Celebrations were warranted in Wexford Harbour when the Wexford RNLI officially opened a brand new state of the art boathouse in Wexford Harbour, the first in that location for 83 years. Since 2002 the volunteer lifeboat crews have operated from portacabins while plans were made to build a new lifeboat station on Wexford Quay in the busy town.
Meanwhile, in Fenit, the lifeboat was launched to help a Dublin couple who got into trouble off Castlegregory when their dinghy and kayak overturned. Neither were hurt and both were brought back safely to Fenit.
In Kilrush, Co Clare, the lifeboat was called to assist a family who had suffered engine failure while cruising. Their 7.4metre boat was drifting close to rocks, and the lifeboat took them under tow and shepherded them to safety.
The Kilrush lifeboat had already had a busy week, with two calls on Wednesday for stricken swimmers.
The rescue authorities in Wexford had been similarly busy in the run-up to the construction of their new boathouse, made possible by a substantial donation from the Booth family, who also donated the funds for the station's inshore D-Class lifeboat Philip Robert Booth, and through a major local appeal, which raised over 100,000.
Since the RNLI established Wexford Lifeboat station in 2002, the volunteer crew have been accredited with saving 8 lives and has been called out approximately 75 times to assist people in trouble.
The history of the RNLI in the Wexford area is a varied and interesting one. In 1838 a lifeboat station was opened at Rosslare by the charity with a grant of £30 from Wexford Corporation. Following the wreck of the Pomona in 1859 with the loss of 386 people, a second lifeboat was stationed at Wexford. However during January 1925 severe gales and heavy seas overwhelmed the station and village. The boathouse was abandoned and eventually washed away. On a sandbank at the entrance to Wexford Harbour stones from the ruins can still be seen at low tide. This left Wexford harbour without any official rescue service.
More recently, several tragic drowning accidents on the Slaney Estuary and Wexford Harbour in 1995 prompted a committee to be set up to form a Community Rescue Service. In 1998 Wexford Harbour Inshore Rescue (WHIR) became a declared facility. Wexford Corporation agreed to provide a site at Wellington Place on the Quay front. In December 2000 the WHIR approached the RNLI and following a period of evaluation a new D class lifeboat Winifred & Cyril Thorpe on service on 11 April 2002.
In 2005 Wexford RNLI Lifeboat Station were allocated their own lifeboat - a new IB1 D Class, Philip Robert Booth and work started on raising the funds to build the first permanent lifeboat station in Wexford Harbour for 83 years.
