Shannon Estuary and River

Pat Keating, CEO of Shannon Foynes Port and Paul Doherty, MD Gavin & Doherty Geosolutions’ pictured at Foynes Port |

Shannon Estuary Has Potential to Become Global Hub for Floating Offshore Wind Generation

8th December 2020 Power From the Sea

The Shannon Estuary has the potential to become a global hub for floating offshore wind according to a major new study. If such a project were to be progressed, writes the Limerick Leader, it could attract up to 12 billion…

File image of Kilrush RNLI’s Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat

Kilrush Lifeboat Launches to Capsized Catamaran in Shannon Estuary

9th November 2020 RNLI Lifeboats

Kilrush RNLI’s volunteer crew were called out yesterday morning (Sunday 8 November) to a report of a capsized catamaran drifting near Corlis Point on the Shannon Estuary. The lifeboat crew launched within minutes of the 11.30am call and quickly reached…

Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) had in 2018 initiated its judicial review challenge to the extension of permission for the terminal, which includes four large tanks, jetties to receive ships, and associated works, at Kilcolgan, near Tarbert in north Kerry.

Gas Terminal Permission on Shannon Estuary is Overturned by High Court

9th November 2020 Shannon Estuary

Formal orders by the High Court have been made in overturning An Bord Pleanála’s extension of planning permission for the Shannon LNG controversial gas terminal. Mr Justice Garrett Simons made the orders on Monday arising from a recent decision of…

Port of Foynes: re-opening the 40km Limerick-Foynes line, closed in 2002, would cost €45 million. Above AFLOAT adds the bulker Foxtrot berthed at the port and the derelict railway station located in north Co. Limerick

Limerick-Foynes Rail Freight Line Reopening ‘Makes Sense’, Says Minister

2nd October 2020 Shannon Estuary

The Limerick-Foynes rail line is the focus of a plan to revive the link which will boost efforts to develop the Shannon Estuary as a centre for shipping and energy. Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan, told the Dáil recently that…

The new ship, 2015 built Mainport Geo is 50 m LOA

Cork-Based Shipping Company Mainport Enters Offshore Wind & Research Markets

28th September 2020 Cork Harbour

Cork based shipping company, Irish Mainport Holdings, has announced its entry into the Offshore Wind Sector with its investment in a 50-metre Survey and Research Ship, the Mainport Geo, and at the same time buying a share of Wicklow based…

Ilen departs Foynes, on passage for Kilronan in the Aran Islands. Conor O'Brien – Ilen's designer in 1926 – ensured that all his major voyages essentially started from Foynes, his home port where he lived on Foynes Island

Limerick Ketch Ilen's "Cargo Cruise" Delivers the Goods on Ireland's Atlantic Coast

8th September 2020 Ilen

The restored 1926-built Conor O'Brien-designed 56ft ketch Ilen of Limerick found the Atlantic in a challenging mood last week as she undertook a combined educational, cultural, and commercial cargo voyage. Yet despite the vagaries of the Irish weather and the…

Shannon Foynes Port: it achieved a record profit before tax of €4.9m last year. Above Afloat adds is bulk-carrier Sunrise Serenity with assistance from Foynes based operator Celtic Tugs, part of the Mainport Group.

Shannon Foynes Port Achieved Record Profit Last Year

2nd September 2020 Shannon Estuary

The government-owned Shannon Foynes Port achieved a record profit before tax of €4.9 million last year, its annual report shows. The port's profit, which was up from €4.4 million in 2018, was achieved despite an overall reduction in tonnages on…

Back at her real home after 93 years – the 56ft 1926-built restored Limerick Trading ketch Ilen takes up her berth in Foynes for the first time in 94 years yesterday (Friday) evening. On the Foynes YC pontoon are (left to right) Ilen Project Manager Gary Mac Mahon, and Conor O’Brien family relatives Rob, Alison and Stephen O'Brien. Conor O’Brien’s modest house of Barneen on Foynes Island, in which he designed both Saoirse and Ilen and spent his last days in 1952, is just visible above Ilen’s bowsprit.

