Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: Crawford Gallery

Underway is National Heritage Week with ongoing events to include The Port of Cork Company (PoCC) which is delighted to host an event celebrating its 250-year history, at The Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, which was built in 1724 as the original Cork’s Custom House.

In commemoration of this heritage, the Port of Cork Company gifted a significant collection of maritime paintings and artefacts, known as The Port of Cork Collection, worth an estimated €1 million to The Crawford Art Gallery in November 2021.

Guests were offered a guided tour of The Port of Cork Collection, to learn about the Port’s history and how it has played a vital role in keeping Cork connected as an international gateway for trade for many centuries.

Speaking at the event, Eoin McGettigan, Chief Executive Officer with PoCC, stated “As a company, we are very proud of our heritage, which spans over 250 years. These unique maritime artworks, by renowned artists, offer a fascinating insight into the operations of Cork Harbour at that time and underscore The Port of Cork’s long-standing international significance for commerce and trade."

He added "not only does the collection signify the history of our great port and harbour, but it also showcases how far the port has come, in terms of leisure, operations, scale and trade. We are delighted this collection has found such a welcoming home at The Crawford Art Gallery over the past 6 months.”

The Cork has more on the exhibition (running to 28 August) of 17 paintings on display that date to the 1800's to include a Cobh-born artist.

Published in Port of Cork

The Port of Cork Company's donation of maritime artworks and historical pieces to the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork is a further boost to the city's art collection, writes the Irish Examiner. 

As well as significant paintings of the port and its surrounds through the ages, the donation also includes a Ship’s Register from the Cork Harbour Commissioners, recording the visit of the Titanic, and mentioning the Lusitania.

The Port of Cork organisation, which is currently housed in the city's Custom House, is expected to move to Ringaskiddy as part of the major development of facilities closer to the mouth of the harbour. Plans have already been approved for the creation of a 34-storey hotel – potentially Ireland's tallest building – at the site of the Custom House, albeit with conditions around the preservation of aspects of the original building.

Among the 17 maritime paintings making their way across the city to the Crawford are 11 works by Cobh artist George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson, whose iconic Paddle Steamer Entering the Port of Cork already forms part of the gallery's collection. A former ship's carpenter, the 19th Century resident of what was then Queenstown is renowned for providing insight into the ships of the era. The Crawford plans to exhibit the newly acquired pieces alongside other maritime pieces in its collection.

Also included in the Port of Cork donation are pieces by Mallow artist Henry Albert Hartland, famous for his watercolours and landscapes, skills he would have honed in the Crawford building during its early incarnation as Cork School of Art. Indeed, before it became associated with art, the Crawford building served as the city's Custom House before those functions transferred to the current Port of Cork premises.

Click here for further reading of the port's donation to the city's culture. 

Published in Port of Cork

In Cork at the recently reopened Crawford Art Gallery is where a new exhibition features the maritime traditions of the port in the south of Ireland.

Statio Bene draws together over 40 artworks describing the traditions and historic views of Cork Harbour.

The exhibition features artworks describing Cork's global connectedness, its harbour and river, shipping and leisure, defence, and mobility of people.

It considers the concept of a 'safe harbour' as an anchorage in cultural, social, and other terms.

Presented in the Long Room in the Crawford Art Gallery, which was the city’s old Custom House, the exhibition is inspired by Cork’s motto – 'Statio Bene Fide Carinis' (a safe harbour for ships). 

The exhibition also coincides with the 300th anniversary of the world’s oldest established yacht club – Royal Cork Yacht Club.

For more EchoLive.ie has on the exhibition.

Afloat adds the gallery is located on Emmet Place off Lavitt's Quay which is upriver of the city's main thoroughfare of St. Patrick's Street .  

Published in Historic Boats

Ireland's offshore islands

Around 30 of Ireland's offshore islands are inhabited and hold a wealth of cultural heritage.

A central Government objective is to ensure that sustainable vibrant communities continue to live on the islands.

Irish offshore islands FAQs

Technically, it is Ireland itself, as the third largest island in Europe.

Ireland is surrounded by approximately 80 islands of significant size, of which only about 20 are inhabited.

Achill island is the largest of the Irish isles with a coastline of almost 80 miles and has a population of 2,569.

The smallest inhabited offshore island is Inishfree, off Donegal.

The total voting population in the Republic's inhabited islands is just over 2,600 people, according to the Department of Housing.

Starting with west Cork, and giving voting register numbers as of 2020, here you go - Bere island (177), Cape Clear island (131),Dursey island (6), Hare island (29), Whiddy island (26), Long island, Schull (16), Sherkin island (95). The Galway islands are Inis Mór (675), Inis Meáin (148), Inis Oírr (210), Inishbofin (183). The Donegal islands are Arranmore (513), Gola (30), Inishboffin (63), Inishfree (4), Tory (140). The Mayo islands, apart from Achill which is connected by a bridge, are Clare island (116), Inishbiggle (25) and Inishturk (52).

No, the Gaeltacht islands are the Donegal islands, three of the four Galway islands (Inishbofin, like Clifden, is English-speaking primarily), and Cape Clear or Oileán Chléire in west Cork.

Lack of a pier was one of the main factors in the evacuation of a number of islands, the best known being the Blasket islands off Kerry, which were evacuated in November 1953. There are now three cottages available to rent on the Great Blasket island.

In the early 20th century, scholars visited the Great Blasket to learn Irish and to collect folklore and they encouraged the islanders to record their life stories in their native tongue. The three best known island books are An tOileánach (The Islandman) by Tomás Ó Criomhthain, Peig by Peig Sayers, and Fiche Blian ag Fás (Twenty Years A-Growing) by Muiris Ó Súilleabháin. Former taoiseach Charles J Haughey also kept a residence on his island, Inishvickillaune, which is one of the smaller and less accessible Blasket islands.

