It was an extraordinary and eclectic group of boats new and old - some very old – that gathered yesterday (Friday) afternoon and on into the evening in Dun Laoghaire, there to celebrate the Centenary of an event which some had attended – already with several years of sailing logged – the first time around, on 20th June 1925.
These remarkable instances of boat longevity – mainly made possible by the restoration of the 1902 Dublin Bay 21s by Hal Sisk and Fionan de Barra – were a reminder of the fact that when Conor O'Brien skippered his 42ft own-designed Baltimore-built ketch Saoirse into Dun Laoghaire harbour on June 20th 1925, it was a Saturday.
John Crebbin (left) former ISA President, who organised the charter of Ilen, with skipper James Lyons of Sailing into Wellness. Photo: W M Nixon
As the re-created Saoirse is currently unavailable, the O'Brien-designed bigger sister - the 56ft Falklands Island trading ketch Ilen, under the command of James Lyons of Sailing Into Wellness - made for a very effective stand-in to play an important role in a very special Centenary.
Saoirse departing Dun Laoghaire, 20th June 1923.
For on June 20th 1925 Conor O Brien and his little Saoirse were returning after precisely two years absence, during which they – and a changing assortment of crews – had made the first yacht circumnavigation of the world south of the great capes of Good Hope and the "Everest of Voyaging", Cape Horn.
DUBLIN BAY SC'S 1925 "Guard of Honour"
And being a Saturday return, in an unprecedented move Dublin Bay Sailing Club were able to cancel their busy Saturday race programme, and instead their many and varied yachts assembled in a floating Guard of Honour from the harbour mouth to the Royal Irish Yacht Club.
This was O'Brien's base when sailing from Dublin, though his sailing heart was either in Foynes Island in the Shannon Estuary, or at the "secret harbour" of Derrynane in West Kerry. There, during boyhood summer holidays, he learned to sail in the waters his family summer-shared with the O'Connells of Derrynane, and his County Limerick neighbours, the Dunravens of Adare.
The "magic harbour" of Derrynane in West Kerry, where Conor O'Brien learned to sail. Photo: W M Nixon
His first command – Conor O'Brien's former "Coastguard Whaler" Mary Brigid in Derrynane. In time and with experience, he sailed her to Dublin.
But in the early years of the 1900s, he was very much the young man-about-town in Dublin, and was well aware that a Dublin-centric approach was necessary if the historic voyage of the Saoirse was to help in paying for itself. For it happened that his date of birth coincided precisely with the introduction of a sequence of Land Acts. In adulthoood he approved of most aspects the new land setup in Ireland, even if it meant that by the 1920s, his private income was much reduced from what had been anticipated at his birth in 1880.
"A restless soul". The best visual impression of Conor O'Brien continues to be this 1930s sketch by his wife Kitty Clausen.
Conor O'Brien (1880-1952), of the Cahirmoyle O'Briens, was a restless soul. His pioneering global circumnavigation in 1923-25 brought him a certain level of peace while at sea and making good time on an ocean passage of many thousands of miles. But once port was reached, the problems of the land and refreshing the resources needed to continue were added to the chronic challenge of finding good crews and keeping them.
FRESH OPPORTUNITIES OF ANOTHER CONTINENT
Not only was he notoriously short-tempered, but the 1920s were a restless period, when many people sought the cheapest – and possibly even profitable - way of getting to the new opportunities of another continent. A carefully assembled ship's company might simply fade away, seeking opportunities ashore when the promised land was reached.
Thus as many as 18 different people of very varying abilities sailed on the Saoirse between her departure from the Royal Irish Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire on 20th June 1923, and her return there exactly two years later.
The Centenary Celebrations yesterday in Dun Laoghaire were just that – pure celebration. In addition to the members of the Irish Cruising Club and others who had spent the past week sailing from Baltimore in the company of the O'Brien-created James Lyons-skippered 56ft trading ketch Ilen of 1926 vintage, sailors from all over Ireland, and O'Brien fans who continue to find him a special inspiration, were there. As too were at least ten members of the extended O'Brien family, several of them sailors themselves.
FAMILY SUPPORT
For as the gathering was told, at times it was the loving long-distance support of his many siblings and half-siblings which encouraged and enabled O'Brien to keep going through difficult patches, particularly that provided by his oldest half-brother Dermod O'Brien, a pillar of Dublin society who for an exceptional 35 years was President of the Royal Hibernian Academy
Contrasting styles in design. Ilen in Greystones yesterday (Friday) morning, poised to mark the precise Centenary of Saoirse's return to Dun Laoghaire from her global circumnavigation of 1923-1925. Photo: David Beattie
In due course, yesterday (Friday's) festivities moved indoors for a dinner, feasting in an elegant room where the Centenary of the departure was celebrated back in 2023, and the Centenary of the first confirmed news of Saoirse's successful rounding of Cape Horn was marked on 6th December 2024.