Ilen Crosses Shannon Estuary from Kilrush Through Tarbert’s “Waterspout Way” on Historic Return to Foynes

29th August 2020 Ilen

The 56ft Trading Ketch Ilen has had a busy couple of days of cultural and educational activities in Kilrush during her current two-week cargo cruise, with performances including shows and workshops with noted Limerick Boy and contemporary dancer Tobi Omoteso.…

The trading ketch Ilen berthed in County Clare where traditional sail traders berthed before her, at the quayside in Kilrush

Limerick Trading Ketch Ilen Illuminates the Meaning of the Mighty Shannon Estuary

27th August 2020 Ilen

The Shannon Estuary is king size and clearly defined. Where some other great rivers gradually broaden as they near the sea, sometimes dissipating further into a delta, the Shannon Estuary affirms its individuality with a rapid change as it emerges…

Tug Celtic Fergus underway on a flood tide on the Shannon Estuary joined by a bow-riding bottlenose dolphin

Tug Joined by Bowriding Bottlenose Dolphin On Shannon Estuary Prior to Dry-Docking in Cork Harbour

10th August 2020 Shannon Estuary

Cork based Irish Mainport Holding's Celtic Fergus, a tug stationed on the Shannon Estuary is currently dry-docking in Rushbrooke having departed this day last week bound for the Doyle Shipping Group facility in Cork Harbour, writes Jehan Ashmore. It was…

The revived Dublin Bay 21 Class will remain true to their original colours, but their order of restoration is non-numerical, as Number 6 – Naneen, centre - has been the first to sail again, as she was the only one to be built in Dun Laoghaire

Dublin Bay 21’s Black Beauty Shines Again in Kilrush

16th June 2020 Historic Boats

The complex project of restoring the Alfred Mylne-designed Dublin Bay 21 class – which first raced in 1903 and ceased racing in 1986 – has been in hiatus during the Lockdown. But now Hal Sisk and Fionan de Barra have…

Marina Manager Simon McGibney (left) and Blue Flag project manager George McGibney with one of two new Blue Flags for Kilrush Marina and Portmagee Pontoon

Kilrush Marina & Portmagee Pontoon Awarded Blue Flags on the West Coast

11th June 2020 Shannon Estuary

Kilrush Maritime Ltd has received two Blue Flags for its operations on the West coast of Ireland at Kilrush Marina on the Shannon Estuary and Portmagee pontoons in County Kerry. Kilrush Marina, in Co. Clare, which was built in 1991…

Galway city and its marine industry is likely to be the most severely affected, according to the report

Atlantic Seaboard Harder Hit Than East Coast by Economic Affect of Pandemic, Report Says

5th May 2020 Coronavirus and Boating

Dublin may have the highest number of cases of Covid-19 infection, but it is least exposed of all Irish counties to the economic impacts, a new report says. The Atlantic seaboard reliance on tourism and recreation, including the marine sector,…

“The light of other days…..” The Dublin Bay 21 Naneen sails for the first time in 33 years in the otherworldly illumination of December sunshine on the Shannon Estuary. Photo: Kate Griffiths

Dublin Bay 21 'Naneen' Sails Again as Howth 17s Celebrate Restoration in Growing Irish Classics Revival

6th December 2019 Howth 17

Sunshine in December imparts a surreal look to everything it illuminates with its vivid low-angled delineation. And for anyone who happened to be on the Shannon Estuary between Kilrush and Scattery Island on Monday afternoon this week, the sense of…

Shannon Foynes Port Company (SFPC) has called for the reopening of the rail-link to the Port of Foynes, the main terminal on the Shannon Estuary where above AFLOAT adds a project cargo of wind turbine blades where discharged from the vessel earlier this year.

SFPC Press for Reopening of Foynes Port Rail Link

6th December 2019 Shannon Estuary

Since the announcement in October by Transport Minister, Shane Ross TD, of the €450m project to upgrade the N69 between Limerick and Foynes by 2026, pressure has been growing for funding to be provided for the currently mothballed rail line…

Irish Sailing President Jack Roy (left) raises the IS Training Centre flag at KIlrush Marina watched by Training Centre Principal and Marina Manager Simon McGibney

Irish Sailing President Officially Opens New Kilrush Marina Training Centre

28th November 2019 ISA

Irish Sailing President Jack Roy officially opened the Kilrush Marina Training Centre on the Shannon Estuary in County Clare last Sunday. “This is another great addition to the Clare region and an addition to the services provided at Kilrush Marina”,…