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Displaying items by tag: Patrick Coveney

Patrick Coveney, who retired in March as the chairman of the Irish Olympic Sailing Group, is to be ratified as an Independent Director of the Olympic Federation of Ireland at its Annual General Meeting on Wednesday evening. 

Coveney, who was co-opted to the position by the OFI Executive Committee, served a single term as Sailing's Olympic Group Chairman up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics held in 2021 due to COVID. 

Coveney took over from Colm Barrington who retired in 2018 after Dublin Radial sailor Annalise Murphy won Silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Barrington is a current Vice Chairman of the OFI.

Murphy, who retired after Tokyo, was appointed in January to the OFI Athletes’ Commission to serve from 2022 to 2024.

Sydney 2000 Olympic discus thrower John Menton now leads Sailing's Olympic Steering Group following the retirement of Coveney.

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Colm Barrington has formally stepped down as chair of Irish Sailing’s Olympic Steering Group, as The Irish Times reports.

Greencore chief executive Patrick Coveney will succeed in the role that Barrington announced he would leave after the Rio 2016 games, at which Annalise Murphy won silver for Ireland in the Laser Radial.

Barrington — who says he considers Annalise’s medal win the high point of his 12-year tenure — was elected as first vice president of the Olympic Council of Ireland in February last year.

His successor, brother of Tánaiste Simon Coveney, is no stranger to the water as a member of the Royal Cork Yacht Club. The family previously owned a round-the-word One Tonner, Golden Apple. Coveney was a keen Enterprise dinghy helmsman sailing from Crosshaven in the 1980s.

Barrington told the newspaper that while there is a good system to bring young sailors through to international competition there is "a long way to go".

Not least are the current funding issues facing the new Chairman that led to the recent shut down of the 420 Academy, Optimist squad and Topper squads.

The senior team has also been refocussing with just under 600 days to Tokyo 2020 where Irish boats have yet to qualify.

Published in ISA

Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) in Ireland Information

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is a charity to save lives at sea in the waters of UK and Ireland. Funded principally by legacies and donations, the RNLI operates a fleet of lifeboats, crewed by volunteers, based at a range of coastal and inland waters stations. Working closely with UK and Ireland Coastguards, RNLI crews are available to launch at short notice to assist people and vessels in difficulties.

RNLI was founded in 1824 and is based in Poole, Dorset. The organisation raised €210m in funds in 2019, spending €200m on lifesaving activities and water safety education. RNLI also provides a beach lifeguard service in the UK and has recently developed an International drowning prevention strategy, partnering with other organisations and governments to make drowning prevention a global priority.

Irish Lifeboat Stations

There are 46 lifeboat stations on the island of Ireland, with an operational base in Swords, Co Dublin. Irish RNLI crews are tasked through a paging system instigated by the Irish Coast Guard which can task a range of rescue resources depending on the nature of the emergency.

Famous Irish Lifeboat Rescues

Irish Lifeboats have participated in many rescues, perhaps the most famous of which was the rescue of the crew of the Daunt Rock lightship off Cork Harbour by the Ballycotton lifeboat in 1936. Spending almost 50 hours at sea, the lifeboat stood by the drifting lightship until the proximity to the Daunt Rock forced the coxswain to get alongside and successfully rescue the lightship's crew.

32 Irish lifeboat crew have been lost in rescue missions, including the 15 crew of the Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) lifeboat which capsized while attempting to rescue the crew of the SS Palme on Christmas Eve 1895.

FAQs

While the number of callouts to lifeboat stations varies from year to year, Howth Lifeboat station has aggregated more 'shouts' in recent years than other stations, averaging just over 60 a year.

Stations with an offshore lifeboat have a full-time mechanic, while some have a full-time coxswain. However, most lifeboat crews are volunteers.

There are 46 lifeboat stations on the island of Ireland

32 Irish lifeboat crew have been lost in rescue missions, including the 15 crew of the Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) lifeboat which capsized while attempting to rescue the crew of the SS Palme on Christmas Eve 1895

In 2019, 8,941 lifeboat launches saved 342 lives across the RNLI fleet.

The Irish fleet is a mixture of inshore and all-weather (offshore) craft. The offshore lifeboats, which range from 17m to 12m in length are either moored afloat, launched down a slipway or are towed into the sea on a trailer and launched. The inshore boats are either rigid or non-rigid inflatables.

The Irish Coast Guard in the Republic of Ireland or the UK Coastguard in Northern Ireland task lifeboats when an emergency call is received, through any of the recognised systems. These include 999/112 phone calls, Mayday/PanPan calls on VHF, a signal from an emergency position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) or distress signals.

The Irish Coast Guard is the government agency responsible for the response to, and co-ordination of, maritime accidents which require search and rescue operations. To carry out their task the Coast Guard calls on their own resources – Coast Guard units manned by volunteers and contracted helicopters, as well as "declared resources" - RNLI lifeboats and crews. While lifeboats conduct the operation, the coordination is provided by the Coast Guard.

A lifeboat coxswain (pronounced cox'n) is the skipper or master of the lifeboat.

RNLI Lifeboat crews are required to follow a particular development plan that covers a pre-agreed range of skills necessary to complete particular tasks. These skills and tasks form part of the competence-based training that is delivered both locally and at the RNLI's Lifeboat College in Poole, Dorset

 

While the RNLI is dependent on donations and legacies for funding, they also need volunteer crew and fund-raisers.

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