“We find the little fishing village of Rush has already fitted out four vessels, one of them is now at Rogerson’s Quay, ready to sail, being completely armed and manned, carrying 14 carriage guns and 60 of as brave hands as any in Europe”
-Freeman’s Journal, 23rd Feb. 1779
Two-hundred and forty seven years ago, Europe was in a sufficiently general state of low-level war to make government approval of privateering ventures a legal and – for the time being – a sufficiently profitable venture for the smugglers and pirates of Fingal to tidy up their act to become certified privateers, and send their best ships into Rogerson’s Quay in Dublin port in order to attract investors to fund planned raids into enemy shipping.
LEGENDARY LUKE RYAN AND JAMES MATHEWS
Down the centuries, mariners’ names from Rush and Rogerstown such as Luke Ryan and James Mathews have lived on as legendary raiding and smuggling captains whose historic reputations did nothing to lessen the North County’s reputation for a certain stylish lawlessness, and the glorious middle weekend of August 2026 fortuitously combined events which celebrated this history.
Skerries Harbour from the east on a peaceful non-invasion day
CRUISING GROUPS
For some years now the Cruising Groups of the various clubs on both sides of Dublin Bay have been assembling annually in a weekend Armada (blithely ignoring the fact that the definitive Armada in 1588 wasn’t exactly a total success), and under Armada Admiral Gerry O’Neill they’ve assembled for shared mainbrace splicing at various ports, some of which qualify fully for the colourful history test.
SKERRIES ATTRACTS 42 CRUISERS
Skerries was the venue for 2026, and officially 42 boats made their way to it for a fine lunch in Skerries Sailing Club hosted by SSC Commodore Colm Collins. But they enjoyed the company so much that southward bound boats overnighted in Howth, and finished the gathering in some style with a boisterous breakfast the next day in Howth Yacht Club.
Skerries SC Commodore Colm Collins (left) with HYC Cruising Group Captain Sinead Ryan and Armada Admiral Gerry O’Neill. Photo: HYC
RACING FLEETS
But the racing fleets in Howth had themselves been celebrating their coast’s history with the Gibney Classic, another invention of Gerry O’Neill. Gibney’s of Malahide may nowadays be known among the cognoscenti as the heart of a hospitality empire which includes joint ventures with the great Richard Corrigan. But it’s first and foremost a place which honours its roots, not least of them being the fact that back in 1967-68, Coiste an Asgard – the committee that had been set up to oversee the conversion of Erskine & Molly Childers’ Colin Archer ketch Asgard into Ireland’s first sail training vessel – found it most convenient to hold their meetings in Gibney’s, as the Asgard project was under way in the nearby Malahide Shipyard.
Fingal’s maritime hub – Gibney’s of Malahide. Photo: Facebook
PERFECTLY REASONABLE AT THE TIME
This was perfectly reasonable at the time, but it was an agreeable habit which persisted long after Ireland’s sail-training had moved on from the first Asgard. Yet the Gibney’s-as-Committee-Room situation only finally changed when a senior and very proper civil servant discovered the situation, and insisted that government premises be used in future.
Gibney’s comfortably survived this minor dent to their business, as Jack Gibney had been a member of Howth Motor Yacht Club since 1946, making him one of the most senior HYC members when the two clubs – HSC of 1895 and HMYC of 1934 – amalgamated in 1967 and then celebrated their Centenary in 1995.
HYC Rear Commodore Jill Sommerville moves the business along
JILL SOMMERVILLE TAKES CHARGE
As for the race for the Gibney’s Classic Trophy, with Gerry O’Neill strutting his stuff up in Skerries with the Armada, HYC Rear Commodore Jill Sommerville - whose brief is Open Events Co-Ordination – took over the organizational effort, and saw to it that a goodly section of the 56-strong fleet had themselves kitted out in considerable detail as pirates, even if many boats were determined to get in a good race before hitting the sauce in Malahide.
Serious signals for the day that’s in it. Photo: HYC
Senior Race Officer Harry Gallagher reveals a new side to his personality
Div A IRC saw Simon Knowles J/109 Indian take first from Mike & Richie Evans J/112e The Big Picture, with Insider Again (Ian Martin & Stephen Mullaney) in third, Div B IRC went to the Byrne & Culllen team in Chronos with the veteran X class Dux (Gore-Grimes family) second and Stephen Quinn’s J/97 Lambay Rules third, while Div C IRC was won by Dermot Skehan’s Toughnut, with Spellbound second and Demelza (Windsor & Steffi) third.
The motley fleet welcomes the first sign of a breeze
A decent little summer breeze sweeps the fleet in towards Malahide
The splendidly-attired Brian Turvey was officially Ye Keeper of Ye Results
In the One-Designs, the Puppeteers 22s had a notably close-fought race, Ian Dickson’s Weyhey winning from Odyssey and Gannet, while scratch in the Howth 17s saw Deilginis win from Aura and Orla, which thus provided podium places for boats built in 1907, 1898 and 2019, an age lineup which tells us much about the current great good health of this unique class.
Ian Dickson (right) notched the win in the Puppeteer 22s
Barely a wet week home from the Calves at Schull, and Mike Evans has taken second in the Gibney Classic at Malahide
With the tide still flooding into Malahide, the pirate fleet swashbuckled their way into port, and Gibney’s was jumping with the total fleet celebrating the Fingal coast by this time exceeding a hundred boats. The ghosts of Luke Ryan and James Mathews haunted the place in the best of good humour.
And you think she’s joking….?
