377 in 2020 (compared with 201,554 in 2019)
  • Twelve ships operating services that connect France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain (non-Covid year) across 14 routes
  • Twelve ports in total: Bilbao, Santander, Portsmouth, Poole, Plymouth, Cork, Rosslare, Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Saint-Malo, Roscoff
  • Tourism in Europe: 231,000 unique visitors, staying 2.6 million bed-nights in France in 2020 (compared with 857,000 unique visitors, staying 8,7 million bed-nights in 2019).