For this final Saoirse Circumnavigation roundup hosted by RIYC Commodore Tim Carpenter and Irish Cruising Club Commodore Alan Markey, speakers from the O'Briens' associated families and different branches of the sailing community gave their perspective on what it had meant at the time, and the extra meaning it all has acquired since.
Classic design. DB21 Oola (rebuilt at Kilrush) and trading ketch Ilen (restored at Oldcourt near Baltimore) bring complementary styles to midsummer Dublin Bay. Photo: Afloat.ie
A PROPER PLACE OF HONOUR
Now it is done. Done and dusted. Put to rest in a proper place of honour. And many people have been involved in the fact that the Ilen is restored and available to have made this historic passage. None more so than Gary Mac Mahon of Limerick, whose meticulous researches and devotion to detail ensured that boat-builder Liam Hegarty of Baltimore was able to restore Ilen authentically to life, and then go on and re-created Saoirse for a private owner, the original having been wrecked in the aftermath of a hurricane in Jamaica in 1979.
Among the welcoming flotilla at Dalkey Island, National YC Commodore Peter Sherry (right) and Liam Beirne took his 99-year-old edition of Conor O'Brien's Across Three Oceans to greet Ilen at Dalkey Island for the Saoirse Circumnavigation Centenary.
But in addition to all that, bringing together a brief if historic cruise-in-company from Baltimore to Dun Laoghaire in weather which has most folk dreaming of sailing in cool breezes off the West Coast of Ireland or the Outer Hebrides is an achievement in itself, and the honours for this go to Irish Cruising Club Rear Commodore Sally Cudmore of Crosshaven. Yet it's in the blood. For Sally's mother Eleanor was an equally energetic ICC Rear Commodore back in 2010.
The weather of this past week has bee very unlike much of that experienced by Saoirse during her circumnavigation. This calm scene is during the passage from south Cork, and was taken aboard former ICC Commodore David Beattie's Slocum derivative Reespray while passing through the Rusk Channel off the Wexford Coast, with stylish catering provided by ICC Committee Member Cormac O'Carroll. Photo: David Beattie
BUSY "CLUB OF YEAR"
As for the hosting Royal Irish Yacht Club, they're certainly living up to their status as the "Sailing Club of the Year" 2025. No sooner have they brought the continuing Centenary celebrations of the voyage of the Saoirse to a very appropriate conclusion than attention almost immediately swings to the next big Centenary, a hundred years of the Fastnet Race.
The Naval Service makes for a serendipitous addition to Ilen's arrival in Dun Laoghaire Harbour. Photo: Afloat.ie
Mission accomplished. With Ilen berthed at the RIYC as planned, there's time for a Conor O Brien Centenary Party before the club's attention moves on to national and international racing. Photo: Afloat.ie
But before that, RIYC boats have a significant presence in next week's Sovereign's Cup series in Kinsale, and then soon after the Club is co-hosting the sailing megafest that is Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta from July 10th to 13th.
CENTENARY FASTNET
By that time, the fleet will have assembled for the beginnings of the Centenary Fastnet action, with the revival of the 1957-founded Admiral's Cup, this time involving two boat teams entered by clubs. The Royal Irish YC were internationally among the first out of the traps with the announcement that their team would be the highly competitive JPK 1180 Sunrise III and the Cookson 50 Privateer, both already proven performers with plenty of further potential.
Proven Fastnet Race winner Sunrise III is a member of the Royal Irish YC's 2025 Admiral's Cup team.
The team will be under the management of Michael Boyd, a longtime RIYC member who served as Commodore of the Royal Ocean Racing Club, and won its points championship in addition to a Round Ireland Race overall victory.
The fact that we are discussing such things in more or less the same breath as we are considering the Centenary of Conor O'Brien's pioneering circumnavigation with Saoirse RIYC says everything about the current great good health of the Royal Irish YC, Dun Laoghaire's senior club, with its foundation date of 1831.
Centenary Dining - (left to right) Anne Craig (ICC & RStGYC), Michael Boyd (ICC, RORC & RIYC), Sally Cudmore (Rear Commodore, ICC, & RCYC), Brian Craig (ICC & RStGYC), and (right foreground) James Lyons, (ICC & Sailing Into Wellness)
