The business of the City of London is business. Thus last week's visit there by the Limerick trading ketch Ilen saw many boxes being ticked in an efficient style, including a clear affirmation that The Dey of Kilcoe takes precedence over The Knight of Glin. But for any sailing ship, favourable winds take precedence over everything. So after the experience of dealing with headwinds while getting to London, the developing prospect of a favourable weather pattern saw events in the latter part of the week being compressed, and Ilen headed seawards on Friday instead of Saturday as originally planned.

It's a move which has paid off handsomely. This afternoon (Monday) Ilen is already off the coast of southwest Ireland, after a storming fair-wind sail across the Celtic Sea, and all being well she should be into Limerick on the tide tomorrow (Tuesday) at lunchtime.

1700hrs update - With rising winds and a difficult forecast, Ilen came into Baltimore this (Monday) evening

The River Thames in the heart of London is a lively piece of intensely tidal water, so for vessels bound for the sea-locked haven of St Katharine Docks beside Tower Bridge, it can be restless enough lying in
the waiting berth in the river until your allotted time for passing through the tidal lock comes up on the clock.

Eight days after leaving Limerick, the 56ft 1926-vintage ketch Ilen locked through today (Sunday), and is now in the deep peace of the dock where skilful urban planning has resulted in restful groves of trees
cheek-by-jowl with buildings ancient and new. Skipper Gary MacMahon and his crew have a busy schedule lined up during their city-linking venture, with the highlight being next Wednesday (May 4th) at 3.0pm, when Glin Castle-linked actor Dominic West will host a reception bringing together and celebrating the many international strands in Ilen's remarkable history.

A final glimpse of Tower Bridge before Ilen moves into the havenAncient and modern: Ilen's London berth beside the Tower Hotel

Following the departure last Saturday for her 700-mile Limerick-London voyage, the trading ketch Ilen under the command of Ilen Marine School Director Gary Mac Mahon was able to sail the track as far as Land's End
in Cornwall, which she rounded on Monday afternoon. But since then with persistent (and at times very cold) easterlies in the English Channel, in order to make progress, it has been necessary to knuckle down and rely on
the trusty classic Gardiner auxiliary diesel to move the 1926-vintage 56-footer on her way.

But as it happens, although the Ilen originator Conor O'Brien was a devoted sailing enthusiast, when the Falkland Islands Company insisted on an adequate auxiliary engine, he brought his practicality as an architect to the task. Thus as the profile of the ship in this Falkland Islands commemorative stamp of 2001 reveals, he ensured that the entire aperture for the propellor was taken out of the deadwood of the hull, while the almost vertical and complete rudder optimises prop-thrust for the tight manoeuvring essential in some of the very confined berthing areas in the islands.

Any boat with a heavily-raked rudder from which a large aperture has been removed to accommodate the propellor is at a complete manoeuvrability disadvantage by comparison with this setup. So not surprisingly, Ilen is
fondly remembered in the Falklands for her user-friendly handling characteristics under power, and when the restoration project was underway in 2001, they ensured that for possibly the first tme ever, the Irish tricolour appeared on a British postage stamp.

Progress has been good this week under O'Brien's excellent engine arrangement, and this morning (Thursday) Ilen is now on a westerly heading up the Thames Estuary, well on time for arrival in St Katharine Dock where the main official event will be staged next Wednesday (May 4th) at 3.0pm.

Ilen's track-chart this morning (Thursday) into the Thames Estuary also records the persistent easterlies

Although she is now meeting easterly headwinds in the English Channel as she voyages towards London following her departure down the Shannon Estuary on Saturday, the 56ft Limerick Trading Ketch Ilen was able to lay the course from the Fastnet Rock to the Seven Stones Lightship close eastward of the Isle of Scilly with sheets slightly cracked.

In fact, as the track chart shows, a helpful slant off the south coast of West Cork enabled her crew to grab a bit of extra weathering before settling down for the long haul across the Celtic Sea. Progress was so good that they were able to take a five-hour break in Falmouth last night (Monday) before heading off again at sunrise this morning (Tuesday).

