The restored 1926-built 56ft Limerick trading ketch Ilen's project of education through action and involvement continues to be developed with the Ilen Marine School's Community and Cargo 2020-21 Programme. Transportation of cargo to coastal communities was the original purpose of the traditionally-rigged flagship and "Floating Classroom" Ilen. Consequently, late last year - pre-pandemic - the Ilen Project's management under the direction of Gary MacMahon decided to revitalise her seaborne cargo trade, which had come to an end sometime in the early 1980s.
They planned to do this by facilitating trade between local food and beverage producers out from six ports on the south and west coasts of Ireland. The Community and Cargo 2020 voyage unfolded over two weeks in August - fourteen happy days during which the Ilen ship's company somehow found safe passage-making time between two unseasonal storms and two unprecedented lockdowns.
Doing what she does best – Ilen making good speed under sail. Photo: Gary Mac Mahon
The dream fulfilled – Ilen finds favourable weather
The seaborne cargo voyage was a very tangible and successful dimension of the Community and Cargo 2020 programme. It was well-matched by the engagement with the schools on land, with children handling the crates of produce and being thrilled at the thought of cargo coming to them from over the waves.
Recently in a follow-up, the first three Limerick City schools each received a delivery of Ilen's Community and Cargo boxes. This delivery was the first step in a socially-distanced Ilen Marine School Educational Programme, which has been designed to meet with schools and HSE policies around COVID 19. In essence, this programme allows us to continue the very popular schools involvement rolled out in the previous term.
One of the new cargo boxes is welcomed to Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School in Limerick. Other schools involved in the initial stage of filling the boxes with relevant material include Scoil Iosagain CBS Primary School, and Presentation Primary School, both in Limerick
The new Ilen Marine School Cargo Boxes are attractive pieces of work in their own right……..
………and each box arrives with Instruction Pack and videos
Following on from this, the programme will continue to develop with the contents of a cargo box despatched for delivery under sail onboard Ilen to another school up or down the coast, depending on how direct relationship between schools are being fostered in the coming weeks.
There was visible excitement as the eventually outgoing cargo boxes arrived at their respective schools, with swiftly conveyance to their classroom settings for packing, The cargo box comes with a teacher's guide packet (digital and printed) which contains:
- - Instructions and scripts for each activity.
- - Class videos to watch on each activity.
- - A digital database in Google Classroom, accessible to all the teachers for ease of access to supporting material.
- - Four activities that guide the student and teachers through a creative process which takes them into the watery world of cargo trade and sailing tradition.
The programme, as it moves forward, will host three online virtual zoom sessions designed to facilitate the making of new relationships between participating schools. Moreover, the programme should stir pupils' imagination, both in the classroom and at home, as the needs of the two different learning settings have been taken into account. It's an imaginative project which is proving to be a mutually educational project both for the crew of the Ilen Marine School, and the schoolchildren and teachers involved.
Ilen departs Foynes on her cargo voyage. It was on Foynes Island in the winter of 1925-26 that Ilen was designed by Conor O'Brien. Photo: Deirdre Power
