Displaying items by tag: Lagan Canal Restoration Trust

26th February 2011

New Visitor's Guide to Historic Lagan Canal

Lesser Spotted Ulster's Joe Mahon was on hand to launch the first comprehensive free visitor's guide to the Lagan Canal recently, the Ulster Star reports.

http://www.lisburntoday.co.uk/news/local/tv_personality_launches_first_visitors_guide_to_lagan_canal_1_2426647

The new guide provides information on the canal's storied history and its abundance of wildlife from Belfast to Lough Neagh.

Lagan Canal Restoration Trust manager Cathy Burns said: “For the first time this guide offers visitors details of all there is to see and do along the canal.

"We hope that it encourages many more visitors and local people to take the opportunity to get out and experience the hidden gem that is the Lagan Canal."

A Guide to the Lagan Canal, Past, Present and Future is available to download online at lagancanaltrust.org

Lesser Spotted Ulster's Joe Mahon was on hand to launch the first comprehensive free visitor's guide to the inland waterway's Lagan Canal recently, the Ulster Star reports.

The new guide provides information on the canal's storied history and its abundance of wildlife from Belfast to Lough Neagh.

Lagan Canal Restoration Trust manager Cathy Burns said: “For the first time this guide offers visitors details of all there is to see and do along the canal.

"We hope that it encourages many more visitors and local people to take the opportunity to get out and experience the hidden gem that is the Lagan Canal."

A Guide to the Lagan Canal, Past, Present and Future is available to download online at lagancanaltrust.org.

Published in Inland Waterways

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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