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Displaying items by tag: The Camino Voyage

Glen Hansard, Brendan Begley, Liam Holden and Brendan Moriarty were on The Late Late Show this past Friday evening (16 November) to talk their incredible adventure rowing and sailing a traditional curragh to Spain.

The ‘modern day Celtic odyssey’ is the subject of a new documentary, The Camino Voyage, that had its Irish premiere earlier this year. Footage from the expedition was also featured on TG4 in the spring of 2017.

Hansard, an Oscar-winning songwriter and frontman of rock band The Frames, tells Late Late host Ryan Tubridy how his five weeks on board the Naomhóig na Tinte along the coast of northern Spain sparked a reconnection with his sense of what it means to be Irish.

It also inspired a feeling of ‘meitheal’ with the late Danny Sheehy and his Kerry crew mates — the same spirit of community that’s seen in the Meitheal Mara boat-building collective in Cork.

The 20-minute interview is available for viewers in Ireland to watch back on the RTÉ Player till Sunday 16 December.

Published in Historic Boats
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#CaminoVoyage - Saturday night (10 March) saw the Irish premiere of The Camino Voyage as part of the Audi Dublin International Film Festival 2018.

The documentary follows a motley crew including a writer, an artist a stonemason and two musicians — including Oscar-winner Glen Hansard — as they embarked on a 2,500km odyssey by currach from Ireland to northern Spain, following the trail of the Camino de Santiago.

The 2016 adventure in the Naomhóig na Tinte was previously broadcast on TG4 and covered on Afloat.ie by our own Winkie Nixon, but this past weekend marked the first time the international feature-length version had been shown on the big screen in Ireland.

Crew members Brendan Moriarty, Brendan Begley and Liam Holden were in attendance with director Dónal Ó Ceilleachair at the Irish Film Institute on Saturday for the screening, which also served as a tribute to fellow crew Danny Sheehy (Domhnall Mac Síthigh), who died in 2017 while sailing the Naomhóg south to Portugal.

The Camino Voyage will have its next Irish screening as the opening film of the Dingle International Film Festival next week on Thursday 22 March, and can be seen in Westport on 13 April as part of the Celtic Camino Festival.

Published in Maritime TV
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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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