Displaying items by tag: Port Docks Expansion

5th September 2015

Plan for Docks Could Spark Regeneration of Galway

#GalwayPortPlan – The Connacht Tribune reports that the decision on Galway Harbour on the proposed redevelopment of the docks will be announced by An Bórd Pleanála next Friday, September 11.

The planning appeals board has been deliberating on plans for the €126 million redevelopment of the docks since an oral hearing took place in January.

The proposal has the potential to transform the face of Galway into the next century, according to proponents of the projects. The 85.4 hectare project, which is expected to take eight years to construct, will be built in four phases.

For more on the proposed expansion of the mid-west port, click this link.

Note the newspaper has a photo of the harbour showing leisure craft and commercial shipping sharing the port's Dún Aengus Dock.

On the right side can be seen the stern of the aptly named Galway Fisher, an oil products tanker that regularly calls to the port which requires a very skillful approach (see video) through the dock chamber.

Published in Galway Harbour

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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