Displaying items by tag: Eamon Galdubh

26th March 2012

Music & Talk Tribute to Titanic

#TITANIC – The Maritime Institute of Ireland is to host a musical tribute and illustrated talk to mark the centenary of the Titanic shipping disaster. The evening event (starting at 8pm) is to be held on Thursday 12th April in the Maritime Museum, Dun Laoghaire.

The musical tribute will be led by uillinn piper Eamon Galdubh – similar music to that played in the 2nd and 3rd class compartments on the Titanic. The illustrated talk will be presented by well-known deep sea diver Rory Golden, the first Irishman to see the wreck of the Titanic. He was also the first person to touch the ship's wheel since the ship's Captain did in 1912.

Tickets for the event are available at €10 each (concessions €5) from Costello Jewellers, 1 Northumberland Avenue, Dun Laoghaire. In addition tickets can be purchased from the museum which is to reopen to the public next week on Tuesday 3rd April. For more visit www.mariner.ie

Published in Titanic

Tagged under

About Conor O'Brien, Irish Circumnavigator

In 1923-25, Conor O'Brien became the first amateur skipper to circle the world south of the Great Capes. O'Brien's boat Saoirse was reputedly the first small boat (42-foot, 13 metres long) to sail around the world since Joshua Slocum completed his voyage in the 'Spray' during 1895 to 1898. It is a journey that O' Brien documented in his book Across Three Oceans. O'Brien's voyage began and ended at the Port of Foynes, County Limerick, Ireland, where he lived.

Saoirse, under O'Brien's command and with three crew, was the first yacht to circumnavigate the world by way of the three great capes: Cape Horn, Cape of Good Hope and Cape Leeuwin; and was the first boat flying the Irish tri-colour to enter many of the world's ports and harbours. He ran down his easting in the Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties between the years 1923 to 1925.

Up until O'Brien's circumnavigation, this route was the preserve of square-rigged grain ships taking part in the grain race from Australia to England via Cape Horn (also known as the clipper route).

At a Glance - Conor O'Brien's Circumnavigation

In June 1923, Limerick man Conor O’Brien set off on his yacht, the Saoirse — named after the then newly created Irish Free State — on the two-year voyage from Dun Laoghaire Harbour that was to make him the first Irish amateur to sail around the world.

June 1923 - Saoirse’s arrival in Madeira after her maiden passage out from Dublin Bay

2nd December 1924 - Saoirse crossed the longitude of Cape Horn

June 20th 1925 - O’Brien’s return to Dun Laoghaire Harbour