Ilen's track from Limerick to Falmouth, which she reached last night (Monday)

Meanwhile, next week's programme in St Katharine Dock - which will see a special international ceremony hosted by actor Dominic West at 3.0pm on Wednesday, May 4th - is taking on further dimensions, as the interesting craft currently in the dock include the 90ft Royal Rowbarge Gloriana.

The complex building of Gloriana was successfully project-managed by Damian Byrne, who is from Cork, but went to school at Glenstal Abbey in Limerick. There, his teachers included Brother Anthony Keane who is much involved with the Ilen Project, and this link will become tangible in London with Ilen and Gloriana in port together.

On track. Ilen making goood progress yesterday (Monday) across the Celtic Sea

The 90ft Rowbarge Gloriana, whose building was project-managed by former Glenstal Abbey pupil Damian Byrne of Cork, will be in St Katharine Dock during Ilen's visit next week.

The complex and long-standing relationship between the ancient city ports of Limerick and London will be celebrated with a ceremony on the historic Trading Ketch Ilen in the London city-centre St Katharine Dock, beside Tower Bridge on the River Thames, on the afternoon of Wednesday, May 4th at 3.0pm.

The host for the inaugural event on May 4th will be celebrated international movie and TV star Dominic West, who is himself a lifelong waterways enthusiast with the bonus of close links to the Shannon Estuary through his marriage into the FitzGerald family of Glin Castle.

The Ilen departs from Limerick city this Saturday – April 23rd – London-bound on a voyage towards a cultural exchange which will see the restored 1926-vintage Baltimore-built 56ft ketch staying on in St Katharine Dock as the focal point for number of events until May 14th.

A much-travelled veteran – the Ilen in Greenland in 2019 (left), and the voyage from Limerick to London which gets under way this Saturday (April 23rd).  

ILEN DIRECTOR OUTLINES THE PROJECT 

Gary Mac Mahon, Director of the Ilen Marine School, takes up the story:

“The Ilen Marine School’s Limerick to London project is a celebration of Limerick-London and Anglo-Irish maritime links. The project involves sailing the Limerick-registered heritage ship Ilen from the Shannon Estuary to that of the Thames, departing April 23 from Steamboat Quay, Limerick and arriving at St. Katharine Dock, London, in the last days of April 2022. Port to port, a distance of approximately 750 nautical miles, and a voyage of nothing less than six days.

The Ilen, today in her 96th year, is owned and operated by the Ilen Marine School, Limerick, a not-for-profit community educational organisation whose mission finds expression through the medium of the marine. Specifically, the maritime traditions of western Ireland’s Shannon River and the Atlantic ebb and flow that gives her life.

The Ilen straddles two oceans and two nations. Built in Ireland in 1926 for the Falkland Islands, her genesis can be ascribed to a serendipitous 1925 encounter in London between Limerickman Conor O’Brien, the pioneering voyager and global circumnavigator, and a Mr Goddard of the Falkland Islands Company in London.

Goddard had been tasked with procuring a new service vessel for the island farms of East Falkland. O’Brien, a trained architect, took Goddard’s boat-building commission from London to his drawing board in Limerick, and later that year Ilen’s keel was laid at Baltimore, where she took her name from the nearby River Ilen.

Delivered under his own command by O’Brien, Ilen duly arrived in Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands in January 1927 - that same stout Baltimore-laid keel having cut straight through the waters of the North and South Atlantic oceans.

At the heart of a great port city - St Katharine Dock will be home to Ilen for two weeks in May

This May, Ilen’s first visit to her place of conception will see her provide a broad cultural platform for British-Irish events on the Thames River, in the shadow of London’s Tower Bridge. This programme of cultural events on the Thames River – which will include a visit to Greenwich - welcomes all who wish to celebrate British-Irish relationships through Limerick-London maritime links and the voyage of the good ship Ilen.”

LINEUP OF NOTABLE SPEAKERS ON ILEN IN LONDON

In his role as MC on May 4th, Dominic West will be introducing an eclectic line-up of speakers, including the Sheriff of the City of London, Alderman Alison Gowman, the Mayor of Limerick City and County Daniel Butler, Michael Lonergan of the Irish Embassy to Great Britain, 
and the Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly Member for Port Stanley, Gavin Short.

