Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: Dunbrody Famine Ship

Funding of around €400,000 from the Government has been allocated towards maintenance works on the Dunbrody Famine Ship over recent years.

The funding, according to the New Ross Standard, has been used to carry out essential works to the tallship (barque) vessel, including painting, waterproofing and the instalment of a lift.

Minister of State Michael D'Arcy Jnr said: 'The ship has a high level of maintenance work which has to be done. At a particular point we gave a commitment of €400,000 in funding.'

The barque went into dry dock at New Ross Boat Yard in January 2017 for several weeks and substantial repair and improvement works were carried out. She will once again go into dry dock in early 2021 for further works. Mr D'Arcy said the ship has been greatly improved over the past two years. A survey of the rigging will take place in early February, with specialists arriving from Cork at New Ross Boat Yard to carry out the job.

Mr D'Arcy was highly complimentary of the work of Dunbrody staff. 'This is one of the major tourism projects, not just in Wexford, but in Leinster and Ireland. My view on this is that the tourist projects like this need to cluster with other projects like Hook Lighthouse and the Irish National Heritage Park. There are very few projects in any other county that are as close to each other.'

The newspaper has more here on the story. 

Published in Tall Ships
Tomorrow sees the official opening ceremony of Ireland's first visitor centre dedicated to the history of emigration.
The National Centre for Emigration History in New Ross, Co Wexford, which incorporates the Irish America Hall of Fame, will be opened by Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Leo Varadar, joined by famous Irish-American Michael Flatley.
Located on the quay side of the River Barrow next to the popular Dunbrody Famine Ship, the €2.6 million interative centre features a state-of-the-art exhibition on the story of Irish emigration, plus a genealogical resource for visitors hoping to trace their Irish heritage.

Tomorrow sees the official opening ceremony of Ireland's first visitor centre dedicated to the history of emigration.

The National Centre for Emigration History in New Ross, Co Wexford, which incorporates the Irish America Hall of Fame, will be opened by Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Leo Varadar, joined by famous Irish-American Michael Flatley. 

Located on the quay side of the River Barrow next to the popular tall ship Dunbrody, which commemorates the Great Famine, the €2.6 million interative centre features a state-of-the-art exhibition on the story of Irish emigration, plus a genealogical resource for visitors hoping to trace their Irish heritage.

Published in Tall Ships

The Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) Information

The creation of the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) began in a very low key way in the autumn of 2002 with an exploratory meeting between Denis Kiely, Jim Donegan and Fintan Cairns in the Granville Hotel in Waterford, and the first conference was held in February 2003 in Kilkenny.

While numbers of cruiser-racers were large, their specific locations were widespread, but there was simply no denying the numerical strength and majority power of the Cork-Dublin axis. To get what was then a very novel concept up and running, this strength of numbers had to be acknowledged, and the first National Championship in 2003 reflected this, as it was staged in Howth.

ICRA was run by a dedicated group of volunteers each of whom brought their special talents to the organisation. Jim Donegan, the elder statesman, was so much more interested in the wellbeing of the new organisation than in personal advancement that he insisted on Fintan Cairns being the first Commodore, while the distinguished Cork sailor was more than content to be Vice Commodore.

ICRA National Championships

Initially, the highlight of the ICRA season was the National Championship, which is essentially self-limiting, as it is restricted to boats which have or would be eligible for an IRC Rating. Boats not actually rated but eligible were catered for by ICRA’s ace number-cruncher Denis Kiely, who took Ireland’s long-established native rating system ECHO to new heights, thereby providing for extra entries which brought fleet numbers at most annual national championships to comfortably above the hundred mark, particularly at the height of the boom years. 

ICRA Boat of the Year (Winners 2004-2019)