Charles J Haughey, as above, or late Beatle musician, John Lennon. Lennon bought Dorinish island in Clew Bay, south Mayo, in 1967 for a reported £1,700 sterling. Vendor was Westport Harbour Board which had used it for marine pilots. Lennon reportedly planned to spend his retirement there, and The Guardian newspaper quoted local estate agent Andrew Crowley as saying he was "besotted with the place by all accounts". He did lodge a planning application for a house, but never built on the 19 acres. He offered it to Sid Rawle, founder of the Digger Action Movement and known as the "King of the Hippies". Rawle and 30 others lived there until 1972 when their tents were burned by an oil lamp. Lennon and Yoko Ono visited it once more before his death in 1980. Ono sold the island for £30,000 in 1984, and it is widely reported that she donated the proceeds of the sale to an Irish orphanage

 

Yes, Rathlin island, off Co Antrim's Causeway Coast, is Ireland's most northerly inhabited island. As a special area of conservation, it is home to tens of thousands of sea birds, including puffins, kittiwakes, razorbills and guillemots. It is known for its Rathlin golden hare. It is almost famous for the fact that Robert the Bruce, King of Scots, retreated after being defeated by the English at Perth and hid in a sea cave where he was so inspired by a spider's tenacity that he returned to defeat his enemy.

No. The Aran islands have a regular ferry and plane service, with ferries from Ros-a-Mhíl, south Connemara all year round and from Doolin, Co Clare in the tourist season. The plane service flies from Indreabhán to all three islands. Inishbofin is connected by ferry from Cleggan, Co Galway, while Clare island and Inishturk are connected from Roonagh pier, outside Louisburgh. The Donegal islands of Arranmore and Tory island also have ferry services, as has Bere island, Cape Clear and Sherkin off Cork. How are the island transport services financed? The Government subsidises transport services to and from the islands. The Irish Coast Guard carries out medical evacuations, as to the RNLI lifeboats. Former Fianna Fáíl minister Éamon Ó Cuív is widely credited with improving transport services to and from offshore islands, earning his department the nickname "Craggy island".

Craggy Island is an bleak, isolated community located of the west coast, inhabited by Irish, a Chinese community and one Maori. Three priests and housekeeper Mrs Doyle live in a parochial house There is a pub, a very small golf course, a McDonald's fast food restaurant and a Chinatown... Actually, that is all fiction. Craggy island is a figment of the imagination of the Father Ted series writers Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews, for the highly successful Channel 4 television series, and the Georgian style parochial house on the "island" is actually Glenquin House in Co Clare.

Yes, that is of the Plassey, a freighter which was washed up on Inis Oírr in bad weather in 1960.

There are some small privately owned islands,and islands like Inishlyre in Co Mayo with only a small number of residents providing their own transport. Several Connemara islands such as Turbot and Inishturk South have a growing summer population, with some residents extending their stay during Covid-19. Turbot island off Eyrephort is one such example – the island, which was first spotted by Alcock and Brown as they approached Ireland during their epic transatlantic flight in 1919, was evacuated in 1978, four years after three of its fishermen drowned on the way home from watching an All Ireland final in Clifden. However, it is slowly being repopulated

Responsibility for the islands was taking over by the Department of Rural and Community Development . It was previously with the Gaeltacht section in the Department of Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht.

It is a periodic bone of contention, as Ireland does not have the same approach to its islands as Norway, which believes in right of access. However, many improvements were made during Fianna Fáíl Galway West TD Éamon Ó Cuív's time as minister. The Irish Island Federation, Comdháil Oileáin na hÉireann, represents island issues at national and international level.

The 12 offshore islands with registered voters have long argued that having to cast their vote early puts them at a disadvantage – especially as improved transport links mean that ballot boxes can be transported to the mainland in most weather conditions, bar the winter months. Legislation allowing them to vote on the same day as the rest of the State wasn't passed in time for the February 2020 general election.

Yes, but check tide tables ! Omey island off north Connemara is accessible at low tide and also runs a summer race meeting on the strand. In Sligo, 14 pillars mark the way to Coney island – one of several islands bearing this name off the Irish coast.

Cape Clear or Oileán Chléire is the country's most southerly inhabited island, eight miles off the west Cork coast, and within sight of the Fastnet Rock lighthouse, also known as the "teardrop of Ireland".
Skellig Michael off the Kerry coast, which has a monastic site dating from the 6th century. It is accessible by boat – prebooking essential – from Portmagee, Co Kerry. However, due to Covid-19 restrictions, it was not open to visitors in 2020.
All islands have bird life, but puffins and gannets and kittiwakes are synonymous with Skellig Michael and Little Skellig. Rathlin island off Antrim and Cape Clear off west Cork have bird observatories. The Saltee islands off the Wexford coast are privately owned by the O'Neill family, but day visitors are permitted access to the Great Saltee during certain hours. The Saltees have gannets, gulls, puffins and Manx shearwaters.
Vikings used Dublin as a European slaving capital, and one of their bases was on Dalkey island, which can be viewed from Killiney's Vico road. Boat trips available from Coliemore harbour in Dalkey. Birdwatch Ireland has set up nestboxes here for roseate terns. Keep an eye out also for feral goats.
Plenty! There are regular boat trips in summer to Inchagoill island on Lough Corrib, while the best known Irish inshore island might be the lake isle of Innisfree on Sligo's Lough Gill, immortalised by WB Yeats in his poem of the same name. Roscommon's Lough Key has several islands, the most prominent being the privately-owned Castle Island. Trinity island is more accessible to the public - it was once occupied by Cistercian monks from Boyle Abbey.

©Afloat 2020