The supporting organisations and individuals backing this unusual and intriguing venture include Ilen Marine School, Limerick 
Limerick City & County Council
, Limerick Civic Trust
, The University of Limerick 
Heritage Council - Irish Walled Towns Network, the Earl of Limerick, the JP McManus Benevolent Fund, the Port of London, the Irish Embassy to Great Britain, Tourism Ireland, the 
Falkland Islands Government, and the Royal Museum Greenwich.

A visit to historic Greenwich will also be included in the Ilen programme

The restored 56ft trading ketch Ilen of 1926 vintage and Conor O’Brien fame has been blithely passage-making to and fro at speed – despite the unsettled weather – along the southwest coast in recent weeks, as Ilen Marine School Director Gary Mac Mahon and his colleagues prepare their ship for her “Culture Voyage” to London.

After a high-profile period of being hospitably wintered in Galway Docks, where her squaresail yard provided the structure for some industrial-grade Christmas tree lighting at the height of the festive season, Ilen zapped southward in the mad March days towards her re-birth home of Liam Hegarty’s boatyard at Oldcourt on the Ilen River above Baltimore.

Going about her business – the Limerick trading ketch Ilen will be London-bound in late April. Photo: Gary Mac Mahon

Welcome aboard! Ilen’s hospitable saloon looking its best at the conclusion of the recent refit.

There, a fortnight of very concentrated survey and re-fit programme was put in hand, and with April upon them, the job was done. Despite the restlessness of the Atlantic – particularly in the Blaskets area – it was expedient to have the ship back in Limerick at the earliest opportunity, and now she is returned to her home port after a 23-hour passage quayside to quayside, with the benefits of the ketch’s big stove much appreciated.

Looking good – Ilen back in Limerick this week. Photo: Gary Mac Mahon  

Departure for London in the latter half of April will allow a comfortable time window to be berthed at the beginning of May in St Katharine’s Dock beside Tower Bridge, with the dock authorities providing an accessible location for Ilen to stay until May 14th. There, she will act as the focal point for a series of events celebrating the positive links between ancient port cities.

Geography re-imagined – the logo for the Ilen’s London expedition.

The programme for the “cultural voyage” of the 56ft restored Limerick trading ketch Ilen to London in late April and through the first fortnight of May continues to take shape. The ship herself is now back in her birthplace at Liam Hegarty’s boatyard at Oldcourt
on the Ilen River in West Cork above Baltimore, after a brisk passage south at the end of the last week from winter quarters in the hospitable embrace of Galway Docks.

The annual Spring refit is underway, and Ilen Marine School director Gary Mac Mahon has confirmed that the successful Galway berthing is going to be replicated in London, where a prime berth for both visibility and accessibility has been allocated at the heart of the popular St Katharine’s Dock, immediately downriver of Tower Bridge in the midst of the city.

A much-travelled vessel. The Limerick ketch Ilen in Greenland (left), and the route of her proposed voyage to London in late April (right).

Organisations that are involved with the Ilen Marine School in this visionary project include:

• Embassy of Ireland, Great Britain
• Falkland Islands Government
• University of Limerick 
• Port of London Authority
• Limerick City and County Council
• Royal Museums Greenwich
• Edmund Limerick
• Heritage Council - Walled Town Network 

Further details from [email protected]

The last timber-built sailing trading ship in Ireland, the 56ft Ilen, will set off from the river port of Limerick on the Shannon in April, bound for the great river city of London on the Thames in England writes Gary Mac Mahon.

With fair winds, the Ilen should arrive at St Katharine Docks in the maritime heart of London beside Tower Bridge at the beginning of May, where she will be berthed until 14th May, with a possible transit of Tower Bridge in prospect.

The voyage’s purpose is to celebrate the centuries-old cultural and trading relationship between the two port cities. It will be the culmination of a series of voyages undertaken by the Ilen in 2021 – the Kingship Voyages – to many of the Irish towns and cities that have grown from medieval walled settlements built on tidal river estuaries. Limerick and London are both highly evolved metropolitan bastions of maritime and riverine heritage, and they share a long history.

Shared situation. Limerick’s great estuary comes in from the west, while London’s come in from the east.

