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Displaying items by tag: Mark Morley

An online fundraiser for the family of a man who died while kayaking in Galway Bay last month has surpassed its €20,000 goal.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, Mark Morley got into difficulty off Spiddal in Co Galway shortly before 1.30pm on Thursday 29 December, prompting a multi-agency search and rescue effort.

Sadly, the father of two from Doughiska in Galway was pronounced dead at the scene after he was recovered from the water.

According to the Connacht Tribune, friends of the family set up a GoFundMe for Mark’s widow Kate Strochnetter and their daughters Roisin and Allison which has so far raised €25,220 from 468 donations.

“Kate and the girls are well-known in our community for their care and support of others, and this is one way we can help them in their time of grief and need,” the fundraising page says.

Published in Galway Harbour
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The Rankin Dinghy of Cobh, Cork Harbour 

A Rankin is a traditional wooden dinghy which was built in Cobh, of which it’s believed there were 80 and of which The Rankin Dinghy Group has traced nearly half. 

The name of the Rankin dinghies is revered in Cork Harbour and particularly in the harbourside town of Cobh.

And the name of one of those boats is linked to the gunboat which fought against the Irish Volunteers during the 1916 Easter Rising and later for the emergent Irish Free State Government against anti-Treaty Forces during the Irish Civil War.

It also links the renowned boat-building Rankin family in Cobh, one of whose members crewed on the gunboat.

Maurice Kidney and Conor English are driving the restoration of the Rankin dinghies in Cork Harbour. They have discovered that Rankins were bought and sailed in several parts of the country.