The word “trade” itself seems to be a cognate of the word “track” – as in the track of a sailing ship. Thus a voyage like this aboard a heritage sailing ship is an ideal way to explore and bring to broader attention the way in which, in times past, inter-community trade followed swiftly in the effervescent wake of maritime cultural exchange.

PROSPECTS & PARTICIPATION

The Ilen network will be inviting leading and representative groups and individuals from both cities to share in this venture. The multiple historical, cultural, social and commercial strands interwoven within the Limerick to London Cultural Voyage 2022 are many and their unfurling, unravelling and interweaving offer exciting and productive possibilities for many involved.

In May, the Ilen will offer a highly visual and culturally redolent platform in the heart of London to celebrate Angloe-Irish relationships and enjoy exploratory conversations on prospective commercial and cultural collaborations and exchanges.

Enquiries at [email protected], and more details from the Ilen Marine School, www.ilen.ie

The Limerick ketch Ilen is now back home after spending Christmas and New Year in Galway. She availed of the remarkably good weather to make the return passage south, and this photo was taken at Carrigaholt in the Shannon Estuary on January 22nd. Photo: Gary Mac Mahon

The imaginative use of the 1926-vintage 56ft Trading Ketch Ilen’s mainmast as a brightly-illuminated Christmas Tree for Galway Docks was switched on as recently as Sunday evening. Yet within 30 hours, the entire setup was being severely tested for many hours by the huge winds of Storm Barra.

Gary MacMahon, Director of the Ilen Marine School, commented today (Wednesday): “We take this opportunity to express again our gratitude for a magnificent winter berth in the Port of Galway, and for the welcoming and helpful Harbour Master Captain Brian Sheridan”.

But while the berth itself was exceptionally snug, there was no mistaking the power and speed of the wind howling overhead, and it speaks volumes for the seamanlike skills and high standards inculcated by the Ilen Marine School that not only did the highly-visible seasonal lights and their equipment come through unscathed, but they had been so well installed that at no time at the height of the storm was it felt necessary to disconnect from the grid.

Mark Sutton of Ishka Spring Water Limerick, sponsors of Ilen’s Christmas Lights, with Gary Mac Mahon (Director, Ilen Marine School) and Captain Brian Sheridan, Harbour Master of the Port of Galway, at Sunday night’s switch-on ceremony

This spectacular Christmas lighting design on the historic wooden sailing ship Ilen may well be the greenest in Ireland. Ireland’s last surviving wooden cargo ship, as Limerick's ambassadorial vessel, has been illuminated on her seasonal visit to Galway Docks. And the lighting design - generously funded by Irish spring water company Ishka - sends out a fashionable and essential green message, as the lights arranged on Ilen's mast – a wooden spruce structure – transform it into a 70ft tall Christmas tree. 

“The spruce and the great fir tree, which has gifted Ilen much of her material structure and capacity to harness wind power, encourages our crew to cultivate a more ecumenical relationship with nature,” said Ilen’s skipper, Gary MacMahon, Director of the Ilen Marine School.

Mike Sutton of Limerick-based Ishka said the firm was delighted to have the opportunity to illuminate the vessel at Galway City, as the firm has deployed the Ilen on several occasions to transport its spring water under sail and sustainably. “Mitigating climate change and promoting sustainability is a duty, not an option, and we were happy to spread that message through the voyaging of the Ilen, along with a little Christmas cheer at the same time,” he said.

Seasonal reflections of hope and goodwill from the Ilen

In June, Ishka sent Ilen to deliver the company’s spring water to a retailer at Kilronan, Aran Islands, loading at Limerick City and discharging at Kilronan on Inis Mór, before sailing onward for Galway City.

The wind-powered voyage followed the ancient sea route linking both cities, and was organised to highlight and explore eco-friendly alternatives which businesses can use to reach their customers. Designed by Limerick man Conor O'Brien in 1926, the Ilen - built in Ireland - served as an inter-island cargo trader for over 70 years, transporting sheep and goods around the Falkland Islands before repatriation to Ireland 21 years ago, and restoration by a team led by Gary MacMahon.

Captain Brian Sheridan, Harbour Master of the Port of Galway, Gary Mac Mahon, Director of the Ilen Marine School, and Mike Sutton MD of Ishka Spring Water, at Sunday night’s switch-on ceremony